Peninsula In Passage

Churches

Glebe Church One of the earliest rebellions against the crown of England took place in Glebe Church. Built in 1738, Glebe, then known as Bennett’s Creek Church, was Anglican with its rectors appointed by the Bishop of London. Parson John Agnew, a zealous Tory appointed in 1754, condemned from the pulpit any hint of support for independence from England. One Sunday in 1775 he preached to an overflow crowd in the sanctuary and churchyard with a sermon on “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” a perfect opening to denounce rebellion and disloyalty. Major William Cowper, a vestryman and magistrate, strode from his pew to the pulpit and ordered Agnew from the church. Agnew stepped down, walked through the sanctuary and drove away in his carriage never to return.

Agnew joined the Canadian forces and was later captured by the French. Cowper was elected to the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1776. “The parish has been here since 1642 and tied to the Church of England until 1781 when it became Episcopal,” says The Rev. Ross F. Keener, rector at Glebe. “The Church of England was not in high regard in the United States then.” By 1812 the church had fallen into disrepair. The sanctuary was renovated and expanded several times over the 19th century. In 1802 the legislature ruled that all glebe lands were to be sold with the proceeds given to the poor. The Bennett’s Creek Church rector took the case to court and won an exemption arguing that his church’s lands were not given by the crown but private individuals - Richard Bennett, his grandson Richard, and Thomas Tilly. The property still belongs to the church making Glebe likely the only colonial church still in possession of its glebe. The church may have had land but 50 years ago it still wasn’t equipped with restrooms. Elaine Cattenhead remembers space was so short she taught Sunday School to 5 and 7 year olds in her car. When they needed a drink of water or a bathroom they walked across the road to a neighbor’s house. The church members raised money with bazaars and suppers to build a parish hall. When the church outgrew that facility, they built an expanded parish hall in 2003 with classrooms, a kitchen and a large meeting hall. Glebe’s mainstays are families from generations of membership. The family of Judge William Wellington Jones has been in the church for seven generations. “You’re new if you’ve been here less than 50 years, “ says Phyllis Harrell, church secretary for six years and a member for one year. “But the growth of the community has changed Glebe. Now we have more families and some Sundays we’re knee deep in kids. We have about 75 families with more and more military coming in.”

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