This Sunday, Wicomico County’s oldest church building, Old Green Hill Church in Quantico, will be opened for a worship service and picnic on the banks of the Wicomico River, and the public is welcome to attend.

Once a year the Episcopal Churches in Wicomico County come together around the feast of St. Bartholomew at their mother church, Old Green Hill Church, to experience worship in a structure that has changed little since it was built in 1733.

“This year’s Green Hill Sunday is special since it comes at the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Episcopal Diocese of Easton on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” said the Rev. David Michaud, Chair of the Diocese’s Green Hill Church Committee and Rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in downtown Salisbury. “We are excited to have the Bishop of the Diocese of Easton, the Rt. Rev. Santosh Marray, travel to historic Green Hill Church to lead our worship and to preach from the church’s historic pulpit. It is fitting that this historic church is one of the places where the Bishop is celebrating the Diocese’s anniversary milestone.”

The worship service takes place at 10 a.m. on Sunday and is supported by the joint efforts of St. Alban’s and St. Peter’s Churches in Salisbury, St. Mary’s Church in Tyaskin, St. Paul’s Church in Hebron, and St. Philip’s Church in Quantico.

During Green Hill Sunday there will be a display of the project design of new doors for the church. The design is the result of extensive research and examination of doors historically accurate of the time period in which the structure was built. There will be an opportunity to have a conversation with those overseeing the restoration project.

When Green Hill Church was built in 1733 it was the principal parish church of the Church of England in the Colony of Maryland for Stepney Parish, which now encompasses all of Wicomico County. The Episcopal Church is the descendant of the Church of England. Abandoned in the late 18th Century, it was restored in the middle of the 19th Century and the Rev. Augustus White instituted an annual pilgrimage to the church in late August for worship, a tradition that continues today, more than 150 years later.

Green Hill Church is noted for the significance of the brickwork and interior woodwork which remained virtually unchanged since its construction. The one story building is brick, laid in Flemish bond with a steep gable roof of wood shingles. The interior has a vaulted ceiling with box pews and a high paneled pulpit and can seat 250 people. It is one of Wicomico County’s historic gems.

Green Hill Church is located at 4035 Green Hill Church Road, Quantico. For more information visit facebook.com/oldgreenhillchurch.