History of The Churches of Cunningham Chapel Parish

Christ Church

is located at
809 Bishop Meade Rd
Millwood, Virginia

(Rt. 255)
Across from Project Hope

CONTACT US

Office e-mail:
click here

Office Hours:
Tuesday - Friday
8:30 AM -12 Noon

Telephone:
540-837-1112

Fax:
540-837-1157

Mailing Address:
PO Box 153
Millwood, Virginia 22646

LINKS

The Diocese of Virginia


	The Churches of Cunningham Chapel Parish Click image above to view enlargement Cunningham Chapel Parish grew out of Frederick Parish which was created concurrently with Frederick County in 1738 by an act of the colonial General Assembly of Virginia as an ecclesiastical unit of the Church of England. Cunningham Chapel was the first of three chapels of the parish. It was probably constructed in 1747, at a location three miles south of present day Berryville. After the original log building was destroyed in the Revolutionary War, it was replaced by a stone structure, “Old Chapel,” that still stands today at a site near the present intersection of US Route 340 and VA Route 255. "Old Chapel" is the oldest Episcopal Church in continuous use west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. “Old Chapel was originally referred to as "the Chapel at Cunningham's" (Cunningham's being the name of the tavern near the chapel). In the 1840s, we outgrew our chapel known as "Old Chapel" and built Christ Church in the village of Millwood. During this period, nearly every Episcopal church from the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley into what is now West Virginia was established by the Rt. Rev. William Meade, third Bishop of Virginia, and fifth rector of our parish. At that time, the parish was named "Frederick," for the county from which it was formed in 1733. One of our many missions, Christ Church in Winchester, requested the Frederick Parish name when it became independent, and we gave it to them, renaming ourselves Cunningham Chapel Parish. When the railroad came through the town of Boyce (then called "Boyceville") at the end of the 19^th century, the parish built Emanuel Chapel in 1912 at the crossroads of what is now US 340 and VA Route 723 to serve the thriving new railroad community of Boyce.
	The Ministers of the Parish
	William Meldrum.............................. 1761-1765 (Frederick Parish) Benjamin Sebastian........................... 1767-1768 (Frederick Parish) Charles Mynn Thruston........................ 1769-1775 (Frederick Parish) Alexander Balmaine........................... 1785-1820 (Frederick Parish) William Meade................................ 1811-1835 (3^rd Bishop of Virginia) Horace Stringfellow.......................... 1835-1840 William G.H. Jones........................... 1840-1847 John Francis Hoff............................ 1847-1858 Joseph Ravenscroft Jones..................... 1858-1881 C. Braxton Bryan............................. 1881-1891 John Poyntz Tyler............................ 1891-1895 Bishop of N. Dakota J. Courtney Jones............................ 1896-1903 Edward H. Ingle.............................. 1903-1905 John Maxwell Robeson......................... 1906-1915 B. Duvall Chambers........................... 1916-1934 Robert A. Goodwin............................ 1934-1940 Claudius P. Shelton.......................... 1941-1942 G. Peyton Craighill.......................... 1943-1949 Francis B. Rhein............................. 1949-1954 James L.B. Williams.......................... 1954-1958 Frank Q. Cayce............................... 1959-1965 Holland B. Clark............................. 1966-1974 E. Guthrie Brown............................. 1974-1985 William L. Martin............................ 1986-1989 James Montgomery............................. 1990-1991 Peter R. Gustin.............................. 1991-2002 C. Thomas Holliday........................... 2003-2005 Anne Leslie Yount Manson..................... 2006- ______________________________________________________

Office Email: cunninghamparish@earthlink.net