Welcome to the website of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. Occasional services of the church were held in the town of Blair since 1870 at very distant intervals. The first Sunday after Easter 1882 services were held in the Congregational Church. At a meeting held afterwards several persons expressed a desire to have the services continue and Mr A. Castetter offered the use of a hall over his bank – then used as a public Library – for that purpose. On the fourth Sunday after Easter the first baptisms of the church were celebrated, and the first confirmations were held on June 8^th of the same year at the Methodist Church when Bishop Clarkson visited the mission.

On June 5^th at a meeting called in the hall over the Castetter Bank a parish organization was effected under the title St. Mary’s Church. At this meeting it was announced that the Rev. W. E. Jacob would be sent by the bishop to take immediate charge. It was also reported that a lot had been donated by the John I. Blair of S. C. & P. Railroad. On August 10^th the cornerstone for the church building was laid in the presence of over 300 people. On the following Thanksgiving Day (Nov 30^th the Feast of St. Andrew) the church was completed and was consecrated by Bishop Clarkson. The Parish Hall to the north was added in 1927, and the present church was built in 1967 on the site of the original church.

Perhaps the best explanation of who we are as a Church is found in the oblations offered at our Eucharist – the bread and wine which are symbols of our lives. God gives us wheat and grapes, gifts of his own making. We, His creatures, take that wheat and those grapes and with our own addition of human effort and creativity make them into bread and wine. We then take that bread and wine and offer them back to God at the offertory of the Eucharist. God blesses these elements – both gifts of nature and creations of humanity – and gives them back to us transformed with the presence of Christ

The whole process is symbolic of our lives. God gives us life, a gift of His own making. We, His creation, take the life He gives and with our own human time and effort make our life into something we can then offer back to God. God in turn blesses the offering of our lives with His grace and forgiveness, transforming them with the presence of Christ. We are the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist.