About Us

Who We Are

We are a spiritually centered, diverse, and inclusive community of seekers growing together in worship, social justice mission, study, and fellowship. We have been newly designated a “Gospel Oriented Community” in the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, part of The Episcopal Church, a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Priest-in-Partnership, the Rev. Richard Belshaw, welcomes a newly baptized infant.

Currently we live in a liminal space of expectation. Our four-acre site on Route 1 is in the early stages of being redeveloped into a campus comprised of four entities: Christ Church, which has a history that stretches back to the mid-19th century; Haven, New Hampshire’s largest agency serving victims of domestic and sexual violence; Little Blessings Child Care Center; and low-income/workforce housing administered by the Portsmouth Housing Authority. We are located between Route 1 and the Urban Forestry Center, near the Sagamore Creek, with all its natural beauty and walking trails.

Our mission work is in transition as of this moment, but we are planning to be good and participatory partners with our three neighbors. In addition, members of Christ Church are active in social justice work in the seacoast region of various kinds.

So, what is a Gospel Oriented Community?

Simply, a community of faith heeding the call of Christ in a non-traditional manner. We remain a small, vibrant congregation serving the seacoast region of New Hampshire. While we have chosen to retain our liturgical traditions steeped in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, our new designation allows us to do so more freely, without typical parish financial-institutional obligations. Christ Church no longer has wardens, a vestry, an annual Fair Share obligation, or extensive Parochial Report documentation requirements. The idea is to operate flexibly, with a creative focus particular to our contextual circumstances and mirroring the creative God in ways that think outside the box, follow new paths, imagine, and enable us to better walk the talk. We continue to strive to live the message of the spirit Christ. We continue to welcome both the spiritual seeker and the seasoned disciple so that people from many starting points can find their home in God with us. If you are seeking a spiritual home or are just exploring the life of faith, we hope you WILL walk with us on that journey of discovery!

Our call is to share the light of Christ in the world. We welcome all people into our sanctuary, regardless of race, economic circumstances, gender, sexual orientation, or religious background. As a more spiritually progressive community of Christians, we gather to worship, sing, celebrate, acknowledge common needs, and be fed at God’s table. We nurture one another, emphasizing singing and an equality of voices in our prayers. From there we go forth into the world to be active servants of the spirit, ministering to those in need and taking God’s grace and peace into the wider community.

As a Gospel-Oriented Community, we have identified the inequality of women as a mission focus, and we look forward to a deeper immersion and hands-on work with the issues of inequality of and care for women on the seacoast.

We are also stewards of two burial grounds: a memorial burial ground for ashes for community members and their families and a 17th-18th century slave burial ground that is an historical site in the city of Portsmouth. The marker is pictured below.