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Christ Church Rochester
is an Episcopal Church in the Center City district of downtown Rochester, NY. It was the third Episcopal Church in Rochester, begun in 1854-1855. Our building was expanded over the years, growing larger and grander. The architecture includes buttresses, flying buttresses, and Tiffany Studio tiling, mosaics, and windows. Christ Church Rochester embraces a “then and now and more” identity. We at Christ Church have become more progressive, more experimental, more rooted in the best of our tradition and yet more open-minded.
Our Rector describes us as theologically progressive and liturgically orthodox. Our worship style is what has sometimes been called “High Church”, which means we celebrate Holy Eucharist (communion) every week. We do a fair bit of chanting and bring out the incense from time to time. Our liturgies, or services, are celebrations, because, theologically speaking, that’s what liturgy is. The exquisite beauty and drama within the liturgical experience at Christ Church engages all of the senses. We have theologically stimulating and faith-filled preaching from our priest, the Very Reverend Ruth Ferguson. We have gorgeous music directed, and even composed, by our music director Stephen Kennedy. He brings a wealth of talent, as well as gifted colleagues & friends to shape our musical experience.
Located steps away from the Eastman School of Music, Christ Church has a unique partnership with this world class music institution. The Eastman School owns several organs housed in the sanctuary, including The Craighead-Saunders organ, considered to be the most authentic Bach organ in the U.S. They share their music with us and we share our acoustic space with them.
A fun story: few years ago, some cement plaster fell off the ceiling of an aisle. No one was hurt, but the event fired us up for repairs. Even though we are an old parish, we never had deep pockets. We went to the congregation (and everybody else we could think of) for a capital campaign. The restoration created the kind of interior that was imagined in the original sketches from the 19th century, but fresher. It is both old and new at the same time, and it is spectacular.
We support various outreach efforts including A MEAL AND MORE, which feeds anyone who comes in our doors, twice a week, every Wednesday and Sunday. We support Family Promise. There is a free world class organ concert every Tuesday, called Tuesday Pipes. The liturgy ofCompline is sung by our celebrated Schola Cantorum, Sunday night at 9pm, October-April, and offered in the dark, without charge or strings attached. This attracts members of the whole Greater Rochester area as it is exquisite and spiritually soothing. People from every kind of tradition and non-tradition leave feeling satisfied. It is consistently one of the most highly attended services in the area.
We, our people, our congregants, are diverse and defy the ordinary. We love that about each other. Finding a place which is a safe space to be your authentic self can be challenging.
Christ Church strives to be that space.
