History of St. Alban's Episcopal Church

The first known Episcopal service in Elberton was held on September 10, 1894, at the Methodist Church by Rev. O. T. Porcher of Greenwood, South Carolina. The first organized Episcopal community was the Church of the Holy Apostles in 1898. This mission church disbanded in 1906, but services revived under the direction of the Rev. Thomas Duck of Toccoa.

By the 1930s, the mission congregation was meeting in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Hawes on Heard Street, and services were held by the Rev. David Cady Wright of Athens. The church's name was changed to St. Alban's in 1941, the same year the present church building was completed and dedicated. This took place on September 10, at the same time the first minister, the Rev. J. Britt Ellington, was ordained. Both ordination and dedication were performed by the Rt. Rev. H. J. Mikell. Granite for the new building was donated by Mr. B. Frank Coggins Sr.

St. Alban's was granted full parish status by the Diocese of Atlanta in 1960. In the seventy years since the present church building was completed, the Rev. Herschel Atkinson has had the longest tenure as priest (from 1970 through October 31, 1997).

Over the years, there have been various improvements to the church building and grounds. In 1956, a new parish house was built at the rear of the existing church. The addition contained various small rooms and offices on the upper floor and a kitchen and large assembly room on the lower floor. Around the turn of the century (ca. 2000), St. Alban's acquired a paved parking lot, and in 2014, a driveway, with a turnaround, was added from the parking lot to the downstairs Parish Hall doors for improved access. As of 2015, the kitchen was finally renovated.

St. Alban's Stained Glass

St. Alban's church is its stained-glass windows, installed in the 1950s, is a round window over the altar that depicts the risen Christ. He is clad in Resurrection colors, white and red, and his hands are scarred.

The second window (second image in slideshow) was made in 1961 for St. Alban's in the studios of George L. Payne of Paterson, NJ, the American representative of the English firm J. Wippell and Company. A nativity scene in the old Gothic style, it is set in the back of the nave.

From a member's desire to add a window depicting a lamb as a memorial to a grandson who had died in infancy, a set of seventeen windows grew in the early 1970s, running down both sides of the church. Wippell designed and manufactured the windows. The lamb window is in the back of the church, near the font. The series runs chronologically from the front on the left to the church door on the right: it shows the Lamb of God, then, on the left, the preparation for Jesus' earthly ministry, and, on the right, that ministry and its aftermath. St. Paul (the Apostle to the Gentiles) and St. Alban (the earliest known British martyr) share the last window.

“The book of the story of the Lamb of God, and the first window is its title page... A particularly good point is the flowing blue partial background that ties them all together.”

— The Rev. Herschel Atkinson, Former Rector

Commonly Asked Questions

  • Yes. The word protestant began as a derogatory term used for those who were protesting abuses in the church of that day. The word also means “to witness for” and reminds us that our church witnesses for Jesus in the world around us. As a Protestant Church we are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, though we wish to work for greater unity among all Christians and churches. We believe that through a relationship with Jesus as our forgiver and leader we come to salvation. We also believe in the divine revelation of the Bible.

  • Yes. The word catholic was described hundreds of years ago as “that which has been believed in all places, at all times, by all people.”

    The word catholic means what has always been believed as the essentials of Christian faith and practice. We are not a part of the Roman Catholic Church, but we welcome their members into full communion with us.

    As a catholic church, we believe there is a great value to the long-standing traditions and practices of Christians throughout time. Among the central practices of a catholic church are the Sacraments.

  • Yes. A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual gifts God offers us. We accept as most important the sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist (also called Communion or The Lord’s Supper).

    In Baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and are adopted into God’s family called the Church.

    In Eucharist, we receive the bread and wine of communion which we believe is the body and blood of Jesus — a way of knowing by faith that Jesus is truly with us and in union (communion) with us at that point in time.

  • Yes. The Bible is a book that allows us to hear God’s words to his people and their response to him.

    We believe that all the things you need for faith and salvation are in the Bible. There’s no secret knowledge you need outside of the Bible, and no additional truth that came later that is of the same value as the words of the Bible.

    We also believe God has given us a mind and wants us to use it, as we struggle to interpret, understand, and apply the stories and teachings in the Bible.