Christ Episcopal Church - Savannah, GA - Anglican and Episcopal Churches on Waymarking.com

The historical marker across the street in the park reads:
"Christ Church
The Mother Church of Georgia

This Episcopal church was the first house of worship established with the founding of Georgia in 1733. Early rectors included the Rev. John Wesley (1736-37), who began the earliest form of Sunday school and published the first English hymnal in the colonies, and the Rev. George Whitefield (1738-40), founder of Bethesda Orphanage. The cornerstone for the first building on this site was laid in 1744. James Hamilton Couper designed the current and third structure in 1838. The 1819 Revere & Son bell continues in use today. One of many prominent members was Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of America."

From the Church's web site:
Founded in 1733 with the establishment of the Georgia colony, Christ Church has known different buildings and different rectors, but it has always stood on one foundation, Jesus Christ her Lord.

The present location of the church was designated by General James Oglethorpe in his distinctive plan for the Savannah settlement. On the east and west side of each square in this plan, ‘trust lots’ were set aside for public buildings. The colony’s house of worship was assigned to an east trust lot on the first square on Bull Street, the central street of historic Savannah, then and now. Initially, the church had neither a building nor a name. Divine services took place in the courthouse building of the colony. Here the two most famous rectors of Christ Church parish exercised their ministry.

John Wesley, the third rector of the parish, served from 1736-1737. Although he desired to be a missionary to the Indians, Oglethorpe assigned him to serve in Savannah. In disagreement with many in his congregation, Wesley believed in weekly Sunday Communion and baptism by immersion. He taught a Sunday School program for children (reputedly the first in America) and in 1737 published a Collection of Psalms and Hymns, the first English hymnal in America. His famous conversion experience occurred after his return to England, where he continued to serve as an Anglican priest.

George Whitefield succeeded Wesley as priest responsible for the church in Savannah, serving intermittently from 1738-1740. He traveled extensively during this period, preaching with intensity and length that often exceeded the conventions prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer. His travels and preaching raised money for the colony’s Orphan House, which he named Bethesda."