rss
mobile
Feeds
"We call St. Mark's Chapel a community of Episcopalians, but we are not officially an Episcopal church," said the Rev. Roger Smith, chaplain emeritus. "A lot of people of other denominations attend our services and some of them are active in the leadership of the chapel community. Some are Roman Catholic and Presbyterian.
"We are an interfaith organization," said Smith, who was asked to take charge of the Sunday services at 10 a.m. until the chapel's chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Robert R. "Bob" Hansel, returns at the end of April from Captiva, Fla.
Prior to meeting at the Historic Union Church, about a dozen families met in each other's homes. The group grew too large and moved to meet at the Sea Island Motel in downtown Beaufort and later at the Masonic Lodge. In its six years, the congregation has grown to about 40 families.
"It's been wonderful," Smith said about the opportunity to worship in an historic building, renewed by the Historic Port Royal Society. "I told the people in the historic society it has made a big difference in our active participation. It is a beautiful spot," Smith said.
Scott Shaffer, Ph.D., chairman of the chapel committee, said the building produces amazing sounds, as well. "The music is really delightful. The acoustics are good in there -- the hymns kind of bounce off the wall," he said.
The Union Church was built in 1878 and has been used by nondenominational groups to include performance theater as well as Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists. "We kind of like that historical feeling ... and we feel very grateful to be in the line up," Smith said.
Now the congregation plans to begin a church school program. "We are prepared to have youngsters in Sunday school when we get them," Shaffer said.
The congregation supports many outreach groups financially and in service. Members volunteer for Operation Good Neighbor Medical Clinic, Family Promise, Habitat for Humanity, HELP of Beaufort and the national Episcopal Relief and Development Fund.
"We have always tried to be a group that spends our money on the outside and not on the inside," Shaffer said. "We like to give it away -- that's what we are there for. We encourage people to be involved personally as well as financially."
The church is owned by the Historic Port Royal Foundation, which has petitioned for it to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, said Anna Ellerbe, foundation president.
A docent is in the building for tours of the museum from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.
"It is a very ecumenical little building," Ellerbe said. "It feels very light and makes you feel good when you go to church there."
The building's tall arched windows, about 12 feet by 4 feet on each side, and its 16-foot ceilings are original, as is the church's bell tower and bronze bell, which St. Mark's rings at 10 a.m. every Sunday. The building, which also features original handmade pews, heart pine floors and a standing metal roof, was completely rehabilitated in 2004. "We are trying to bring it back to what it was when it was originally a church, The Free Church of Port Royal," Ellerbe said.
The church, which holds 130 people, now serves as headquarters for the foundation during the week, and its English-style garden has attracted several weddings.
For the members of St. Mark's, the building feels like the home they never had.
"We have been a church, but we've never been meeting in a church building, and that is a wonderful historical place to be," Shaffer said. "It is an extremely good fit. (The historic society was) looking for somebody to have regular services, and we were looking for a true church building."
A match made in heaven, perhaps.
