St. David of Wales
Episcopal Church
As we kneel at the Altar, we recall the past, present, and future saints who labor in the St. David's vineyard. Their work is around us in St. David's stone and spirit.
- Donald K. Pickens, Church historian, 1987
St. David's will joyfully celebrate its 75th anniversary with a Choral Evensong on September 26, followed by a special Sunday worship service on September 27, 2026. We give thanks for those who first answered God’s call to create this Parish, for the generations who have faithfully sustained it, and for those who will carry its mission forward.
The History of Our Parish
St. David’s Episcopal Church was founded in Denton in 1951, during a period of significant growth and change in the city. Episcopalians had worshiped in Denton since the nineteenth century, and by the middle of the twentieth century there was interest in establishing a second Episcopal congregation in the community. In August 1951, George Frysinger contacted Suffragan Bishop G. Francis Burrill concerning a group of nearly sixty Episcopalians interested in forming a new mission.
An organizational meeting was held on September 26, 1951, at the home of Mrs. W. M. Jagoe on Oak Street. Forty-seven people attended, and Bishop C. Avery Mason of the Diocese of Dallas outlined the process for establishing the new mission. Several possible names were considered before the congregation unanimously chose St. David’s Protestant Episcopal Church of Denton after St. David of Wales, the sixth-century Welsh bishop, abbot, and missionary.
The first service was held four days later, on September 30, in the chapel of Jack Schmitz & Son Funeral Home on North Locust Street. The Rev. Canon Curtis W. V. Junker served as the first part-time Priest-in-Charge, followed in 1952 by the Rev. W. Shelby Walthall, the congregation’s first full-time priest. St. David’s was recognized as an organized mission by the Diocese in 1952, and became a parish in 1954.
The congregation purchased property on Ector Street in 1952, and construction began the following year on a church designed in the tradition of seventeenth-century English Gothic architecture. The building was completed in December 1953, with the first services held there in January 1954. Rapid growth soon required expansion: within eighteen months the nave was enlarged and a parish hall, offices, kitchen, and lounge were added. A rectory and adjoining property were acquired in 1957.
Much of this early development was made possible by the sustained work and financial support of parishioners. The Women of St. David’s played an especially important role, raising funds through bazaars, bake sales, community meals, cookbooks, and other projects. Their efforts helped finance the parish hall and supported the congregation during its formative years.
The Rev. Edward H. Campbell became rector in 1957 and served for nearly seventeen years, a period of substantial growth. Membership increased from approximately 200 to more than 500. A permanent Christian education building, designed to complement the Gothic character of the original church, added thirteen classrooms and a chapel dedicated to the memory of Elsie S. Jagoe, in whose home the congregation had first organized. In 1971, the parish acquired a tracker-action pipe organ built by Rieger Orgelbau of Austria, and in 1973 the altar was made free-standing in keeping with contemporary liturgical practice.
By 1973, St. David’s had paid its outstanding mortgages and was debt-free. Under the Rev. Edward C. Rutland, who succeeded Campbell, continued growth again created the need for additional space. Planning begun in the 1970s eventually led to a major expansion in the early 1980s. Ground was broken in 1982 for a new parish hall and an expanded narthex. Architect James Kirkpatrick designed the addition to preserve and extend the church’s English Gothic character, ultimately adding more than 5,300 square feet.
The expansion also brought one of the church’s most distinctive artistic features. Four stained-glass windows were installed in the narthex at Easter 1984, created by J. Wippell & Company of England. The windows depict St. Hilda of Whitby, the Venerable Bede, John Donne, and C. S. Lewis, linking the parish visually with the broader heritage of English Christianity.
Growth and Renewal, 1986–2019
The Rev. J. Kenneth Asel became St. David’s fourth rector in September 1986, beginning another chapter in a parish that had grown considerably during its first thirty-five years. By this time, St. David’s had developed from a small mission worshiping in borrowed space into an established Episcopal congregation with a substantial campus and strong traditions of worship, music, education, and parish life.
The following decades brought continued development of both the church’s property and its ministries. In 1988, the parish purchased a former fraternity house at 2046 Scripture Street, which became known as Scripture Hall and later provided space for a school. During the 1990s and early 2000s, St. David’s undertook significant maintenance and improvements to its existing facilities, including construction of the North Sacristy. These projects reflected a continuing effort to preserve and adapt a campus whose oldest buildings dated to the parish’s earliest years.
By the 2010s, the parish had entered another period of growth. In 2013, St. David’s called its first curate in more than fifteen years, reflecting renewed investment in clergy and expanding parish ministries. Four years later, the church developed a three-phase master plan intended to address the long-term needs of its congregation and campus.
In 2018, St. David’s called the Rev. Paul Nesta as its seventh rector. Membership and programs continued to grow, with particularly strong participation among young adults and families with children. By this period, the limitations of the existing facilities had again become apparent. Sunday seating and parking were increasingly constrained, the parish lacked a single space large enough to accommodate the entire congregation for major services and gatherings, and portions of the historic campus did not meet contemporary accessibility standards.
In response, St. David’s launched the RISE campaign in 2019 to begin implementing its three-phase master plan for the campus. The first phase envisioned a new 325-seat nave and sanctuary while preserving the existing church building; subsequent phases proposed a new education and program building and a larger parish hall. The plan was conceived not simply as an expansion of physical space, but as a way of allowing the historic campus to serve a growing congregation while preserving the architectural and liturgical character that had developed over nearly seven decades.
The campaign set a goal of $3 million for its first phase. Significantly, St. David’s entered this period of expansion debt-free, with a balanced operating budget, financial reserves, a memorial fund, and a growing endowment. The circumstances echoed earlier periods in the parish’s history: once again, growth in membership and ministry had created a need for additional space, and once again the congregation undertook a major building effort intended to serve future generations.
By 2019, St. David’s had spent nearly seventy years adapting to the growth of both its congregation and the city of Denton. From the first gathering in a private home in 1951, to worship in a funeral-home chapel, construction of the Ector Street church, successive additions for education and fellowship, and the development of a new master plan in the twenty-first century, the parish’s physical history has closely followed the development of its common life. Throughout those changes, the English Gothic character of the campus, the Episcopal traditions of worship and music, and a continuing emphasis on Christian formation have provided a strong sense of continuity between the parish’s founding generation and those who followed.