Resolution for 250th - TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH CHOCOWINITY, NORTH CAROLINA

Resolution of Thanksgiving and Celebration
for the 250th Anniversary of Trinity Church, Chocowinity

WHEREAS, Trinity Church, Chocowinity, was founded and built in 1774 and remains the second oldest church in continuous use in North Carolina; and

WHEREAS, Trinity Church was founded and built by the Reverend Nathaniel Blount, a communicant of St. Thomas Parish, Bath, who was sent to London by the Vestry of that parish to be ordained as a deacon and priest in the Church of England, and who returned to Beaufort County as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and became an exceptionally active minister of the Gospel, serving Trinity Church as well as the colony and state of North Carolina until his death in 1816; and

WHEREAS, Trinity Church, first affectionately known as Parson Blount’s Chapel, after being admitted into union with the Diocese of North Carolina on April 10, 1823, was consecrated by the Right Reverend John Stark Ravenscroft, first Bishop of North Carolina, on November 22, 1827, and in 1883 when the Diocese was divided geographically, Trinity and the other 26 easternmost churches became the Diocese of East Carolina; and

WHEREAS, Trinity Church has been served by many faithful rectors since Parson Blount, including the Reverend Nicholas Collin Hughes, D. D., and the Reverend Israel Harding whose leadership helped establish and sustain the Trinity School of Chocowinity through which many young men of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries entered the ordained ministry; and

WHEREAS, Trinity Church, through the ministries of its clergy and laity, continues seeking to know Christ and to make Him known in its local community,

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the Diocese of East Carolina give thanks for God’s love and support and for the life and faithful witness of Trinity Church for the past two hundred and fifty years; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Diocese of East Carolina join in the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Trinity Church by adopting this resolution; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Diocese of East Carolina will commit its prayers and ask God’s blessing for the continued witness of this parish in the years to come.

Respectfully submitted,

Stephen J. Batten, Rector Virginia G. Powell, Treasurer