Religious Services. We conduct historically correct Christian liturgical services using the 1845 version of the Protestant Episcopal Prayer Book. The liturgy is a powerful window into history. The historic liturgy and hymns are powerful even today and allow the public to partner with us in recreating the sounds and words of history. Generally, we do a Morning or Evening Prayer service, which lasts about an hour or re-enactments and interpretations of historic chaplain visits and services. We also have conducted Old School Baptist services and are currently researching Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran services and hope to offer them in the near future. In support of these services (with the exception of the Old School Baptist services), we have restored a portable reed organ.
Documentation. We disseminate recreations of historic Prayer Books (Federal and Virginia), Bibles, tracts, and religious writings. One source of Civil War Gospel Tracts and pocket New Testaments is Re-enactors Mission for Jesus Christ headed by Rev. Alan Farley who has served the re-enacting community for over 24 years.
Historic Interpretation. We work with museums and historical sites as living history interpreters. For example, my wife, Jo and I were on the cover of the Loudoun County section of the Washington Post (Oct 20, 2002) for an event for the Loudoun County Museum. Over a two day period at the Old Stone Church Cemetary (http://www.gcah.org/Heritage_Landmarks/Stone.htm), we gave fifteen minute presentations on 1850 Methodist beliefs on death and resurrection and Victorian morning customs to over 800 people. Our presentations are in first or third person.
Teaching and preaching. We teach and preach on issues of the Christian faith and history in both modern and historic styles as desired.
Chaplain Support. Tens of thousands of people are involved in re-enacting and need chaplain support. The Christian faith was an integral part of our history and should be recreated in living history if it is to be accurate. We serve this need.
Support Other Historic Ministries. The harvest is great and the workers are few. We encourage and help other historic Christian ministries as we have the opportunity.
Due to the many opportunities that the Lord has presented, we are looking for ministry partners to help with this work. If you are interested, please contact Jim Craft at ict4afghans@hotmail.com.
