Deacon Jim Miorelli - Rector
139 North Jefferson Street
Canonsburg PA 15317
724-745-2013
ABOUT US
We welcome all visitors and guests! Join us Sunday for a celebration of communion followed by coffee and fellowship.
OUR COMMUNITY
We are Episcopalians – little kids, older folks, and some of us various ages in-between. We genuinely enjoy each other and care for each other in prayer and many other practical ways.
Our members come from in and around Canonsburg as well as other parts of Washington and Allegheny Counties and from a variety of faith/church backgrounds – some with little or no previous church experience.
We welcome all visitors to participate as fully as they would like.
We share the sacrament of Holy Communion with all baptized Christians because even if you belong to some other denomination, in our minds, you are our brother or sister in Christ.
Our parish family is connected to others in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, which is The Episcopal Church in southwest PA and part of the world-wide Anglican Communion.
OUR STORIED HISTORY
Canonsburg is the oldest incorporated municipality in Washington County, its charter dating from February 22, 1802, eight years before the Washington Borough was incorporated.
St. Thomas Episcopal Church was organized October 1, 1890.
Worship was conducted in halls throughout the town until 1900, when a lot was purchased and the present building erected in 1901-02 at a cost of $5,000. It was dedicated December 20, 1902.
A history of St. Thomas Episcopal Church has been compiled and published by one of our parishioners, Samuel J. Richards. Below is a summary of the book:
In 1866, Antebellum America was a place of change filled with many questions when Episcopalians of the Chartiers Valley began gathering in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. One year later, Pittsburgh's first Episcopalian bishop visited to name the mission after St. Thomas the Apostle. In the 150 years since then the ministry of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church has illustrated the struggles and triumphs of small mainline churches as they wrestle with questions of finance, leadership, theology, and mission.
Richards' work is based research in the records of St. Thomas' Church, the Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, and interviews of past and present clergy and members of the congregation. His history was written with consideration for multiple audiences. The narrative is helpful for students of church history, genealogists seeking information about family, local history buffs wanting to know a bit more about how Christians approached life along Chartiers Creek from their earliest arrival to the present, and those who have found a spiritual home at St. Thomas' Church.
Historic images of the church and its people help illustrate the text. In addition, appendices include sermon examples ranging from 1947 to 2013, several membership rosters from past church directories, and a transcribed list of all entries from Volume I of the parish Canonical Record of Baptisms.
To buy THE MIDDLE HOLDS, click here
Click here to buy: "The Middle Holds"
