Looking Back: Planting seeds, Grace Episcopal Church in Saybrook

From Connecticut-


Statements about planting seeds are typically a way to note small beginnings that eventually bear fruit. So when the Rev. Peter G. Clarke of Essex traveled down to Saybrook in August 1825 to hold Episcopal services for 12 members in a private residence, and later the Center Schoolhouse, he was planting the kernels of a religious faith that had modest beginnings elsewhere in Connecticut.

Episcopal services in Connecticut were probably first held in Stratford, and a minister was appointed there in 1713. By the end of the American Revolution, there were 44 parishes in the new state. And, although Samuel Seabury (1729-1796) was an unwavering Loyalist during the Revolution and author of three letters written under the pen name of “A.W. Farmer” condemning the Continental Congress, he became the first bishop of Connecticut on Nov. 14, 1784.

His early appointment made Connecticut the oldest diocese in the Episcopal Church. In Saybrook, Grace Episcopal Church is the oldest and only early 19th-century non-Congregational church that remains in existence.

More here-

http://www.shorelinetimes.com/articles/2013/07/15/opinion/doc51e3ed35711aa932814814.txt