Saint Mary's Church, Hamilton Village

Parish church
name =St. Mary’s Church
Hamilton Village
The Episcopal Church at Penn
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


dedication = Mary (mother of Jesus)
denomination = Episcopal
tradition =
parish =
deanery =
archdeaconry =
diocese = Pennsylvania
Standing Committee of the Diocese is Ecclesiastical Authority due to inhibition of bishop
province = Three
rector = The Rev. James H. Littrell
deacon =
honpriest =
director =
organist =
warden =
warden1 =
website = [http://www.stmarysatpenn.org/ St. Mary's Church website]

St. Mary’s Church, Hamilton Village, is an Episcopal Church located on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It calls itself the Episcopal Church at Penn to emphasize its campus ministry. [ [http://www.stmarysatpenn.org/ Saint Mary's Episcopal Church ] ] . The parish is part of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

The church is a remnant of the Hamilton Village [ [http://www.uchs.net/Rosenthal/hamvil.html History of Hamilton Village] ] neighborhood that existed in West Philadelphia prior to being subsumed by the University. [ [http://www.phila.gov/phils/Docs/otherinfo/pname1.htm Philadelphia Neighborhoods ] ] The land was given to the church by the Hamilton family for whom the town was named. [ [http://www.uchs.net/Rosenthal/hamvil.html History of Hamilton Village] ]

Background

Founded in the early 19th century to serve as a summer congregation for Philadelphians who were vacationing west of the Schuylkill River, it soon had year-round services. The current building dates from 1872 and the parish hall from 1896.Fact|date=November 2007 During the mid-19th century the parish became a focal point for the Anglo-Catholic movement, which the Rector and congregation supported.Fact|date=November 2007 More recently, St. Mary's played a leading role in supporting African-American civil rights, the anti-war movement of the Vietnam era, women's ordination within the Episcopal Church, and the lesbian/gay community's quest for full acceptance. [ [http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v53/n01/obit.html#rjs 07/11/06, Deaths - Almanac, Vol. 53, No. 1 ] ]

The former rector, John Scott, was known for having performed an exorcism of the Philadelphia campaign headquarters of Richard Nixon.Fact|date=November 2007 In the 1970s the parish was host to the local chapter of IntegrityUSA, immediately after the chapter's founding, and before the chapter moved to Center City. [ [http://www.integrityusa.org/voice/1976/AugustSeptember1976.htm August-September1976 [HTML ] ] Due to its proximity to the Philadelphia Divinity School (which has now merged with Episcopal Divinity School and closed its facilities in Philadelphia), many seminarians often attended services here in the days immediately preceding the ordination of the Philadelphia Eleven and the eventual admission of women to the priesthood in 1976.Fact|date=November 2007

The parish hall houses a nursery school, and the sanctuary is often used for concerts. The Rev. James H. Littrell is the Rector and the Episcopal Chaplain to the University of Pennsylvania.

ee also

*University City, Philadelphia
*Neighborhood Bike Works

External links

* [http://www.stmarysatpenn.org/ St. Mary's Church Official Site]
* [http://www.stmarysnurseryschool.org/ St. Mary's Nursery School Official Site]
* [http://www.thegatherings.org/ The Gatherings Concert Series]

References