Three Centuries on High Street

St. Paul's Episcopal Church has stood at 166 High Street in Newburyport, Massachusetts, since 1738, but its story begins earlier, in 1711, when a community of English-speaking settlers gathered for worship in a wooden chapel on the Plains west of town. St. Paul's is the oldest continuous Episcopal parish in Massachusetts and one of the oldest in the country, a heritage that is visible in the granite walls of its current church, in the small Gothic chapel tucked behind it, and in the slate of churchyard gravestones that flank the building on both sides. Its rector, the Rev. Dr. Jarred Mercer, leads a congregation that centers itself on the Eucharist and reaches outward into the city through a meal program that serves roughly eight hundred people a week.

A Parish Steeped in History

The first building, Queen Anne's Chapel, was raised in 1711 by the inhabitants of the new port town. The Rev. John Lambton, chaplain of a British warship anchored in Newbury Harbor, began ministering to the congregation on November 14, 1712, and reported more than two hundred souls worshipping regularly. As seafaring swelled the population along the waterfront, English immigrants in the Waterside area raised their own church, organizing in 1741 as St. Paul's Church. It was on this High Street site, in the second St. Paul's building, that the clerk of the church, Tristram Dalton, read the Declaration of Independence after a service in late July 1776; Dalton would later become the first Massachusetts senator in Congress.

St. Paul's and Trinity Church, Boston, were the only two Anglican churches in Massachusetts that remained in continuous operation throughout the American Revolution. The rector at the time, the Rev. Edward Bass, agreed to omit prayers for the King and Royal Family during worship, an early example of the parish's instinct for survival through adaptation. In 1789 Bass was unanimously elected the first Bishop of Massachusetts. His own vestry rejected the election because the laity had been excluded from the process, an early American assertion that shaped the democratic character of the Episcopal Church. Bass was re-elected in 1796. A wooden miter atop the church's cupola today recalls that St. Paul's was the first Bishop's Church in Massachusetts.

The wooden 1800 Church on the High Street site was destroyed by fire in April 1920. Three years later, on November 27, 1923, the present granite building was dedicated. Its architect, William Graves Perry, a descendant of an old Newburyport seafaring family who went on to serve as chief architect of Colonial Williamsburg, designed a sanctuary in the style of early American churches, with closed pews, wall tablets, a prominent wine-glass pulpit with sounding board, and a triptych reredos behind the altar holding the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles' Creed, all in use in colonial Episcopal churches under English canon law since the reign of James I. Rockport granite on the exterior matched the chapel already standing to its left.

St. Anna's Chapel and the Labyrinth

To the left of the main church, surrounded by the graves of early parishioners, stands St. Anna's Chapel, a small High Gothic granite building donated in 1862 by the Rev. William Horton as a lecture room and Sunday school house in memory of his daughter Anna Marie Horton, who died of consumption at 25. The architect was Rufus Sargent, a Newburyport builder also responsible for the Institution for Savings on State Street. The chapel was consecrated on April 22, 1863 by the Rt. Rev. Manton Eastburn, just days before the Battle of Gettysburg.

St. Anna's is essentially unchanged since 1863. Its ten stained glass windows are the work of Henry Sharp Studios of New York City and represent the only known complete collection of Sharp windows; the medallion inserts and grisaille quarries are thought to be among the earliest stained glass in the Boston area. A small 1862 hand-pumped organ by William Stevens of Boston, with fourteen stops and pedal bass, remains entirely original and was restored in 2013 by the Andover Organ Company. Cast bronze Gothic Revival chandeliers, originally lit by gas, still hang from the ceiling; the top tier of the center chandelier retains its original gas fixtures and glass globes.

Behind the church, in a garden setting, a brick labyrinth was dedicated to the Rev. Roger Cramer, who retired as rector of St. Paul's in 2005 after twenty-six years of service. The labyrinth is an ancient contemplative symbol that has returned to wide use in modern times; parishioners and visitors are invited to walk its turnings in silence.

