OLD LYME — Bishop Ian Douglas will baptize, confirm, receive and reaffirm 14 children, youth and adults on Sunday, Feb. 23 at Saint Ann’s Episcopal Church in Old Lyme during the 10:30 a.m. service. He will preside at the Holy Eucharist and preach the sermon for this last Sunday after the Epiphany. The Bishop will be assisted in worship by the parish’s provisional priest-in-charge, The Rev. Anita Schell.
Following the service a festive coffee hour will be held in the Griswold Room. All are invited to join the worship service, and also to attend the reception, at which the bishop will greet parishioners, families and friends.
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Ph.D. is the 15th Bishop Diocesan of The Episcopal Church in Connecticut, serving 160 parishes and faith communities in the state of Connecticut. Elected in October 2009, he was ordained bishop in April 2010. From 1989 to 2010 he was a faculty member at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., where he was the Angus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity.
A sought-after speaker nationally and internationally, Douglas is the author/editor of four books and numerous academic and popular articles on the topics of mission, the missional Church, contemporary Anglicanism, and world Christianity.
Douglas also served as Priest Associate at St. James’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Mass., from 1989-2010. Douglas resides in Essex, Conn., with his wife, Kristin Harris. They enjoy fitness training and outdoor activities including sailing, kayaking, skiing and walking their dog, and are the parents of three young adults: Luke, Timothy, and Johanna.
Saint Ann’s was established in 1883 as an Episcopal mission in the Black Hall section of Old Lyme. Once a month, a priest arrived on horseback to celebrate the Eucharist. In 1892, a Guild House was erected and services began to be held there.
In 1923, the Diocese of Connecticut purchased the former Baptist Church on Lyme Street for the growing Saint Ann’s Parish. During the Depression, membership dwindled and the Lyme Street building was sold to the Catholic Church for $1.
Saint Ann’s Parish resumed services in the Guild House where they remained an active congregation for 30 years. Saint Ann’s current building was dedicated in 1956 and renovated in the summer of 2019.
For more information about Saint Ann’s, visit the church’s website.