A philanthropic mission rooted in deep tradition, poured out amid the azaleas.
In the birthplace of sweet tea, perhaps it is no surprise that churches across Charleston are transformed into tea rooms every spring. All are welcomed, and reservations are not required. Church members bake hundreds of cakes, serve many thousands of cups of tea, and do it all for the benefit of the church.
Afternoon tea is not an experience that could be replaced by a restaurant. You would simply miss the hospitality of the church inviting the community in to be served. It is a uniquely Southern feel to enjoy a cup of tea in one of America’s oldest churches, surrounded by a graveyard full of Revolutionaries and Confederates in the bright bloom of springtime azaleas and camellias, because you have been invited.
At St. Paul’s Anglican Church, the church building seats 220 for lunch, with fresh flowers and linens on each table, every day for two weeks. The menu includes tomato pie, she-crab soup, and your choice of hundreds of home-cooked desserts.
The tea room is entirely run by church members—the cooking, the cleaning, the serving. Before the tea room doors open each morning, the hustle and bustle is a sight to behold. Men and women with white hair and a spring in their step setting up stations; a young mother wheeling in a cart of nine cakes from her minivan; a teenage boy in a crisp white shirt and apron tucked against the wall at the ready; and volunteers being bussed in to save parking spaces for visitors.
Of note, the St. Paul’s Tea Room raised and donated more than $90,000 to ministries and missions in 2023. The impact is felt near and far. Funds support local nonprofits like Doors to Freedom, which houses teenaged survivors of sex trafficking, and Keys to Change, which feeds, houses, and counsels the homeless in the community. Across the world, wells are dug by Water Missions and medical supplies, food, and bibles are flown in by Mission Aviators Fund.
This local feat of philanthropy is not limited to St. Paul’s Anglican Church, however. Springtime tea rooms can be found across Charleston at St. Philip’s Anglican Church, Grace Church Cathedral, and Old Saint Andrew’s Parish Church.
What is it that binds these churches to tradition? Deep roots.
St. Paul’s Anglican Church was formed in 1717; St. Philip’s Anglican Church in 1680. Grace Church Cathedral is the latecomer in 1846, while Old Saint Andrew’s Parish Church earns its name: founded in 1706 and the oldest surviving church building south of Virginia. It is impossible to learn of the history of these church buildings and their members without learning more about America’s founding and maturity.
But it’s more than just the depth of these roots. These were planted in order to bear fruit, and with the proper care, have done so.
As I sit in church, and gaze out that wavy old glass, it strikes me that the women who have held this view before me left a legacy that outlasted them. You see, the first tea room has been traced back to 1948, when a group of church ladies were tasked with cleaning up the neglected sanctuary at Old St. Andrew’s.
The building had sat neglected for 57 years. It had survived the Revolution, withstood the fires of 1760, and ministered to the enslaved of the antebellum era; it was spared by torches of the Union troops, but shaken by the Great Earthquake of 1886. (How’s that for a built-in American history lesson?)
The church ladies had their work cut out for them. Fatefully, they decided to pack a lunch, and faithfully, they generously shared with curious passersby.
One of them must have been a natural fundraiser, for she saw that there was a need (for tea and little sandwiches shared in good company) and rose to the occasion to meet it. In 1954, the first Tea Room was held at Old St. Andrew’s to fund the church repairs.
I wonder if these women knew what their simple acts of generosity would inspire, and the abundance that would be received by their church because of it. It is in the small moments of action—the ones where I can just imagine God tugging on those ladies’ hearts to give what they had to a stranger—that we build our legacies.
