Historic Old Christ Church in Laurel will hold a Thanksgiving service at 10:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, Nov. 28. Services will be led by The Rev. Dr. Jack Anderson of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church of Laurel. All are welcome. Wear weather-appropriate clothing, as the church, in keeping with its history, is not heated, electrified, painted, or plumbed. Donations will be accepted.
Old Christ Church is one of only about a dozen churches along the Atlantic coast to survive unaltered from America’s pre-Revolutionary period. It was constructed on the banks of Chipman’s Pond, on lands once part of Pennsylvania and Maryland, between 1770 and 1772 by Robert Houston. The church, also known as Old Lightwood, features original heart-of-pine plank walls, a tall paneled pulpit with a lower level clerk’s reading desk, high backed enclosed box-paneled pews with doors, and an unusual barrel-vaulted wooden ceiling. Old Christ Church is located on Old Christ Church Road, off Route 24, one mile east of U.S. Route 13.