“C “is for Church of the Nativity

“C “is for Church of the Nativity (Union). Located in Union, the Church of the Nativity (consecrated in 1859) is a remarkably effective example of the Ecclesiological architectural style favored by the Episcopal Church in America and the Anglican Communion throughout the world in the 1840s and 1850s. Ecclesiologists, strongly influenced by the Oxford movement with its emphasis on sacrament and mystery, insisted on a return to architectural models of the late Middle Ages (a style that they called “Second Point Gothic”). Plans for the church came from Frank Wills, an English Ecclesiological architect, practicing in New York. His designs emphasized pointed arches and windows, stone construction, flying buttresses, recessed chapels, and stained glass. The Church of the Nativity, the first stone Episcopal Church in the state, had them all and an unusual bellcote as well.