Our Search for a Rector/Priest-in-Charge
Christ Church Parish Kent Island
Celebrating God’s love for nearly 400 years!
Christ Church Parish Kent Island is a growing, welcoming church, with wonderful music, and a strong commitment to each other and our community. We value Jesus’ teaching of all-inclusive, non-judgmental love and seek to nourish bodies, minds, and spirits; provide a safe place for renewal and recovery; and cultivate faith through meaningful relationships.
We are seeking a priest who is:
Make necessary changes to attract families with children to our church.
Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to reach new people and incorporate them into the life of the church.
Provide more opportunities for Christian education and spiritual formation at every age and stage of life.
Backpack Weekend Meals for Kids
The Backpacks Ministry provides weekend food for children who are most at risk of not having enough to eat when school is not in
session. Each week Christ Church parishioners and community volunteers pack and deliver 220+ bags of food to three area schools.
Haven Ministries Partnership
Christ Church provides financial support, leadership and volunteers to Haven Ministries which provides
shelter, food, and resources to needy and at risk residents of Queen Anne’s County.
The Soup Group
Each week about 15 Soup Group volunteers from the church and community make 2 soups and 3 salads and fill about 100 pre-orders for curbside pickup or free delivery. Leftover soups and salads are donated to those in need in the community. Proceeds from the soup group sales fund many important ministries at Christ Church.
Worship Services
Each Sunday we have an 8 a.m. Rite I and a 10 a.m. Rite II service of Holy Communion. The 10 a.m. service is streamed on YouTube. Monday through Thursday, we have Evening Prayer at 5 p.m.
Christ Church has a very active music program with a volunteer choir of over twenty members that sings each week during the academic year at the 10 a.m. service. The choir is a draw for perspective members and has continued to grow over the last few years.
Education for Ministry and
Bible Studies
Christ Church is now in its eighth year with the Education for Ministry (EfM) program. The program begins in September and meets once a week until May. In addition to EfM, Christ Church has weekly Bible study classes lead by the rector, and previously participated in the Sacred Ground program.
Youth and Children
We have a nursery, a Sunday School program for children through the 8th grade, and a Youth Group that meets on Sunday evenings. Fourth graders and older serve as acolytes during the service. During the school year we have a monthly Family Dinner that is open to all parishioners.
Since 1971, Christ Episcopal Church Day School (CECDS) has operated a pre-school that provides a safe, loving, and nurturing environment where Christian values are modeled and integrated into its developmentally appropriate curriculum.
Christ Church Parish Kent Island is one of forty worshiping communities in the Diocese of Easton occupying the nine counties in Maryland that lie east of the Chesapeake Bay. We are the oldest continuous Episcopal congregation in the United States.
Our history begins when William Claiborne, who came from England by way of Jamestown, Virginia, established a trading settlement in 1631 at Kent Fort, located at the southernmost end of Kent Island. Claiborne was most concerned that a church also be built so the settlers could continue to worship as they did in their homeland where the Church of England was the established church. In 1632, he brought The Reverend Richard James to the Kent Island shore to conduct worship services at Kent Fort. The earliest mention of the “framing of a church” was in 1636, probably at or near Kent Fort at the southernmost tip of the island.
The colony of Maryland was founded in 1632, a year after Christians were worshiping on Kent Island. Sixty years later, in 1692, The Church of England was officially established in the colony and the counties in Maryland were divided into 30 parishes. Of the 30 original parishes in the Colony of Maryland, 13 of these founding parishes are in what is now the Diocese of Easton. Christ Church on Kent Island was included in the original 30 parishes.
During these early colonial days, the parish moved north on the island, and in 1652 built the first of three structures that would occupy our Broad Creek site. At the time, the town of Broad Creek was a thriving community with a tavern, tobacco warehouse, and a ferry that crossed the Bay to Annapolis. By 1712, the population of Maryland had grown fourfold, and a larger building was constructed and then enlarged again in 1748. Sadly, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 witnessed the decline of the parish.
Construction started on the third church at Broad Creek in 1826 and completed in 1840. Just 50 years later, most of the residents of Broad Creek had moved into the growing village of Stevensville, where the Historic Christ Church was consecrated in 1880.
Today our parish still maintains the cemetery at Broad Creek, providing a peaceful, secluded, sacred, and picturesque seeing in which to remember the lives of loved ones, gather one’s thoughts, reflect on the past, or simply to relax and enjoy the beauty of nature.
In 1995, Christ Church Parish Kent Island moved from Historic Christ Church to our current location adjacent to Camp Wright, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Easton providing day and resident camp programs.
We continue living God’s mission, embracing our history as we look confidently to the future.
To learn more about Christ Church, see the material at the following links: