The oldest church in Virginia was built by the Anglicans in the late 17th century near Portsmouth. In the 1950s President Dwight D. Eisenhower exchanged letters with the organization that was renovating it at the time of nearby Jamestown’s 350th anniversary (1957), and called it a “national shrine.”

Season 3, Episode 36 – St. Luke’s Historic Church and Museum

Guest Bio

John Ericson is the Executive Director and Site Historian for St Luke's Historic Church & Museum in Smithfield Virginia. He produces a podcast about the early American religious experience called History from the Old Brick Church. Mr. Ericson has expertise in the history of the Established Church of England in the Colonies, as well in the dissenting groups such as Pilgrims (Brownists), Puritans, and Quakers. He has also studied how the Established Church sought to coerce the Indigenous and African populations in Virginia through the Brafferton and Bray Schools as well as through legislation.

Podcast Support

Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo.

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the private, digital-first National Museum of American Religion, which tells the story of how religion has shaped America and how America has shaped religion. This includes the establishment of religious freedom in the United States Constitution’s Article VI and Bill of Rights religion clauses.