St. Mark’s marks 90th anniversary
A private home on Ortega Point has grown into a flourishing neighborhood church during its 90 years, and this month the celebration begins.
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church will kick off its 90th anniversary celebration with a special 10 a.m. service on April 22. Many prominent and familiar Episcopal leaders will be in attendance, including the Right Reverend Samuel Johnson Howard, Bishop of Florida, who will preside over the service. Rector Emeritus of St. Mark’s Barnum McCarty will preach, and other former rectors are expected to be present.
As part of the service, the church will honor living members who were born in or before 1922. A reception will follow and several new buildings and areas on campus —including the renovated McRae-Winston Chapel,
St. Mark’s Green and the Lori Schiavone Commons—will be dedicated. The community is invited to attend all of the day’s events.
St. Mark’s was founded in 1914 when a small group of worshippers began meeting in an Ortega home. The group’s Sunday School Mission evolved into St. Columba’s Mission as an outgrowth of St. John’s Parish in downtown Jacksonville. In 1919, the first services were held near the present site of St. Mark’s in a former Army building. The Rev. Douglas B. Leatherbury was priest-in-charge.
By 1922, the church was organized as a parish and named St. Mark’s, and Leatherbury became its first rector.
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