"Building A Handsome Church": St. Michael's, Marblehead, 1714 A Tercentenary Symposium June 7

www.stmichaels2014.org

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
Tercentenary Celebration: 1714-2014
26 Pleasant Street
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
www.stmichaels1714.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Building A Handsome Church": St. Michael's, Marblehead, 1714
A Tercentenary Symposium

June 7 symposium brings together historians, architects, architectural historians, ecclesiastical scholars and the general public for a discussion of the 300 year old church and its role in the history of Marblehead, Massachusetts.

On Saturday, June 7 the establishment and building of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Marblehead, Massachusetts, will be the topic of a one day Tercentenary Symposium in the Morse Auditorium at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.   Founded in 1714, the oldest Episcopal congregation in New England holding worship services in its original building is celebrating its 300th anniversary in 2014. 

The 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. symposium is open to the general public.   The $75.00 registration fee includes a box lunch and afternoon tours of St. Michael’s Church including access to its crypt, belfry and archives.  Seating at the symposium is limited and early registration is encouraged.   For further information and to register for the June 7 Symposium www.stmichaels2014.org
 

Media contact Grace Friary Public Relations gracefriary@comcast.net 

Chaired by Donald R. Friary, President, Colonial Society of Massachusetts and an historian of religion and architecture in colonial America, the Symposium will open with remarks by Robert L. Howie, Jr., St. Michael’s Church Historian, emeritus, and Chair of the Tercentenary Committee.  
The morning will feature presentations by Stuart P. Feld, President, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., on “St. Michael’s Marblehead–From Widener Library at Harvard to London and Amsterdam and Back.” ; Christopher P. Magra, Associate Professor of History, University of Tennessee, on “Extravagance, Intemperance, Negligence in Religion, and Disorderliness”: Marblehead, the Early Years”; and David D. Hall, Bartlett Research Professor of New England Church History, Harvard Divinity School, on “Reliving the Past or Fashioning a Different Future? Anglicanism and Puritanism in Eighteenth-Century New England.” 

Afternoon speakers will  be Carl Lounsbury, Senior Architectural Historian, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and College of William and Mary, discussing “The Church of England's First Colonial Buildings: Virginia, 1608-1714” and Louis P. Nelson, Associate Professor of Architectural History and Associate Dean for Research and International Programs, University of Virginia, who will speak about “St. Michael's, Marblehead: A Case Study in Atlantic Anglicanism.

A discussion with three Marblehead historians – Judy Anderson, social and cultural historian; Tercentenary chair and St. Michael’s Church Historian emeritus, Robert L. Howie, Jr., and Bette Hunt, Town Historian, Marblehead – will place the St. Michael’s experience in the context of the Church of England throughout colonial America. Tours of St. Michael’s Church and a reception will follow.

St. Michael’s Church Tercentenary year features concerts, lectures, community events, and services focused on the past, present and future of the 300 year old parish.  To learn more about the history and historic interior of St. Michael’s Church go to http://www.stmichaels1714.org/about_history.htm 

For further information, for a full list of tercentenary activities, to arrange interviews and for tours of St. Michael’s Church please contact Grace Friary Public Relations gracefriary@comcast.net  978-745-0184

GF/PR 1-2014