Relics in the Entryway

In the narthex of the church, several pieces of the parish's long history are on display. The weathervane above the entrance is the original from the 1711 Queen Anne's Chapel, removed long ago to a barn in Newbury after the chapel collapsed in a storm and eventually returned to the parish. The carved wooden bishop's miter, saved from the top of the 1800 Church after the fire, sits on a table in the entryway. To the left hangs the Paul Revere Bell, cast in 1809 during Revere's personal oversight of his North End foundry and one of only twenty-three known to survive from that period. It called parishioners to worship from 1811 until 1899, when it was removed after developing cracks. To the right is an original pew purchase document from March 27, 1801, with short biographies of the men involved in the sale and transfer. On the opposite wall, a reverse-glass list records the rectors of St. Paul's from 1711 to the present day.

Beliefs

St. Paul's teaches that God is love, and that this is not a metaphor but the core of Christian confession. Faith, in the parish's understanding, is a living and practiced reality rather than a matter of right thinking alone. The parish holds to the historic creeds of the Church, particularly the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, and looks to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the revelation of who God is: a God who shows up, who enters human life, who is present in the ordinary stuff of bread and wine, water, oil, and human words.

The parish calls itself the people of the incarnation, a faith that takes the material world seriously because God became flesh in Jesus. The incarnation continues in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, where Christ is present in bread and wine. Christian life at St. Paul's is shaped by baptismal promises to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. The parish is committed to the affirmation of LGBTQ+ people, to racial justice, to gender equality, to the care of those in poverty, and to making its facilities fully accessible to people with disabilities. It also holds space for questioning and doubt: the rector and the parish welcome the searcher as fully as the believer.

Sunday Worship at 10 AM

The Sunday service is the heart of life at St. Paul's. Each week at 10 AM the congregation gathers for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, also called the Mass or Holy Communion. The service includes music, prayer, Scripture readings, a sermon, and the sharing of bread and wine. Acolytes carry candles and the cross, the choir leads congregational singing, lectors read the lessons, lay eucharistic ministers assist with the sacrament, greeters and ushers see to the comfort of all who come, and members of the healing prayer team offer prayers for those seeking Christ's healing after the service. The priest presides; the people offer their lives to God and receive them back renewed.

The worship draws on thousands of years of Christian tradition while speaking to contemporary lives. Visitors are explicitly welcomed, including those who have never been to church, those returning after a long absence, and those who are unsure what they believe. Service leaflets and booklets are made available each week, and the service is livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot be present.

Weekday Rhythms: Morning Prayer and the Wednesday Eucharist

Outside Sunday, St. Paul's keeps a regular round of daily prayer. Morning Prayer is said Tuesday through Friday at 8:30 AM. On Wednesdays at noon, a brief Eucharist is celebrated in the church, followed by a Bible study. Office hours run Tuesday through Friday from 8 AM to 1 PM, and the parish office is staffed during those hours for visits and calls.

The Seven Sacraments

St. Paul's teaches the seven classical sacraments of the Anglican tradition. Baptism, with water and the trinitarian formula and anointing with chrism, is the rite of initiation into the Body of Christ. The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity, repeated throughout a Christian life as a continual nourishment. Confirmation, administered by a bishop with the laying on of hands and anointing with chrism, strengthens the gifts of the Holy Spirit received at baptism. Confession, most often done in the gathered community, is also available privately; the rector offers personal confession, and the seal of the confession is absolute. Holy Matrimony is offered to couples of any gender or orientation. Anointing of the Sick is administered by a priest to those who are ill or near death, and communion is brought regularly to the homebound by lay eucharistic visitors. Ordination to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopate is recognized as a lifelong vocation supported by the prayers of the whole community.

Music at St. Paul's

Music is central to the life of the parish. The music director, Mary Jodice, who came to St. Paul's in October 2024, is an organist, choral conductor, pianist, and harpsichordist with a master's degree in organ from the Longy School of Music at Bard College. She directs the choirs, plays for Sunday worship, and serves as artistic director of the Jubilate Chamber Choir, which joins St. Paul's adult choir on occasion for Evensong and Requiem concerts. The Jubilate choir rehearses in Salem on Tuesday nights and welcomes new singers.

