For 140th Birthday, Area Church Will Offer 1882 Service

    Worshippers of all faiths are invited to take a step back in time this coming Sunday, January 2, when St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Eustis will conduct a service as it would have been held in 1882, the year the church was first built. Beginning at 10 a.m. at 317 South Mary Street, worshippers will see what it was like back then in what is today Eustis’ oldest church.
    “It is a completely different style,” said the Reverend Matthew Perreault in announcing the special service, which will mark the church’s 140th year of service to the community.
    Describing ‘some archaic language’ that harkens back to the 1789 Book of Common Prayer, the service will feature prayers, hymns, period correct vestments, and other era-specific inclusions.
    Perreault said the service will ‘speak to the concerns that existed back then,” as people’s lives and technology were vastly different than today. The entire 10 Commandments will be recited, as an example, part of a special way of encouraging the gathered congregants of the time to come forward for Holy Communion.