Welcome - Church History

Some 17 miles west of Charlottesville on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Greenwood was once a flagstop on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad where the trains climbed upgrade past Afton and Waynesboro into the Shenandoah Valley. In the early 1850's a small group of area residents began holding services in their homes and in the Baptist Church at Hillsboro. Construction began on Emmanuel Church in 1862. First Service - Christmas - 1863

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With about fifteen persons giving thanks and saying prayers for peace, the first service was conducted by Reverend Dabney C.T. Davis on Christmas Day in 1863. The Davis family lived in a log parsonage nearby. Emmanuel Church was consecrated in 1867 by Bishop John John's assistant, Bishop Whittle, who later described it to the Diocesan Council as being "a neat, comfortable and substantial building of brick, beautifully situated. Its completion in these times of pecuniary depression afford evidence of a healthy state of religion in the parish." St Paul's - Ivy, Emmanuel - Greenwood, and St George's Chapel - Crozet In 1868 St. Paul's -Ivy and Emmanuel - Greenwood joined forces under the same rector, an agreement that was to see both churches through the financially strapped reconstruction era and into the next century. Services were held at Emmanuel twice a month. By far the most famous and influential rector was the Rev. Frederick W. Neve, who came to Albemarle County in 1888 and remained until his death. He spend seventeen of those years (1888-1905) as rector for Greenwood Parish, and it was under his leadership that St. George's Chapel was constructed in Crozet. Services were held there from 1899 to 1941. Today, a small altar and plaque at Emmanuel preserves St. George's Chapel as a vital component of our church's history. Church of the Holy Cross, Batesville In 1900 Archdeacon Neve established the Church of the Holy Cross as a mission of Emmanuel, Greenwood. This beautiful and well-maintained frame chapel, four miles southwest of Batesville, also has a Parish Hall and Outreach Building which formerly housed the deaconesses who lived and served there during its period as a mission. Consecrated in 1902, Holy Cross has from the beginning been closely associated with Emmanuel, and in both of them the missionary spirit so strongly established by Mr. Neve has remained very much alive. A bell tower named for Mr. Neve was attached to the building. A Traveling Ministry During his three years here (1908-1911), Rev. Walter Russell Bowie held services at Emmanuel every Sunday morning; on the first and third Sundays he rode to Holy Cross Mission in the Page 1 of 3 (continued )