The Adult Choir sings at the 10 AM Eucharist every Sunday from September through June, with no audition required. The repertoire spans the Renaissance to living composers, and the choir sings special music for Evensong, Christmas, Holy Week, Easter, and Lessons and Carols. Rehearsals are Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8 PM and Sunday at 9 AM. A Summer Choir, held each Sunday after Trinity Sunday, welcomes drop-in singers who arrive at 9 AM to learn the hymns.

The Chorister Choir is open to young singers from age seven through eighteen, with no audition. Following the Royal School of Church Music's Voice for Life program, the choristers rehearse Thursday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:30 and sing with the adult choir once a month at the 10 AM service. The choristers' program also incorporates formation in the history of St. Paul's and the Episcopal Church.

The instruments at St. Paul's are notable. The main church organ is a three-manual Austin pipe organ, built in 1923 and rebuilt in 2000. In January 2020 the parish acquired a 1968 Steinway Model B 6'11" concert grand piano, now used for worship, recitals, and ensemble work; a 5'6" Steinert grand sits in the lower-level rehearsal room. In St. Anna's Chapel, the 1862 William Stevens tracker organ and a 5'3" Schafer and Sons grand piano complete the collection.

Concerts as Outreach

Concerts are a major part of the parish's public life. St. Paul's hosts the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival, the Grammy-nominated Skylark Vocal Ensemble, and the Ballets Russes Arts Initiative, which features musicians from the former Soviet Union. Community partners include Cantemus Chamber Chorus, the Newburyport Choral Society, the Jubilate Chamber Choir, and Kaleidoscope Arts. St. Anna's Chapel is the home of a First Thursday Noon Concert series, generally running from June through December, offering half-hour midday performances from artists who travel up from Boston. The chapel is also rented for recitals by local music schools.

Children and Youth

Sunday School meets during the 10 AM Eucharist for children aged four and up. Three trained teachers lead the program, using the Illustrated Ministries curriculum to explore biblical stories through story cards, acting, discussion, and a closing activity. The teaching staff and assistants have completed Safe Church training. Children in the program prepare Valentine's bags of chocolates and Christmas stockings of toiletries several times a year to support the Among Friends Meal Program, and the parish year includes family-friendly moments such as the blessing of the backpacks, the blessing of the animals, and a youth-led service in June.

Older students are invited into Confirmation preparation, acolyte service, ushering, and choir. Acolytes carry torches during processions and at high holy days; ushers are the first to greet newcomers and assist throughout the service. The Children and Youth Coordinator, Laura, can be reached through the parish office.

Young Adults

Young adults of college age and beyond are encouraged to gather inside and outside the church for fellowship, service, and mutual support. The rector, Fr. Jarred, is the point of contact for those looking to get connected.

Adult Formation

Adult Spiritual Formation at St. Paul's is built around four pillars: Bible Study, a Spiritual Book Club, shared Spiritual Practices, and gatherings to cultivate parish life. Bible Study meets on Wednesdays after the noon Eucharist; the Spiritual Book Club meets monthly to discuss works such as Steven Charleston's The Four Vision Quests of Jesus; and Spiritual Practices evenings have included "Praying the Psalms." Diane Barsam coordinates the program and welcomes newcomers. Several times a year, the Rev. Dr. Steven Notis, a retired priest who has attended St. Paul's since his retirement, hosts a Saturday morning contemplative prayer retreat in the parish, with past topics including Christian contemplation, silent meditation, and the loving-kindness prayer practice.

St. Paul's is the regional center for the north for the St. Paul Center for Theology and Prayer, hosted by the Cathedral and the Diocese. A library of Formation Hour recordings, covering an Outline of the Faith drawn from the Book of Common Prayer, the sacraments, Holy Week, and Advent, is available for download, along with a Learning to Pray video series and Advent and stewardship devotionals.

