About Us

Clergy and Staff

Rev Robert Abner

Rev Robert Abner

Priest in Charge

Jonathan Hampton

Jonathan Hampton

Organist

Loni Best-Pollitt

Loni Best-Pollitt

Parish Administrator

New to Us?

Ornate church altar with colorful stained glass, wooden cross with candles, floral arrangements, and religious symbols. Richly decorated space suggests a solemn atmosphere.
The image shows the Episcopal Church logo, featuring a shield with cross designs and pride colors, symbolizing inclusivity and diversity within the church.
The image shows the Episcopal Church logo, featuring a shield with cross designs and pride colors, symbolizing inclusivity and diversity within the church.
A group of people in a church sing hymns. Stained glass windows and decorative columns create a serene atmosphere.

Our Worship

Liturgy (meaning ‘work of the people’) is what we do when we gather for worship. Our chief service liturgy is the Eucharist (Holy Communion) in which we:

  • gather as a family
  • listen to the word of God (read, proclaimed, and preached)
  • affirm our beliefs and pray for others
  • offer our gifts and ourselves
  • receive the Body & Blood of Christ
  • go forth into the world to proclaim the unconditional love of God

 

Our Beliefs

The Episcopal Church is part of the world-wide Anglican Communion, tracing our life and tradition back to Jesus Christ and the first apostles. We are:

  • Catholic – holding to the essentials of the catholic faith:
    • Holy Scripture
    • the creeds
    • the sacraments
    • the ministry of lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons
  • Protestant – believing that the Holy Spirit has reformed and is reforming the church, the Body of Christ on earth.
  • Through scripture, reason and tradition we seek to find, experience and share the Lord of Life. Believing that ALL persons share the worth that comes from being unique individuals, created in the image of God,
  • NO ONE is excluded from our fellowship or Our Lord’s table. We believe in the diversity and the inclusion of all as God’s Beloved people.

 

On Being an Episcopalian

The following are some reasons why so many adults have chosen the Episcopal Church:

  • Worship that brings you in, instead of putting you on the sidelines as a spectator.
  • A theology that demands our intelligence, rather than ignoring it.
  • A willingness not only to tolerate, but to celebrate, differences.
  • A heritage that takes the Bible seriously, but is not enslaved by literalism.
  • A strong sense of community in which our consensus is in Christ, not to conformity of opinion.
  • A devotion to the sacraments which evoke awe and mystery instead of factual explanation.
  • A sense of ministry that is rightfully the obligation and privilege of every baptized person.
  • An insistence upon morality (what is good and loving) not moralism (salvation by code, not by Christ).
  • The heritage of Apostolic faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Apostolic order given to the church by Him.

 

Our History

Traveling by stagecoach and horseback, the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, Missionary Bishop of Indiana, celebrated the first Episcopal service in Richmond in February of 1837, in the upper floor of what was the Warner Building (site of Richmond’s current city building). Bishop Kemper returned in July of that year with the Reverend George Fisk who he appointed as Rector. Within a year of Bishop Kemper’s first visit, “St. Paul’s Episcopal Church” was officially organized in 1838 with a vestry, clerk and treasurer.

We were established in the same year as the Diocese of Indianapolis and became its seventh parish (the tenth in the State of Indiana).

Today, St. Paul’s is an active community of caring Christians drawing closer to God and each other. We are a vital part of the Episcopal Diocese of Indiana, The Episcopal Church in the USA, and the world-wide Anglican Communion.

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