I was thinking of all the reboots we’ve had in the movie industry of late — Star Trek, Spiderman, Batman and Superman, for instance. Naturally this led me to thoughts of Christ Church in downtown New Bern.
We have quite a history of churches in this town. Our oldest house of worship, First Presbyterian, goes back to 1818; our oldest parish (Christ Church) goes back to 1715; and our colorful, if slightly self-obsessed founder, Baron Christoph deGraffenreid, described totem poles in the Indian village, which we can assume was church, even though they didn’t have bulletins, coffee or family-mandated pews.
Old things, of course, get reboots. Revivals, if you will — major changes in direction. In the movies, it can be because the last time a movie was done, it was done badly; or possibly it was done well, but now the times have just really changed and the old version is…well…dated.
Let’s talk about Christ Church’s reboots. Most were brought about for physical reasons (the congregation is on its third building); a couple were from societal causes.
Christ Church started its days Anglican, as one of a handful of parishes in the No Man’s Land of North Carolina in 1715. No Man’s Land? We wouldn’t even officially become North Carolina for another 15 years — we were just a little-known collection of forests and swamps overseen by a Charleston autocrat.
More here-
http://www.newbernsj.com/news/local-columns/bill-hand-christ-church-reboots-1.145619
No comments:
Post a Comment