Jamestown was by no means an assured success. The little Virginia colony on the James River survived, but only by the grace of God. Supplies were short, the natives at first unfriendly, game was scarce, fatal disease rampant, frigid winters were hard. The New World was proving to be something less than the land of plenty touted by the promoters of the Virginia Company of London. Yet on May 14, 1607, when the colony first landed at their permanent site, hopes were high. The Reverend Robert Hunt, Anglican chaplain, led the group in the familiar prayers, psalms and hymns of Anglican worship. Hunt had been appointed vicar of the colony by absentee rector Rev. Richard Hakluyt. Their 'church' was an old ship's sail tied between trees, with logs serving as benches. On June 21, Hunt celebrated the first Holy Communion at Jamestown in a crude wood and turf church built within the new triangular fort. It burned down the next year, along with Hunt's library. Sadly, Hunt, whose peacemaker skills helped hold the colony together, also died in 1608. Second, third, and fourth church buildings followed, the last two in brick. The fourth church burned down in 1676, but its tower survives today as witness to its predecessors. Today, an unpretentious 1907 church occupies the site of the earlier Jamestown churches. While we celebrate Jamestown as the beginning of a permanent Anglican foundation in North America, four centuries ago, it was by no means the first Anglican presence.

Anglican beginnings and English New World exploration developed hand-in-hand, although the Anglo-Roman Catholic and Anglican presence in America before Jamestown was tentative and sporadic. Italian-born John Cabot, in English service, undoubtedly had an English Roman Catholic chaplain on board for his 1497 and 1498 visits to Newfoundland, where he erected a cross. His son Sebastian followed in 1509. Adventurer John Rut visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1527, was accompanied by Canon Albert de Prato of (then Anglo-Roman Catholic) St. Paul's Cathedral, London, who likely held prayer services. An English merchant named Bute established St. John's, Newfoundland, as a permanent town the following year. The disastrous Richard Hore "tourist" voyage of 1536 to Newfoundland and Labrador might have had an Anglican chaplain, although none is recorded. The 1575 Richard Whithorne voyage is poorly documented. Martin Frobisher reached Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic 1576, likely accompanied by a chaplain. "Gold ore" was discovered at the landing site. During Frobisher's third expedition there, on August 22, 1578, the chaplain, Rev. Robert Wolfall, celebrated the first recorded Anglican Holy Communion service in the New World at nearby Winter's Furnace (Toodnikten) Island, another prospecting site. Anthonie Parkhurst visited Newfoundland in 1575-78 but no chaplain is mentioned.

Actor Burlyn Rogers plays the Rev. Robert Hunt (1568-1608), a priest of the Church of England who was among the first English settlers in the New World. Under Hunt's leadership, the first settlers offered prayers after coming ashore on May 13, 1607. Photo by Sharon Rasmussen, Communication Director, Diocese of East Tennessee

In 1579, at the mid-point of privateer/explorer Francis Drake's global circumnavigation, his chaplain, Rev. Francis Fletcher, held services for the edification of the Coast Miwok indians at Drake's Bay, Marin County, California. The first service was on June 23, 1579, and the second a month later. These California services were the first recorded Anglican services on the American mainland. Throughout Drake's visit, the Miwok emotionally and ritually "mourned" Drake and crew, thinking them a resurrected ancestral tribe, but also delighted in their singing of psalms. Drakes's attempt to convert the people is both touching and sad, considering the future fate of native Californian peoples. Explorer John Walker visited Maine in 1580. In 1583 soldier/adventurer Humphrey Gilbert visited Newfoundland, and Stephen Bellinger explored the Bay of Fundy, but no chaplains are recorded. Sir Bernard Drake established British control of Newfoundland waters in 1585. John Davis explored Baffin Island in 1585-7, and Richard Stong visited Cape Breton in 1593. No chaplains are mentioned but thanksgiving prayers were often said upon reaching land. However, the search for quick profit, rather than "conversion of heathens" or settlement, had become the driving force of exploration.

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