Christ Church (Savannah, Georgia)
Christ Church is an Episcopal church at 28 Bull Street, Johnson Square, in Savannah, Georgia. Founded in 1733, it was the first church established in the Province of Georgia and one of the first parishes within the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, earning it the nickname "the Mother Church of Georgia". The present church building was constructed in 1838 and is located in the Savannah Historic District. History. On February 12, 1733, colonists from England established the city of Savannah as the first city in the newly chartered Province of Georgia. Henry Herbert, a priest in the  Church of England, was with them, establishing a mission in the city under the auspices of the Bishop of London. While a lot for a church building had been plotted by James Oglethorpe, the first services for the parish were open air and, after its construction in 1736, held in the city's courthouse. Following Herbert's departure from Georgia in late 1733, several missionaries would serve in the new colony, most notably John Wesley, who served in the city from February 1736 to December of the following year. While there, Wesley founded one of the first Sunday schools in  the United States and held services at his house (which he would later cite as being an important moment in the creation of the Methodist movement), but difficulties in evangelizing the Native Americans in the region and friction between Wesley and residents of the city led to his departure less than two years later. Following Wesley, George Whitefield would become the parish priest starting on December 1738. During his time in the colony, he founded the Bethesda Orphanage near Savannah in 1740. Shortly after Whitefield's tenure, in 1744, the cornerstone for the first permanent building for Christ Church was  laid. The building was completed in 1750 and dedicated on July 7 of that year. In 1760, it received what was possibly the first organ in the province. The building was later expanded in 1765. This original church building burned down in 1796, with construction on a new building starting in 1801 and ending in 1806. This rebuilt building was consecrated by Bishop Theodore Dehon of South Carolina on April 26, 1815 in what was the first visit of a bishop to Georgia. On February 24, 1823, Christ Church became one of the three original parishes of the Episcopal Diocese  of Georgia, along with Christ Church on St. Simon's Island and Saint Paul's Church in Augusta, Georgia. On February 26, 1838, construction began on a new building at the same location, which stands today as the current church building. This building, located on Johnson Square in the Savannah Historic District, was designed by James Hamilton Couper, a noted planter from the state. It was consecrated in 1840. During the mid-1800s, the rector was Stephen Elliott, the first bishop of the Diocese of Georgia and the only presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of  America. On January 8, 1854, Thomas Fielding Scott was consecrated bishop at Christ Church. In 2006, the church underwent a schism regarding the Episcopal Church's stance on homosexuality. In March 2006, a majority of the congregation of Christ Church voted to break ties with the Episcopal Church. Following a September 2007 vote to leave the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, this breakaway group continued to hold service at the historic church building while parishioners who wished to remain with the Episcopal Church met at another nearby Episcopal church. The breakaway group vacated the historic building in December 2011 and began  holding services at Independent Presbyterian Church. This was after the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the historic building was the property of Christ Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. The case also ruled that the church held the rights to "Christ Church, Savannah" and "the Mother Church of Georgia", with the breakaway group taking the name "Christ Church Anglican" to differentiate from the Episcopal congregation (sometimes referred to as "Christ Church Episcopal"). Both churches maintain the same history from 1733 to the split. In 2010, Christ Church Episcopal unveiled a new seal designed by local artist Louise Huntington  Shipps, wife of Bishop Harry W. Shipps.