Within two hours after the Jamestown settlers landed in Virginia, their Anglican minister built a makeshift church by "nailing a piece of timber between two trees," and stretching "a square of sailcloth over it." Thus, on May 13, 1607, they attended their first prayer service in the New World.

Captain John Smith, leader of this group of British entrepreneurs, described services under the "old saile" as "more like the real praising of God, than any he had ever heard in the costly buildings of the old world."

That was 400 years ago. Throughout 2007, the Virginia Commonwealth is celebrating the anniversary of this first permanent English settlement in North America with several special events including a main gala on May 11-13.

Unlike the later Puritan colony at Plymouth, the Jamestown group was driven less by faith than by gold and other material ends. Still, most (if not all) of the settlers were members of the Church of England. In the midst of hunger, conflicts with ...

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