2025 SESSION

ENROLLED

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 594

Commending Manakin Episcopal Church.

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 10, 2025

Agreed to by the Senate, February 13, 2025

WHEREAS, the upheavals of the various Reformations within Europe during the 16th century led directly in the 17th century to the contrasting—and conflicting—ventures to North America of the Spanish, the French, and finally, in further contrasting and conflicting pilgrimages, of Cavaliers to Virginia and Puritans to Massachusetts, from among the contending peoples of Albion; and

WHEREAS, from the succession of social, political, and even religious warfare that characterized this period of history, there arose the migration to Virginia, in 1700, of French Protestants, followers of John Calvin and his Reformed Christianity, and known to history as the Huguenots; and

WHEREAS, it was King William II of England who financed the emigration to Virginia of the French Huguenots, numbering some 700 souls; and

WHEREAS, these Huguenots were granted 10,000 acres along the south side of the James River, centered upon what became known as Manakintowne, in eastern Powhatan near its border with Chesterfield; and

WHEREAS, the Virginia House of Burgesses, on December 5, 1700, granted the Huguenots a royal charter establishing “King William Parish” at Manakintowne as a distinct parish of the Church of England; and

WHEREAS, accordingly, “Christian formation and community service” have characterized the purposes and people of Manakin Episcopal Church for far longer than the United States of America has existed; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the members of Manakin Episcopal Church of Powhatan hereby be commended for sustaining both their Christian convictions and their devotion to the Commonwealth of Virginia; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Manakin Episcopal Church as an expression of the General Assembly's hopes that the church may continue to flourish for centuries more.