2025 Programs

All events are open to the public and free unless tickets or registration noted.

"Material Culture and the Making of America" | February 23 - 2:00 p.m.

NNK250 Signature Speaker Series

Seeing artifacts as key players in the formation of Anglo-American identity, Dr. Jennifer Van Horn of the University of Delaware explores how elite American consumers assembled objects to form a new civil society on the margins of the British Empire. Talk two in a five-part series in the Northern Neck’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding. Learn more about the series here: NNK250 Signature Speaker Series

NNK250

Wren Masters – “Textures of the Baroque” | April 5 - 4:00 p.m.

The Wren Masters return to Historic Christ Church with “Textures of the Baroque.” Featuring the music of Buxtehude, Schmelzer, J.S. Bach, Jean-Philippe Rameau and others, and showcasing Opus 93, HCC’s new continuo organ, this exciting program explores the contrasting keyboard sounds of both organ and harpsichord with the baroque violin and viola da gamba. Reception in the churchyard at intermission. $30.00. Click here for tickets: Wren Masters "Textures of the Baroque"

This project is supported, in part, by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which receives support from the Virginia General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

 

Kirkin’ of the Tartan Service | April 6 - 1:30 p.m.

Traditional Scottish blessing & celebration. Full tartan/Scottish church service. Bagpipes, drums, and marching parade with the Kilmarnock District & Pipe Band and the St. Andrew’s Society of Williamsburg.

 

Volunteer Spring Training | April 8, 9 and 10 - 8:30 a.m. - Noon

Join the HCC&M volunteer team for our annual spring continuing education sessions as we get ready for the 2025 visitor season. Enjoy engaging presentations on the history of Christ Church and colonial Virginia by leading scholars. Participate in hands-on workshops with fellow volunteers. Play HCC&M Jeopardy!TM  and win a prize. Coffee and goodies served daily with lunch on 4/10 to conclude the program. Anyone from the community interested in participating or learning more about volunteer opportunities at Historic Christ Church & Museum is encouraged to attend. Contact the office at info@christchurch1735.org or visit Volunteer at HCC  for more information.

"The Shot Heard Round the World: The Battles of Lexington and Concord" | April 10 - 5:00 p.m.

On the eve of the 250th anniversary, National Park Service historian Mark Maloy takes us to Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, where the opening shots of the Revolutionary War were fired. What began as a mission by British troops to find hidden stores of weapons and gunpowder ended in a day-long, 18-mile running battle. The battles were incredibly bloody and vicious as New England militias engulfed the British troops. Lexington and Concord started an eight-year war that resulted in the independence of the United States of America. Come learn about these first battles of the war and what visitors to the area can see there today.

Tickets: $35.00 includes a wine and cheese reception before the presentation. Series ticket: $175.00

Part one of the 2025 Spring Speaker Series "A Revolution in Liberty: Lexington and Concord to the First Amendment" 

  

Tea with Lady Berkeley | May 10 -  2:00 - 4:30 p.m.

Enjoy afternoon tea with Lady Frances Berkeley, a powerful female figure in 17th-century Virginia politics. Berkeley was the wife of two governors (and a treasurer of the colony) and famously went to England to support her husband, Governor William Berkeley, during Bacon’s Rebellion. She later became a leader of the “Green Spring” faction, an influential political group in the colony until 1680. Her high-profile role in politics was unusual for women of the time.

Bringing Lady Berkeley to life, Dr. Amy Stallings’ portrayal provides insights into the everyday world of women in the Virginia colony. Her interpretation explores gardens, medicine and the many responsibilities colonial women undertook to manage a household.

Tickets: $45.00 includes afternoon tea with an array of delicious finger foods and sweets. 

  

An Evening with Clay Jenkinson and Lindsay Chervinsky | May 15 - 4:00 p.m.

"Religious Liberty and the First Amendment"

Two of America’s leading historians join forces for a special program inside Christ Church that explores one of the enduring themes in the American experience: the struggle for religious liberty and its enshrinement in the First Amendment. Join presidential historian Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson for a discussion of the history of the First Amendment and Virginia's unique role defending freedom of religion.  

Chervinsky is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon and author of multiple award-winning books. Jenkinson is the author of thirteen books and the host of Listening to America (formerly The Thomas Jefferson Hour). They regularly appear together on Listening to America and will bring their witty banter and love of history to the Historic Christ Church community.

The setting may seem ironic. When completed in 1735, Christ Church stood as the antithesis of religious liberty. Its triple-deck pulpit, seating arrangements and massive scale and refinement represented an idealized vision of the Church of England’s authority and traditional role in Virginia. Yet it was here and at churches, courthouses, and public and private spaces across the colony that Virginians’ landmark struggle for religious freedom took shape.

For Jenkinson, religious liberty is “Jefferson’s greatest hit.” Jenkinson insists that in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom Jefferson was right to argue that “liberty of conscience, liberty to think what we think, write what we want to write, say what we want to say, is the key to all other liberties.” Indeed, Jefferson believed the constitutional freedom of religion to be “the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights.”

