In the Charleston area, where history runs deep, a church has to be pretty old to register on the “Wow Meter.”
Johns Island Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest in the Lowcountry, established 57 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence and 13 years before George Washington was born.
This year, the congregation marks its 300th anniversary. Amazingly, the original church building, a simple, white, wooden building in the Colonial meeting house style, still stands. It has no steeple or bell tower, no stained glass, no fancy organ, no ornate columns or interior art.
Amazing how many of these Low Country wooden structures have survived. “The Holy City” is truly a delight to the Christian with an historical bent. I just returned from a few days there, in which I must have walked 30 miles to visit the various Episcopal churches in which I was interested. There was a gorgeous church around every turn. Sunday morning, my wife and I reveled in the beauty of Morning Prayer at St. Phillips with it’s superb choir and organ, and someday I want to receive the Eucharist at Fr. Sanderson’s church and perhaps attend an early Morning Prayer at St. Michael’s. There were even Anglican Catholic and Reformed Episcopal parishes nearby. The other denominations are also represented in glorious architecture, and the ringing of bells from numerous bell towers was an added treat.