Calvary Episcopal Church in Underhill Flats is a small parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont. It is popularly known as "Calvary Underhill," but strictly speaking it lies in the Riverside section of the town of Jericho.
Our story begins before our official foundation in 1843. The first historical record is of a service of baptism in 1789 conducted by the Reverend Reuben Garelick of Alburgh, VT, who came to Underhill for the service. Episcopal worship was not re-started here until 1841, when a lay reader, Samuel Bostwick, led a new effort to establish an Episcopal church in Underhill. The first bishop of the new Diocese of Vermont, founded only nine years earlier in 1832, encouraged Bostwick and ultimately ordained him as resident priest in 1842. Father Bostwick began the process of creating an official Episcopal mission in Underhill/Jericho by registering articles of association with the diocese, the necessary step for recognition under state and canon law. These articles were accepted by the diocese in 1843, and the first liturgy in the new parish was a celebration of Confirmation and Holy Communion led by Bishop Hopkins. Five members were confirmed.
Ten years later, in 1853, the small community took the bold step of purchasing land for $300 on which to build a church. The structure they completed in 1857 is still our church today, minus the altar space, sacristy, and undercroft, which were added later. The first rector, the Reverend J. Isham Bliss, was called in 1858.
Through the latter half of the nineteenth century Calvary was served as a mission from Burlington, as part of a circuit of churches in Cambridge, Essex, Shelburne, and Winooski. Services were irregular and support depended very much on summer visitors. After the local hotel burned in 1891 the church was closed and fell into disrepair. In 1928 Edward Sinclair, proprietor of the Sinclair Hotel in Riverside, joined with a Father Ross in reclaiming the edifice. Mr. Sinclair himself carved the altar, using an old oak table found in a barn in St. Albans. A new belfry was erected and the church reopened. Services were held once a month for some years. In 1946 the parish came under the care of St. Paul's Cathedral in Burlington and was served by a vicar.
In 1958, when the Rev. John B. DeForest was vicar, it was reported that a total of 57 services were performed, with an average attendance of seventeen. Parishioners numbered 91, from twenty-nine families. In 1971 the Rev. Howard Van Dine was missioner to Calvary. He held a total of seventy services averaging twenty-eight participants. The annual meeting of 1975 reported Sunday School attendance of six to twelve. In 1976 the Rev. Al Smith, rector of St. James' in Essex Junction, recorded seventeen active families and promised to provide clergy to lead worship twice a month. Calvary expanded greatly in the next few years and undertook to provide full-time clergy to the area. The Vicarage was purchased in 1979, with the Rev. Mel Richardson and his family moving in. Sunday School attendance reached 25-30, with an average of 80 people attending Sunday worship. That was a highwater mark; at present Calvary is served by clergy only one-quarter of the time, the Vicarage has been sold, and Sunday attendance again averages about twenty, but the parish is active far beyond its numbers and is a genuine presence in and for its community.