St.
Matthew's Parish in Jamestown
The Episcopal Church
Welcomes You
87 Narragansett Avenue, Jamestown
Rhode Island 02835
401 423-1762
Sunday Services
8:00 a.m. & 10:00 a.m. -
The Holy Eucharist
10:00 a.m. - Church School &
Child Care
Weekday Service
Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. - Holy Eucharist
in the Chapel
St. Matthew's Clergy
& Staff
Rector: The Rev. Frederick
J. Spulnik - 423-1762
Deacon: The Rev. Gail Wheelock - 783-8761
Organist: Julia Tagen, MFA - 885-7438
Secretary: Pamela Smith - 423-1762
Sexton: Robert Horan - 423-1762
How to Contact Us
E-Mail the Rector: 
Click
on Topic Below For More Information ...
About
our Parish
About the Episcopal Church
Links to Other Episcopal Sites
About
Our Parish
A Bit of History ...
The first recorded services of the Anglican
Church were held in private homes on Jamestown from about 1747. Nearly
a century later, the people of Jamestown built a meeting house on the Artillery
lot, to be used by different demoninations. In 1836, the Episcopalians
purchased and remodeled this building. The Parish was then incorporated
and accepted into membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island.
A second church building was erected in 1880 and served the community well
for over 80 years. Thanks to the generosity of a family foundation, the
present church was built and consecrated in 1968. The Parish Hall was built
in 1924 and moved in 1963 to its present location behind the church. A
new structure was built which contains classrooms, the parish office, sacristy,
a library, the Rector's study, and a lovely chapel.
Our Outreach ...
Today, St. Matthew's is an active parish with 175 active
families and individuals. We support the Diocese of Rhode Island and our
national church by apportioning 17.5% of our annual income for purposes
outside of the parish. Our Thrift Shop receives donations of clothing and
resells them at bargain prices. The parish participates generously in the
United Thank Offering, Rhode Island Episcopal Charities, regularly donates
food to the Johnny Cake Center in Peacedale, and sends "white gifts"
each year at Christmas to the children served by Lucy's Hearth in Middletown.
The parish also participates in our Companion Diocese Program, by financial
gifts to help the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic.
St. Matthew's parishioners and friends serve regularly at a meal site in
South Providence which is sponsored by the Church of the Epiphany. If you
would like to help at the meal site, help cook the meal, bake desserts,
or donate toward the cost of this program, please contact the parish office,
423-1762.
The Parish is also generous in sharing the use of our Hall and meeting
rooms with community organizations including Cub Scouts, the Community
Chorus, and several Alcoholic Anonymous groups. St. Matthew's rector administrates
two charitable funds which have been established to help Jamestown residents
in need.
Christian Education at St. Matthew's
...
Church School classes are held during the year from mid September
through early June. Child care is offered each Sunday at the 10:00 a.m.
service. Children join their parent/s each week for the last part of the
Sunday service. All baptized children are invited to receive the Holy Communion,
thus including them fully in our worship.
Adult education classes are held from time to time during the year and
encompass a variety of subjects.
About
the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an inheritor of 2000 years of catholic
and apostolic tradition dating from Christ himself, rooted in the Church
of England. When the Church of England spread throughout the British Empire,
sister churches sprang up. These churches, while autonomous in their governance,
are bound together by tradition, Scripture, and the inheritance they have
received from the Church of England. They together make up the Anglican
Communion, a body headed spiritually by the Archbishop of Canterbury and
having some 80 million members, making it the second largest Christian
body in the world.
The Episcopal Church
The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican
Communion. The Episcopal Church came into existence as an independent denomination
after the American Revolution. Today it has between nearly three million
members in the United States, Mexico, and Central America, all of which
are under jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church,
Edmond Browning.
Bishops in the American Episcopal Church are elected by individual
dioceses and are consecrated into the Apostolic Succession, considered
to witness to an unbroken line of Church leadership beginning with the
Apostles themselves. For more than two decades the American Episcopal Church
has ordained women to the priesthood. In 1988 the Diocese of Massachusetts
elected the first Anglican woman bishop, Barbara Harris.
The Church of England has always valued the life of the mind
and dialogue with fields of secular study. Isaac Newton was an Anglican
clergyman and theologian as were several of the founders of the Royal Society,
the earliest institution organized for the promotion of science. The Episcopal
Church maintains this tradition, routinely requiring its clergy to hold
university as well as seminary degrees and supporting many university chaplains.
-- Notes by The Rev. Scott Paradise
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