St. Mary's Episcopal Church

St. Mary's was established in 1901, when a group of Christians gathered at the McDowell House (on the left as you approach St. Mary's Church) for worship.  The Rev. Walter Hughson held the first service where families by the names of Waltons and Whisnants and more joined in the service.  The Rev. Hughson was the new rector at Grace Church and convinced folks that a mission needed to be started in Quaker Meadows.  (At the time, there was no bridge to get into Morganton.)  By the fall, other families such as Harrison's, Clark's, Drury's, more Whisnant's, Sidney's, and Alonzo's began attending and came to be baptized.     St. Mary's worship service was moved from the McDowell House into a log structure at our current location.  Then in 1940, our present stone church was constructed for worship.  St. Mary's also served the Oak Hill community as a school for many years. 

We are a Christian family tied to a rich history, openly welcoming new persons and encouraging diversity.  We offer Towel and youth Ministries, choir, ECW, and Circle of Sisters.  These are just a few of the ministries we have at St. Mary's.

Meet Father Francis King

Two Episcopal churches jointly call a priest

Staff reports

Published: April 9, 2009

MORGANTON - The congregations of St. Mary's and St. Stephen's Episcopal churches, both in Morganton, joined together to call a priest to serve both parishes.
The Rev. Francis King will preach his first sermons on Easter Sunday.
Born and reared in rural south Mississippi, King graduated from Mississippi College, a four-year liberal arts school operating in Clinton, Miss, under the auspices of the Southern Baptist Convention.
He then set off on a 10-year odyssey of ministry and social activism that led him to work in an inner-city ministry in Baltimore, Md.; to being a union organizer for the United Farm Workers in California; and to six years as one of the pastors of the Sojourners ecumenical religious community in Washington, D.C.
At 32, King entered law school at University of Mississippi. He graduated in 1984 and moved to New Orleans where he spent the next 20 years or so practicing law. He served as a federal defender, a federal prosecutor and as executive assistant district attorney.
In 2000, he finished his degree requirements at the School of Theology in the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., but he did not plan to seek ordination. Instead, he returned to New Orleans, preaching and offering his gifts of ministry while still working as a lawyer.
King in 2004 spent a year in clinical pastoral education as a full-time hospital chaplain, working in a hospital intensive care unit and emergency room. A job as chaplain at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Tulane University followed. He was ordained in the priesthood of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana in 2006.
The Chapel of the Holy Spirit, like so many parishes in New Orleans, was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. King, like so many other priests there, spent the next several years working to recover from the disaster. Additionally, he worked as spiritual director for a treatment facility for those afflicted with drug and alcohol addiction. The facility also provided shelter for the homeless.
He is married to the Rev. Peggy Walker, who in 1992 became the first woman ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana. They have a daughter, a writer in Dublin, Ireland.
A hiker and backpacker, King visited western North Carolina for many years and was pleased by the "wonderful opportunity" at St. Mary's and St. Stephen's.

from The Morganton News Herald

Our Vestry

Shannon Morris - Senior Warden

Tommy Walker - Junior Warden

Rhonda Brewer

Jeff Clark

Martha Ann McCurry

Ruth Revilla

Wayne Rodgers

Jeff Long

Becky Scoggin

Kay Jenkins - Recorder

Sunny Vanderblomen - Treasurer