The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-29
HOLDS ANNIVERSARY
EPISCOPAL CHURCH TO OBSERVE
 IFS AMERICAN ORIGIN
site of the First Edlace Established in the New World, at Jamestown, Shows Signs of Great
 Authority.

The Episcopal Church of the United States will celebrate with due cere- mony the s00th anniversary of It's es- tablishment in a convention to be held in Richmond. Va. commencing october 3 and lasting about three weeks.
 Noted dignitaries of the Church of England, the body of which the Amer ican Episcopal Church is an offshoot. are coming to the United States for the ceremonies. the party including Rev. Henry Montgomery, secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; Rev. Dr. A. r. W. Ingram, the new bishop of London. and the Right Rev. pr. Edgar Jacob, bishop of St. Albans.
 As most of the early religious work in the colonies which resulted in giv- ing the faith of England al start in the new world was performed under the direction of the dioceses of Lon- don and St. Albans there is fitness in the visit of these noted churchmen, who are direct descendants of early Eptsco- palians who aided the celonists In their devotions.
 The founding of the Church of Eng land in the United States and the set clement of Jamestown are ,contempor- aneous, for in an expedition sent out by the London company, which con sisted of three vessels--the Susan Con- stant. one hundred tons; the Godspeed, fort tons, and the Discovery, forty tons, commanded by Christopher Newport, Bartholomew Gosnold and John Ratciiffe--were 105 men. almost all of whom were followers of the es- tablished Church
 When. after many days of search what Is now known as Jamestown was finally picked for the site of the colony almost the first act was the establish ment of the regular service of the Protestant religion. ASail cloth spread between two trees was the sacred edifce in which the bless ing of the Giver of all things good was Invoked. The pulpit was a piece of wood fastened between two saplings. The rector whose privilege 1t was to- celebrate this service was Rev. Robert Hunt
 The church did not long content it. self with this primitive building. In "a year women were sent to Jamestown to join the colony and link their inter ests with those of the pioneers. In 1908 Ann Barras came to Jamestown. and in a little frame church, roughly thrown together, she was welded to John Laydon. This was the first we'd ding celebrated by the Church of Eng land in the history of America.
 On the site of the ancient church. the ruins of which form one of the striking features of the almost aban- doned island of Jerusalem. has been found evidence that two churches of some -pretentions. preceded 1t.
 The ground adjacent to the tower on the east has been excavated, dis. closing the foundations of two churches the smaller inside of the larger. The larger measures fifty-six by twenty eight foet and shows bases of four buttresses on each side
 This discovery of two churches pres ceding the more pretentious structure is of special interest, because 1t shows that the zeal of the colonists for their faith led them early to the erection of a suitable place for prayer and wor- ship.
 The venerable church, the tower of which stands high above the soft. moist soil of the island. was built in 1889. only thirty-two years after the arrival of the colonists. yet in that short time three churches had been erected, and two of them outgrown, or perhaps destroyed by the Indians. who after the death of Pocakontas and her all powerful father, PowhRtan. de- Veloped a hatred of tho whites that led to many massacres.
 The tower or the OlG church is eighteen feet square and thirty-six feet high. with walls three feet thick. IL is three stories high The first story is pierced by doorways in the eastern and western walls. The second story contains an arched window above each doorway, but the masonry Is absent from the wall space between each win dow and the door below. thus merg- ing each pair of openings into one, about twelve feet high The third story is perforated by loopholes for guns on each of the four sides, a re- hinder of the dangers that attended these early devotees
 Adjoining the church are the remains of an early graveyard. the tombbstones of which have been restored Around this church cluster perhaps the most sacred associations of the Church of England In the New World.
 The delegates to the convention will make a pilgrimage to Jamestown to pay tribute to the ediice in which their forebsars founded their reIig- ion in the New World