SMITHFIELD, Va. — I recently visited St. Luke's Historic Church & Museum to learn about the role of religion in colonial Virginia and tour the oldest church building in the state.
"It's a great stage to talk about an extraordinarily dynamic period in our history that most people don't know about," says John Ericson, the Education Coordinator at St. Luke's Historic Church & Museum.
The stories told from this old church just outside of Smithfield give us a glimpse of an often-overlooked time period between the Jamestown settlement and the Revolutionary War.
"So our chief goal is really to teach history about the early American religious experience," says Ericson. "Everybody in the community had to attend church somewhere. It was a mandate for once a month, otherwise, the magistrate come looking for you. So much for that idea that we were born in religious freedom, you were not."
Pictured below is the St. Luke's Historic Church. It is the oldest church building in Virginia. While the interior has been restored, the majority of the exterior is original, from the 1600s.
"So things that are crucially important, that we still are debating over and struggling over as a country, really have their origins in this period." Ericson continues, "And I think to be responsible citizens, it's incumbent upon us to really know that history. Because as the saying goes, if you fail to know your history, you're doomed to repeat it."
St. Luke's Historic Church & Museum is located on Benn’s Church Blvd. in Smithfield. It is open Feb. 1 to Dec. 31 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
