St. Christopher's Episcopal Church
About us
our story
The Church that Wasn't Supposed to Be
In October, 1956, a meeting was held by members of St. Mark’s Church in Riverside. The church had grown and there were many new people coming from Fairborn and the nearby Wright Patterson Air Force Base. The purpose of that October meeting was to determine whether St. Mark’s should split and form a new congregation in Fairborn. After much conversation about the pros and cons, a vote was taken. The results were handed to the Archdeacon of the Diocese of Southern Ohio who presided at the meeting. He reported that the vote was close but was in favor of creating the new congregation. In reality, he had confused the numbers. The vote had actually gone the other way.
Some years later that same Archdeacon, who was then a Bishop in another diocese, was invited back for the 10th Anniversary of St. Christopher’s. When asked about his mis-reporting the result of the vote, he replied that Holy Spirit must have been at work and that we should never contradict the work of the Spirit!
So the new congregation was founded and took the name of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, in recognition of the globetrotting members, retirees, and their families of the United States Air Force who constituted the majority of the congregation in the early years.
This is the story of the church that was never supposed to be–but is!
mission
It's about Jesus welcoming all sorts and conditions of people into his kin-dom.
We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, widowed, gay, confused, filthy rich, comfortable, or dirt poor. You’re welcome if you are Old Fairborn, New Fairborn, Not Fairborn, or just passing by.
We welcome you if you can sing like Pavarotti or can’t carry a note in a bucket. We don’t care if you’re more Christian than the Archbishop of Canterbury or haven’t been in church since your cousin’s wedding.
We welcome keep-fit moms, football dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like ‘organized religion.’ We’ve been there too! (And as many will attest, we aren’t all that organized.)
We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down their throats as kids or got lost on Route 4 and wound up here by mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts… and you!
Most of all we welcome those who want to uphold the dignity of others; seek justice, love and peace; have empathy for people and a love for the earth.