Among Friends Meal Program

The Among Friends Meal Program is one of the parish's primary ministries to the wider community. Roughly eight hundred people a week come through the doors of St. Paul's to receive a meal. The program serves lunch on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11 AM to noon, and dinner on Mondays from 5 to 6 PM. Volunteers from the parish and the wider community prepare and serve the meals, and children's ministry groups support the program with seasonal projects. St. Paul's also supports The Resettlement Partnership, a coalition of faith communities and service providers assisting refugees in northeast Massachusetts, and directs donors who wish to give specifically to refugee resettlement to the partnership's own giving channels.

Recovery Groups

As part of its mission to the wider community, St. Paul's hosts a number of twelve-step recovery meetings throughout the week in its buildings. Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Overeaters Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, an AA Young People's Meeting, and Debtors Anonymous all meet on the campus. The groups operate independently in keeping with twelve-step traditions, and all are open to anyone who comes.

Racial Justice, Equality, and Welcome

The parish takes its commitment to racial justice seriously. St. Paul's Anti-Racism Awareness (SPARA) is a book discussion group that meets every other week to read and discuss works on systemic racism and personal prejudice. The parish also points members toward a curated list of anti-racism resources compiled by the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan. St. Paul's is an LGBTQ+ affirming church: people of all gender identities and sexual orientations are welcomed, serve at every level of the parish's leadership, and are believed to be a gift to the Church.

Lay Ministries and Pastoral Care

The life of the parish is carried by a wide network of lay ministers. Servers, or acolytes, support the liturgy with candles and the cross. Lay eucharistic ministers lead prayers and assist with distribution. Lectors read the Scripture lessons. The Altar Guild prepares the space, sets out the elements, and tends the candles. Healing prayers are offered in the chapel after Sunday worship by a healing prayer team. A team of lay eucharistic visitors takes communion to the homebound. The Pastoral Care Team keeps those who are housebound or sick connected with the parish through visits and phone calls. The Edie Ellen Knitters meet on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 2 PM to knit prayer shawls for people with particular needs. A Technology Team handles the livestream and sound for in-person services.

Joining St. Paul's

Becoming a member of St. Paul's is described in the parish as joining a family rather than signing up for a club. Members are baptized members of the universal Church who commit to regular attendance at worship, to generous giving of their financial resources, and to life together in a community that rejoices in the dignity of every person, strives for justice, equality, and peace, and proclaims Christ's love and truth. The rector meets with those who are interested in learning more about membership. Visitors and newcomers are not expected to become members on a first visit; everyone is welcome at the table of the Eucharist.

Stewardship

The life, ministry, and upkeep of St. Paul's buildings are supported entirely by the generosity of members and other donors. The annual Stewardship: Living Generously campaign invites parishioners to consider the call to holistic self-offering in time, talents, and resources. Pledge cards can be submitted online or in person, and a Time and Talent Questionnaire helps members identify where their gifts might fit. A series of stewardship sermons and reflections accompanies the campaign each year. Giving to support the parish's general ministry can be made online through the parish's giving page, and donations to refugee resettlement in the area are directed to The Resettlement Partnership.

Staff and Leadership

The parish is led by the Rev. Dr. Jarred Mercer, who came to St. Paul's in May 2020 after eleven years in the Church of England and academic work at the University of Oxford. The Rev. Canon David Lee Carlson, a retired priest who previously served parishes in New York, joined the parish as a priest associate this spring after years of attending while vacationing in Newburyport. Mary Jodice directs the music program. Diane Barsam coordinates Adult Spiritual Formation. The parish's representative leadership, the Vestry, includes Senior Warden Stu Tuthill, Junior Warden Meryl Longval, Clerk Deirdre Budzyna, Treasurer Nick Ives, and members with portfolios in spiritual formation and broadcast, communications, children and youth, capital campaign, fundraising, local outreach, and arts and culture.

St. Paul's is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The diocesan bishop is the Rt. Rev. Alan Gates, and the suffragan bishop is the Rt. Rev. Gayle Harris. The parish joins the Episcopal Church in the worldwide Anglican Communion, under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury.