St. Helena’s Anglican in Beaufort, one of oldest churches in U.S., is adding a new location
St. Helena’s Anglican Church — one of the oldest churches in the country and a downtown Beaufort landmark with a steeple that soars toward the heavens — is on the verge of expanding and creating a new congregation seven miles west in Habersham. The Habersham congregation, which has been meeting outside, will have its own church building and the addition is the first expansion since St. Helena’s founding more than 300 years ago.
The mother church, one of the largest in the area, draws some 700 people to its downtown home on Newcastle Street each Sunday. Incorporated in 1712, decades before the U.S. fought for its independence. The building on Newcastle came along in 1724. While it has undergone numerous modifications, St. Helena’s remains one of the oldest continuously used church buildings in the United States. One of its most eye-catching features is its green-colored copper-plated steeple, which is featured on many Beaufort postcards.
Now construction is about to begin on a “daughter church,” known as Parish Church, Habersham, in the master plan-designed community of the same name west of the city known for its new urbanism design features.
Bishop Chip Edgar of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina will mark the start of construction with a visit to the new church Saturday.
“It’s hard to even express how intensely and for how long we’ve had this as our goal,” the Rev. Jamie Sosnowski said.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor worship had been occurring at Habersham, with 40 to 50 people showing up for prayer meetings and potlucks. But the pandemic, Sosnowski added, drove home the importance of gathering with people you see at the post office or grocery store and “gave us all the more reason to pursue it as its own church.”
“At a time when people were more isolated and separated and quicker to anger than I can remember, we found unity in Jesus together, face to face, in person,” Sosnowski said.
The church will look like a traditional colonial southern church, a style that is common across coastal South Carolina.
So many new churches, Sosnowski says, are “more about stage and lights than about steeples and bells.”
Like its mother, the daughter church will include a steeple with a bell tower and altar rail. The goal, Sosnowski says, is to build a church that fits in with Habersham in such a way that you can’t tell how long it’s been there.
“We’re a traditional group so we’re building what you would think of when you think of a traditional church,” he said.
The main church congregation in Beaufort draws roughly 700 people each Sunday and it also offers popular outdoor services on Fripp Island that draws hundreds more, especially during the summer.
The Habersham church will be able to comfortably accommodate up to 200 people. It’s already seeing over 100 people for its outdoor services that are held under a wedding reception-like tent, which reminds the congregants of Old Testament accounts of the Israelites moving the meeting tent from place to place as they awaited entrance into the Promise Land.
The new church is being constructed at 100 North Market St., across from Earthfit, a fitness Center. If all goes as planned, doors will open by Christmas Eve 2024.
Plans for the church came with some controversy two years ago. It was initially planned on a parcel of land that was zoned for a “civic” use. But some residents objected to one denomination being located there.
“That was a tough season,” Sosnowski said.
As a compromise, the church site was moved 300 yards away to two commercial lots that were combined.
To date, $3.2 million has been raised for construction, with $400,000 yet to go.
As Sosnowski views it, the building is not a finish line, but rather a starting line to begin serving from a new location. Slow and steady growth is expected. One day, he says, maybe the new church can plant another Anglican church in the area.
What’s next
Parish Church at Habersham will conduct a groundbreaking for its new church at 1 p.m. Saturday at 100 North Market. Bishop Chip Edgar and the Rev. Jamie Sosnowski will be speaking.
This story was originally published October 26, 2023 at 12:51 PM.
