An organization called St. John’s Episcopal Society was formed on June 15, 1820 to lay the groundwork for building an Episcopal church in Ashfield. The work of this group was undertaken with the essential guidance of Rev. Titus Strong of St. James Church in Greenfield. The first service was held at St. John’s on December 23, 1827, immediately following the building’s completion. It was consecrated by Bishop Alexander Griswold on Friday, October 3, of 1828.
Over the years this small parish has incubated a number of important initiatives that have benefited our local community. They include:
- Ashfield’s Fall Festival
- The Ashfield News
- Candidates’ Night
- The Town-Wide Telephone Book
- The Human Relations Commission
- The Hilltown Churches Food Pantry
- Creation of a MotherWoman Support Group
In addition, St. John’s was the first parish the diocese to call a woman priest – Susan Crampton – and the first parish to offer a blessing on a same-sex couple, following Bishop Fisher’s conferring this right.
The history of St. John’s from 1960 to 2010 as it appeared in third volume of The History of Ashfield can be downloaded here. The history of St. John’s from 1828 to 1928 can be read in the book: One Hundred Years at Saint John’s Church Ashfield, Massachusetts. The details of the remarkable history can also be experienced by understanding the list of artifacts within the church – each with a story deeply tied to its past — as described in our Self-Guided Tour below. Please come to St. John’s and take this tour for yourself.
The carpenter for St. John’s was Jonathan Lilly. The church was consecrated in October of 1828, but the first service was held on December 23, 1827. Jonathan wrote in the clerk’s book that day: “On the opening of this church for the worship of Almighty God, for the first time, many were the sensations that rushed upon the mind when reflecting upon the few individuals which commenced so great an undertaking, the limitations of their means and the difficulties and opposition they had to encounter, and now to see it completed – they could not but exclaim, ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.’…”