St. Philip - Davieshire

Our History

                                                                                                          

The Rt. Rev. W. Fred Gates, Jr., Suffragan Bishop of Tennessee, presided at the first service of St. Philip Church on Sunday afternoon, December 8, 1974, at the J. B. Griffin Memorial Chapel in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Brunswick, Tn. 

Three weeks later, December 29, 1974,

Mrs. Ellen Davies Rodgers donated ten (10) acres for a church to be built on land that was a part of Davies Plantation.   On January 24, 1976, St. Philip Episcopal Church was accepted as an Organized Mission at the 144th Convention of the Diocese of Tennessee.   “Miss Ellen”, as she was affectionately known, would later give more land and most of the means for the construction of the church building. The late Rev. H. Gordon Bernard became Vicar of St. Philip in July,1980. Ground was broken for the new church that same year on September 14, with more than 300 people attending on an afternoon when the temperature soared to 103 degrees. Both Bishop William E. Sanders and Suffragan Bishop Gates took part in the consecration service for the new church on Sunday, November 1, 1981, (All Saints’ Day). St. Philip became the first congregation admitted to parish status in the newly created Diocese of West Tennessee on January 20, 1984, under the Rt. Rev. Alex D. Dickson. 

Fr. Bernard served as Rector until his retirement

in July of 1988. 

 

The Rev. John Sterling came to St. Philip in the fall of that same year and se

rved until his retirement in April of 1994. 

 

On April 25, 1994, the Rev. Joseph N. Davis began his duties as the third Rector of St.

Philip. After thirteen years, in June, 2007, Fr. Davis left to accept a call to the Church of the Resurrection in Franklin, Tennessee. 

 

On November 20, 2008, our current priest, The Rev. Terry Street was installed as the fourth Rector of St. Philip Church Episcopal Church.