Christ Episcopal Church (Reading, Pennsylvania)

Christ Episcopal Church, founded in 1763,Montgomery, Morton L. History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, pp. 357-357, 548, 783-787, 834-836, 1156. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Everts, Peck & Richards, 1886. Montgomery, Morton L. Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania: Embracing a Concise History of the County and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families, Vol. I, pp. 201, 346, 361, 384, 391, 417, 568. Chicago, Illinois: J.H. Beers & Co., 1909. is the oldest, English-speaking, religious congregation in Reading, Pennsylvania.Guenther, Karen. "A Faithful Soldier of Christ: The Career of the Reverend Dr. Alexander Murray, Missionary to Berks County, Pa. 1762-1778," in Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 5-20, March 1986. Appleton, Wisconsin: Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, retrieved online May 15, 2019."About Christ Episcopal Church." Reading, Pennsylvania: Christ Episcopal Church (website), retrieved online May 15, 2019. The church is located on the northwest corner of Fifth and Court Streets. Its nave was built .Lynch, Michelle. "Project taking inventory of houses of worship in Reading." Reading, Pennsylvania: The Reading Eagle, July 11, 2022.

Its church ledgers have recorded the membership of multiple prominent Pennsylvanians, including De Benneville Randolph Keim, a nineteenth-century journalist who served as an advisor to Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of the Union Army during the American Civil War,"Christ Church Vestry." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times and Dispatch, April 19, 1881, front page (subscription required). and David McMurtrie Gregg, an American Civil War-era major general who won fame for gallantry during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863."Gen. Gregg Dies and the City Mourns: Reading's First Citizen Passes Away, Aged 83 Years." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times, August 8, 1916, front page (subscription required).

History Christ Church was officially organized under the ministry of the Rev. Robert Davis, who commenced missionary services in Reading in the spring of 1823. The present building was built between 1825–26. Its neo-gothic form took shape during a major renovation in 1847. The spire was constructed in the early 1860s by Edward Tuckerman Potter, an architect with expertise in Episcopal church design. Among its earliest rectors was Henry John Whitehouse, later Bishop of Illinois.*

But the roots of the church's congregation are far older.

1700s According to historian Morton L. Montgomery, the first historical reference to the worship of Episcopalians in Berks County, Pennsylvania was made on December 21, 1759, by the Rev. Thomas Barton in a letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts: "In the county of Berks there are a number of people of the Communion of the Church of England, who have never had an Episcopal minister among them." This situation was reiterated in 1760 by William Bird who petitioned the society for its assistance in "sending over a missionary to reside in Reading ... and to officiate also at Morlattin, a place fifteen miles distant, where a church has for many years been built by a society of English and Swedes, who are desirous of having a missionary of the Church of England, and join with us in this application." The petitioners proposed paying the requested missionary sixty pounds "Penna. money."Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, p. 783.

By 1763, a missionary was in place. The Rev. Alexander Murray"Christ Church." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Daily Times, September 21, 1861, p. 3 (subscription required). wrote a report to his superiors that year stating that his English Church congregation was composed of forty-eight members from seven different families. Twelve were under the age of seven. Their church services were held in a "Dwelling-House that is hired for holding the Civil Courts," and were sometimes attended by a group of twenty Anabaptists who lived in Reading, which had roughly thirteen hundred residents at that time. The next year, his congregation had grown to one hundred and twenty-one individuals from eighteen families.Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, pp. 783-784.

By 1765, they had named their group St. Mary's Parish,"Christ Church," Reading Daily Times, September 21, 1861. were meeting at the city's courthouse, and had begun preparations to purchase land to erect a new church building. That plot of land was located at what is now North Fifth and Walnut streets in Reading. Their officers that year were: Edward Biddle and James Diemer (wardens), and Mark Bird, George Hinton, John Patton, John Price, James Read, Jonas Seely, James Whitehead, and Peter Witherington (vestrymen).Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, pp. 783-784.

Congregants were unable to raise the funds necessary to erect that building, and Rev. Murray was given permission by the church's executive council to sell the land. He subsequently left the congregation in 1778.Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, p. 784."Christ Church," Reading Daily Times, September 21, 1861.

1800s In 1815, the name of the congregation was changed to Christ Church, and church leaders accepted the transfer of a different plot of land from Mrs. Rebecca Price with renewed hopes of erecting a new building and burial ground for their congregation. This plot was located at what is now the west side of Fifth Street, just north of Court Street.Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, p. 784."Christ Church," Reading Daily Times, September 21, 1861.

After nine years of planning and fundraising, and now under the leadership of the Rev. Robert Davis, Christ Church was formally accepted as a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Philadelphia on May 12, 1824."Christ Church," Reading Daily Times, September 21, 1861. That same year, church leaders began soliciting proposals from prospective builders in October 1824. Construction on the church began in the spring of 1825, and the cornerstone was dedicated before a large crowd of congregants, clergy, and city officials on June 8 of that year. Completed less than a year later, the new church building was an early English Gothic structure that was "thirty-five feet front and fifty feet deep," according to Montgomery, and had seating for three hundred worshippers. The new Christ Church was officially consecrated on May 10, 1826, with a sermon delivered by Bishop William White.Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, p. 784."Christ Cathedral 75th Anniversary." Reading, Pennsylvania: The Daily Times and Dispatch, May 11, 1901, p. 5 (subscription required).

