Our Creation
In the 1690s, George Keith, an Englishman and former Quaker, appealed to the people of Bristol to embrace Anglican worship. In 1702, he returned to England to study for Holy Orders and after ordination, he was sent to Bristol as the first missionary dispatched by the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. John Talbot, chaplain of the ship on which Keith traveled, decided to join him. Talbot settled in Burlington, NJ, and built St. Mary’s Church while Keith busied himself baptizing people on the Pennsylvania shore. He returned to England in 1704 and served as rector of St. Andrew’s parish in Edburton, Sussex, in far southeastern England until his death on March 27, 1716.
In the first decade of the 1700s, Talbot came from Burlington by rowboat and ministered to the “Keithians,” as those here were known. On land given by Anthony Burton and John Rowland, the first church was built and consecrated on the feast day of St. James the Greater, July 25, 1712. St. James was the first church in Bristol (the third oldest town in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia and Chester) and the only Episcopal church in Bucks County for 119 years. Under the leadership of the Rev. George W. Ridgely (rector, 1830-1833) St. James helped establish mission churches at Hulmeville (Grace) and Newtown (St. Luke’s). Ridgely then moved to St. Luke’s and from there helped to found St. Andrew’s, Yardley and Trinity, Buckingham.
Gothic in architecture, the original church was built of Trenton field stone with bead moldings and corbels. The church flourished until anti-British feeling in the 1770s made it an unpopular place (the Episcopal Church did not yet exist, and the parish was part of the Church of England). The church was abandoned by clergy and members, vandalized and left as a shell of a building, and used by American troops for stabling horses during the Revolutionary War. After the war, the little church eventually was restored and expanded.
In 1784, St. James was represented in Philadelphia, along with nine other colonial parishes, to establish the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and two years later to elect the first Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. William White. The little church was torn down in 1856 and the present building was built in 1857 at a cost of $10,000.
Inside the Church
Narthex, or Vestibule
The floor design was selected by Ellwood F. DeLong of Philadelphia. It is made of ceramic tile patterned on very old composition and styling. The decorative pieces were made from handmade molds and then baked at the Moravian Tile Works, Doylestown. This tile art has virtually disappeared and can be found in only one tile works in the Midwest.
Symbols on the floor
Immediately inside the front doors are the letters S and J for Saint James. The large symbol in the center contains the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and omega, signifying that God is the beginning and the end of all things.
Four nearby symbols represent the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with their names spelled in Latin. The winged creature with a man’s face represents Matthew, whose gospel traces Jesus’ human genealogy. The creature with a lion’s face is the symbol for Mark, whose gospel begins with “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,” suggesting the roar of a lion. Luke’s symbol is the oxen, the animal of sacrifice, as Luke stressed the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. John’s emblem is the high soaring eagle, reflecting John’s lofty and “soaring” gospel, which is far richer theologically than the others.
At the entrance to the left inside door is a Greek cross with the Greek monograms for Jesus (IC) and Christ (XC), and the word “Nika”meaning “conquers.” Thus: “Jesus Christ conquers.” At the entrance to the right inside door are an alternate monogram for Christ’s name, XP, flanked by the alpha and omega.
Wooden Divider/Coat Rack (inside the left door)
Carved on the front of each panel are details about church history covering several hundred years. This coat rack was commissioned by church members to visually preserve our history.
Windows
The side stained glass windows were installed for the opening of the church in 1857. The large stained glass window in the chancel was commissioned through a donation from the Dorrance family and installed in 1924. It was designed by the great stained glass artist Nicholas D’Ascenzo, and for it he earned the Gold Medal of the Architectural League of New York in 1925.
Flags
American Flag: The 13 red and white stripes represent the original thirteen colonies of the United States. The 50 stars in the blue field represent the individual states that make up the nation. The current American Flag was adopted on July 4, 1960.
First National Flag: The Continental Congress adopted this design on June 14, 1777, for the first official national flag. Thirteen stripes, alternate red and white with 13 white stars on a blue field, representing the original 13 colonies.
Flag of St. James the Greater: The church is named for St. James, one of the twelve Apostles. The red flag symbolizes his blood and all blood shed by Christian martyrs. The three scalloped shells represent his missionary journeys to Samaria, Judea, and Sprain and the water he poured from sea shells in Holy Baptism.
Episcopal Church Flag: The red cross is that of St. George, Patron Saint of England, and denotes our ties to England. The St. Andrew’s cross (X) in the outline reflects our indebtedness to the Church of Scotland for consecrating the first American bishop in 1784 (Samuel Seabury of Connecticut) in Aberdeen, Scotland. Nine crosslets symbolize the nine Dioceses that met in Philadelphia in 1789 to establish the Episcopal Church.
Flag of the Diocese of Pennsylvania: In 1784, representatives from 10 parishes, including St. James, met in Philadelphia to establish the Diocese of Pennsylvania. The black border is taken from William Penn’s Coat of Arms. The red cross is the St. George’s Cross, used in the flag of the Church of England, again denoting our historic tie to that church. The three golden crowns on the cross are taken from Sweden’s
Coat of Arms and stand for the three Swedish parishes absorbed into our Diocese. The 10 white disks stand for the 10 parishes that created the Diocese.
Flag of Great Britain: Because the Episcopal Church began as part of the Church of England, we display the flag of Great Britain. The flag denotes the union of three countries within the British Isles and their patron saints: St. George of England, St. Andrew of Scotland, and St. Patrick of Ireland.
Plaques
Flanking each inner door is a plaque bearing the names of men from St. James and St. Paul’s (an offshoot of St. James, today Zion Lutheran on Jefferson Street) churches who served in the Great War during 1917-1918. One St. Jamesian, George Roberts, died in service and is buried in the churchyard. Three St. Paul’s men were wounded, one died in service (James Bolton, also buried here) and one, Eugene G. Watkins, was killed in action November 7, 1918 – four days before the war’s end.
Parish House (Corner of Walnut and Wood Streets)
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the women of the parish formed the Ladies Church Aid Society for “the collection of clothing and delicacies for the soldiers at the front.” Augmented by women from other churches, the Society produced an enormous amount of underclothes, sent mostly to the U.S. Hospital at Point Lookout, Maryland., whose chief surgeon was a former Bristolian. Martha Burnet Landreth headed the Society. The organization continued after the war and provided the funds to build the Parish House in 1877, replicating the architectural style of the church and using the same materials, at a cost of nearly $12,000.
