Historic Christ Church Christ Church
The circumstances of life are often the catalyst for enduring and life changing work. Many of our greatest goals are accomplished when we least expect it. The loss of his great house at Corrotoman after the other losses in Robert Carter’s life must have seemed stunning to him, at the very least. He was the man who could make things happen, yet these life altering events must have forced him to face his own powerlessness. It would have been utterly human and appropriate to look back at his life and evaluate what to do after such great personal losses. What exactly caused Robert Carter to change the course of his life and turn his attention toward the building of a new Christ Church is unknown. Perhaps he needed something to accomplish that would somehow redeem the losses that he had suffered in recent years. Perhaps, he sensed his own mortality and turned to more heavenly minded and meaningful pursuits, with his remaining days at hand. Whatever the motivation was, Christ Church is his most enduring hands-on legacy that endures to the present day.
In 1730, Carter began (at his own expense) the construction of the new Christ Church with the full support of the church vestry. Over 500,000 hand-made and hand rubbed bricks were made and fired in kilns on site. Christ Church was undoubtedly the fulfillment of Carter’s vision for a house of worship. It contains many architectural elements never before seen on a colonial church of this period in Virginia. With its exquisite brick work and attention to the smallest detail, Christ Church remains to this very day a testimony to the life and work of Robert “King” Carter—who passed away in 1732 at the age of 69. He now rests in peace at Historic Christ Church, along with his two wives. His final and most enduring work was fully completed in 1735.
The Enlightenment and Changing times
An evolving colony began to entertain new ideas with regard to the freedom to exercise one’s own faith. In 1739, the great Methodist minister George Whitefield visited and preached in Virginia’s Colonial Capital of Williamsburg. In 1752, Christ Church and St. Mary’s Whitechapel were designated as one parish by the Virginia General Assembly. In 1757, Presbyterians began preaching in Lancaster County and in 1776 the Virginia Declaration of Rights—Article 16 guaranteed all Virginians the right to the “free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of their own conscience.” This opened the door for new ideas, new churches and new denominations to flourish.
The First Woman Missionary to China
Henrietta Hall Shuck was born October 28, 1817 in Kilmarnock, Virginia. She was the daughter of Baptist Minister Colonel Addison Hall. At the age of thirteen, she was “converted” at a camp meeting and was baptized at Morattico Baptist Church, which still stands today off of Route 200. It is as lovely a church today as it ever was. A portrait of Henrietta that I uncovered while doing my research reveals a beautiful and elegant young woman.
On September 8th, 1835, at the age of seventeen, Henrietta married Reverend J. Lewis Shuck. With a heart for missions,
48 July/August 2011
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