A member of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania during the 1880s,"Diocese of Central Pennsylvania: Episcopal Appointments by Bishops Howe and Rulison." Reading, Pennsylvania: The Daily Times and Dispatch, March 6, 1886, p. 3 (subscription required)."Central Diocese of Pennsylvania." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times and Dispatch, June 15, 1881, front page (subscription required). Reading's Christ Church became the first church in the diocese to have its own boys' choir."Training Boy Choirs: The First Boy Choir in the Diocese of Pennsylvania." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times, July 5, 1889, front page (subscription required).

Seating capacity was subsequently increased to eight hundred in 1848,"Christ Church," Reading Daily Times, September 21, 1861. and a recess chancel, transepts and spire were added in 1863 when the structure was expanded.Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, p. 784.

"The Parish Monitor," a monthly church bulletin began production in March 1870, under the leadership of the Rev. J. Pinkney Hammond, church rector."Lental Services in the Episcopal Church." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times, March 1, 1870, front page (subscription required).

In 1873, vestry rooms were added, as were rooms for the rector and choir, and the chancel was enlarged by sixteen feet.Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, p. 784. That same year, according to Montgomery, family members of the late Isaac Eckert, a former congregant at Christ Episcopal (then Christ Cathedral), presented church leaders with a gift of "a full chime of ten bells" in memory of Eckert, who had died on December 13, 1873. The chimes were subsequently installed in the church's Gothic spire.Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, pp. 834-836.Montgomery, Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania: Embracing a Concise History of the County and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families, Vol. I, p. 346. The bells, which were manufactured by the Meneely Bell Foundry of West Troy, New York, weighed a total of 10,109 pounds, and were operated by a system of pedals."Christ Cathedral Chimes.." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times and Dispatch, June 9, 1874, front page (subscription required).

In 1881, the estate of former congregant Lucretia Dash Wood provided the funds necessary for church leaders to add a new parish building with classrooms and a chapel.Montgomery, History of Berks County in Pennsylvania, pp. 785."Munificent Bequest to Christ Cathedral." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times and Dispatch, January 18, 1881, front page (subscription required). As the church grew in size, physically, it also grew in stature, culturally, becoming the location choice for worship, marriages, funerals, and other key events in the lives of multiple, prominent members of Berks County society."A Brilliant Wedding: The Howe Woodward Nuptials." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times and Dispatch, May 13, 1881, front page (subscription required). Vestry member rosters during the 1880s included: Henry S. Eckert, Issaac Hiester, Richmond L. Jones, De Benneville Randolph Keim,"Christ Church Vestry," Reading Times and Dispatch, April 19, 1881. Henry M. Keim,"The Late Mr. Keim," in "Christianity and Politics." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times, March 20, 1899, front page (subscription required). Jacob Knabb, the publisher and editor of the Reading Times newspaper,"In Memoriam: Arrangements for Mr. Jacob Knabb's Funeral To-Day." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times, February 2, 1889, front page (subscription required). William R. McIlvain, Edward D. Smith, P. R. Stetson, Joseph Lybrand Stichter, a prominent merchant and civic leader who served on the boards of directors of the Reading Cotton Factory and multiple railroad lines, and who also played a key role in establishing the first telegraph line between Reading and Philadelphia,"Obituary: Sketch of the Life and Character of the Late Col. Joseph L. Stichter." Reading, Pennsylvania: The Daily Times and Dispatch, May 22, 1884, p. 2 (subscription required). Thomas D. Stichter, W. Murray Weidman, and Henry Wiegel.

Easter services were held "on Good Friday, and every day of Passion Week" in 1881, and described as follows by the Reading Times and Dispatch:"Easter Services in Christ Church," in "Easter in Churches: Queen of Religious Festivals." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times and Dispatch: April 16, 1881, front page (subscription required).

"The rite of confirmation will be administered by Bishop Howe this (Saturday) evening, and Easter services, with communion, on Easter Sunday at 10 a.m. conducted by the Rector, Rev. Wm. P. Orrick, assisted by the Bishop.

The music to be rendered in Christ Episcopal Church will be very fine, the following programme having been arranged for the morning services by Prof. Edward A. Berg, organist of the church:

Programme of Music 1. Processional, We Are Soldiers of the Cross, Rockwell 2. Christ our Passover ... Wheat 3. Gloria Patri after proper Psalms ... Greatvox 4. Te Deum in G ... Loretz 5. Jubilate Deo in G ... Jacoby 6. Hymn No. 101 ... Jacoby 7. Kyrie ... Warren 8. Gloria Tibi ... Warren 9. Hymn No. 104