Tickets: $125.00 includes cocktail hour before the presentation and a light supper in the courtyard following. Series ticket: $175.00

Part two of the 2025 Spring Speaker Series "A Revolution in Liberty: Lexington and Concord to the First Amendment" 

67th Annual Meeting of the Foundation for Historic Christ Church, Inc | May 22 - 4:00 PM

Speaker: Cheryl Wilson, Executive Director - VA250

Memorial Day Service | May 26 - 11:00 a.m. (Music); 11:30 a.m. (Service)

Sponsored by the Northern Neck Chapter, Military Officers Association of America; the Foundation for Historic Christ Church, Inc.; and Grace Episcopal Church, Kilmarnock.

Virginia in 1775 – Rappahannock Institute for Lifelong Learning | June 4, 11, 18 - 10:00 a.m. - Noon

As the commonwealth and nation commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American founding, this course looks at Virginia in the pivotal year of 1775. The course begins with an examination of the events that helped push Virginians to rebel against England, including the Parsons’ Cause, the Stamp Act and the Coercive Acts. It explores the Third-Fifth Virginia Conventions, Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death,” the Gunpower Incident, Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, the Battle of Great Bridge, and other critical moments in 1775 that moved Virginians to declare independence the following year.

Offered in partnership with Rappahannock Community College’s Rappahannock Institute for Lifelong Learning program (RILL). Instructor: Robert Teagle, HCC&M Executive Director. Registration here: rappahannock.edu/foundation/lifelong-learning

"Patrick Henry: The Civic Faith of an Enlightened Patriot" | June 12 - 5:00 PM

Patrick Henry and his generation never donned T-shirts bearing clever statements of opinion – although they did employ colorful cockades, ribbons, sashes and pennants to express their loyalties. But historian Jon Kukla says if he were to choose a modern-day T‑shirt for Patrick Henry it might have been the one that says: “Under-Estimate Me: That will be fun!” As a young attorney and politician Patrick Henry became accustomed to being under-estimated. But from the Parsons’ Cause and Stamp Act Rebellion through the War for Independence, the Constitution, and the presidencies of Washington and Adams, Henry was constantly near the center of the action, in contrast to late-comers such as Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, or Tom Paine. Perhaps because Henry never held national office, aside from serving in the First and Second Continental Congresses, many historians (and their readers) have apparently under-estimated his significance. In this presentation Jon Kukla shows you cannot understand the American Revolution without Virginia and you cannot understand Virginia without Patrick Henry; he also offers a few thoughts about how twenty-first-century Americans might still, as Henry rhetorically advised George III, “profit by his example.” One big question Kukla will address is that posed by George Mason in 1792, George Washington in his Farewell Address, and Henry in his 1799 note to posterity: Was the Revolution a good thing or not?

Tickets: $35 includes a wine and cheese reception before the presentation. Series ticket: $175.00

Part three of the 2025 Spring Speaker Series "A Revolution in Liberty: Lexington and Concord to the First Amendment" 

 Summer Parish Crawl | June 17 - 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Join Historic Christ Church & Museum volunteers for a bus trip that explores two sites connected to Patrick Henry: Scotchtown and St. John’s, Richmond. Henry lived at Scotchtown from 1771 to 1778, a critical period in his rise as "the man who gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution." Take your seat inside St. John's amongst George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee and other delegates to the Second Virginia Convention for a private reenactment of Henry's famous "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death." Enjoy lunch at Bottom's Up Pizza in historic Shockoe Bottom and libations and treats on the bus ride back to the Northern Neck. 

Tickets: $95.00 includes bus, admissions, lunch, and treats on the ride back.

Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence with Patriotic Music | July 3 - 4:00 p.m. 

Patriotic celebration and reading of the Declaration of Independence inside Historic Christ Church. With the Cobbs Hall Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Richard Henry Lee Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.

 

Hands-On History Day | July 18 - 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Step back in time with this exciting program in colonial Virginia history. Make a brick by hand, write with a quill pen, make a grave rubbing, play colonial games, create a silhouette portrait, build a brick wall and more. Enjoy a pizza party for lunch and take home a souvenir bookmark, Museum Activity Book, and knapsack. Ages 6-12. Space is limited and pre-registration required: dbyram@christchurch1735.org

Saltwater Showmen: The James Adams Floating Theater, 1914-1941  | October 18 - 4:00 p.m.

John H. Hunt II Chesapeake History Forum

Chesapeake author and historian Kate Livie returns to Historic Christ Church for a presentation about the "Chesapeake's Showboat," The James Adams Floating Theater. From 1914 to 1941, The James Adams Floating Theater enchanted riverside small towns and cities throughout the Chesapeake’s tributaries with theater productions, musicals, and other entertainment. Long after its circuit was abandoned for motion pictures, the legacy of the magical little showboat lived on in the memories of its audiences. Livie will share images, stories, and history about the Floating Theater, its national impact, and the ways it shaped life in the Chesapeake for almost 30 years. Enjoy craft cocktails, fresh seafood, and other culinary delights at this special evening of history and storytelling that honors longtime HCC&M volunteer and friend John H. Hunt II.

Tickets: $75.00. 

 saltwater showmen

 The Holly & the Ivy | December 1 - 3:30 p.m.

Celebrate the season at Historic Christ Church with traditional songs, carols, and music. Join in this seasonal songfest in the beautifully “greened” church. Featuring members of The Chesapeake Chorale and the Christchurch School Cantorion. Dress warmly. Refreshments follow. Admission: two non-perishable items for Healthy Harvest Food Bank.