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A Celebration of 250 Years of Anglican and Episcopal Witness in Orange County (2003).Open the sourceAll sources
Searched the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–17.Back to highlights
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Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
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A one-acre lot is bought in Hillsborough for the St. Matthew's Parish church
The lot was the building site for the established church of Orange County, created with the county in 1752.
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Anglicans build New Hope Chapel in southern Orange County, at present Chapel Hill
The chapel, like St. Mary's in northern Orange, served parish worshipers far from Hillsborough. The booklet places it at the site of present Chapel Hill.
Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
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Bishop Ravenscroft makes his first visitation to Orange County
Newly elected and consecrated, the bishop came to Orange the year before St. Matthew's was reorganized under William Mercer Green.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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The women of St. Matthew's organize a Ladies Sewing Society
Led by organist and choir director Lizzie Jones, the society met weekly for more than thirty years. Its money paid for enlarging the church, a steeple, the first stained glass window and the 1883 pipe organ.
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Joseph Blount Cheshire Jr. starts monthly Episcopal services in Durham
Cheshire, then serving the Chapel of the Cross, began the services that led in 1881 to the founding of St. Philip's in Durham.
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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Alfred Lawrence becomes rector of the Chapel of the Cross
Lawrence, rector of St. Matthew's from 1912 to 1917, led the Chapel Hill parish until 1944. The new church was built under him in 1925.
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St. Mary's Chapel stops holding regular services during the Depression
Its members were moved to the rolls of St. Matthew's in Hillsborough.
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Thomas Wright becomes the Episcopal Church's first diocesan chaplain to college students
He served at the Chapel of the Cross and in 1933 became national coordinator of Episcopal campus ministries. He later became Bishop of East Carolina.
Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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The local Grange begins annual Homecoming services at St. Mary's Chapel
The yearly services kept the otherwise unused chapel in use.
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Peter James Lee becomes rector of the Chapel of the Cross
Lee led the parish until 1984, when he was elected a bishop in the Diocese of Virginia. Stephen Elkins-Williams succeeded him.
Recent decades · 1976–2026
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Families leaving St. Matthew's found All Saints Anglican Church in west Hillsborough
Two prominent families broke with St. Matthew's over the ordination of women and the revised Prayer Book and started their own church.
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Nancy Reynolds Pagano becomes the first woman ordained at the Chapel of the Cross
The ordination came seven years after Pauli Murray celebrated her first eucharist in the same church.
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N. Brooks Graebner becomes rector of St. Matthew's, Hillsborough
He succeeded Jerry Fisher. In the 1990s the parish grew and began a building program.
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The Chapel of the Cross and St. Paul AME become sister parishes
The Episcopal parish and the Black AME congregation in Chapel Hill formally linked their churches.
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The three Episcopal vestries in Orange County agree to start a new church
St. Matthew's, the Chapel of the Cross and Holy Family jointly set out to found a fourth parish and called Lisa G. Fischbeck as its gathering priest.
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Orange County Episcopalians celebrate 250 years of Anglican witness
The weekend moved among St. Matthew's, St. Mary's Chapel, the Chapel of the Cross and Holy Family, with talks on the colonial church, the university and race.
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The Episcopal Church of the Advocate is launched as the county's fourth Episcopal congregation
About fifty people made up the new congregation, sent forth at a Festival Eucharist at the Church of the Holy Family with Bishop Suffragan Gary Gloster celebrating. The program announced regular Sunday worship from September 28 at the Unity Center for Peace church, across from Chapel Hill High School.
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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 4, 2026.
