[5] Its church ledgers have recorded the membership of multiple prominent Pennsylvanians, including De Benneville Randolph Keim, a nineteenth-century journalist who served as an advisor to Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of the Union Army during the American Civil War,[6] and David McMurtrie Gregg, an American Civil War-era major general who won fame for gallantry during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

The spire was constructed in the early 1860s by Edward Tuckerman Potter, an architect with expertise in Episcopal church design.

According to historian Morton L. Montgomery, the first historical reference to the worship of Episcopalians in Berks County, Pennsylvania was made on December 21, 1759, by the Rev.

Thomas Barton in a letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts: "In the county of Berks there are a number of people of the Communion of the Church of England, who have never had an Episcopal minister among them."

This situation was reiterated in 1760 by William Bird who petitioned the society for its assistance in "sending over a missionary to reside in Reading ... and to officiate also at Morlattin, a place fifteen miles distant, where a church has for many years been built by a society of English and Swedes, who are desirous of having a missionary of the Church of England, and join with us in this application."

Alexander Murray[10] wrote a report to his superiors that year stating that his English Church congregation was composed of forty-eight members from seven different families.

Their church services were held in a "Dwelling-House that is hired for holding the Civil Courts," and were sometimes attended by a group of twenty Anabaptists who lived in Reading, which had roughly thirteen hundred residents at that time.

[11] By 1765, they had named their group St. Mary's Parish,[12] were meeting at the city's courthouse, and had begun preparations to purchase land to erect a new church building.

Construction on the church began in the spring of 1825, and the cornerstone was dedicated before a large crowd of congregants, clergy, and city officials on June 8 of that year.

[23] Seating capacity was subsequently increased to eight hundred in 1848,[24] and a recess chancel, transepts and spire were added in 1863 when the structure was expanded.

[30] In 1881, the estate of former congregant Lucretia Dash Wood provided the funds necessary for church leaders to add a new parish building with classrooms and a chapel.

[33] Vestry member rosters during the 1880s included: Henry S. Eckert, Issaac Hiester, Richmond L. Jones, De Benneville Randolph Keim,[34] Henry M. Keim,[35] Jacob Knabb, the publisher and editor of the Reading Times newspaper,[36] William R. McIlvain, Edward D. Smith, P. R. Stetson, Joseph Lybrand Stichter, a prominent merchant and civic leader who served on the boards of directors of the Reading Cotton Factory and multiple railroad lines, and who also played a key role in establishing the first telegraph line between Reading and Philadelphia,[37] Thomas D. Stichter, W. Murray Weidman, and Henry Wiegel.

On Easter evening the confirmation services conducted by the Bishop, the quartet choir of Christ church will sing a new and very effective arrangement of, 'Jesus, Lover of My Soul,' by W. C. Williams.

Dr. William P. Orrick, for his twenty-five years of service during a special reception in the church's Wood chapel on October 3, 1898.

[40] Longtime vestryman Richmond L. Jones said the following of Orrick:[41] "In your many years among us, you have set an example of godly life, avoiding strife and contention, knowing no resentment, walking in the ways of virtue, morality and holiness,—a living example to those about you;—counseling without reproving, sympathizing without obtruding and commanding the respect and winning the affection of those whom God has committed to your charge.

The thirty-six-inch, Gothic-style, bronze tablet, bordered with carvings of oak leaves and acorns, was inscribed as follows:[42] "To the Glory of God, and in Loving Memory of Henry May Keim, for Thirty-Five Years a Vestryman of this Church.1864-1899.Born August 16th, 1842.Entered Into Rest Feb. 18, 1899.A Faithful Friend—An Earnest Churchman.

Dr. William P. Orrick, the service featured music by a seventy-four member choir conducted by the church's organist and choirmaster, Willoughby Wilde.

[44] His funeral was held at Christ Episcopal at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24, and he was subsequently buried at the Charles Evans Cemetery in Reading.

Wallace Martin,[46] who delivered the sermon at Orrick's funeral,[47] and then oversaw the Christ Church congregation in an interim capacity as minister in charge, and then as rector.

[52] Five years later, Christ Episcopal lost its longtime Sunday School superintendent, Thomas P. Merritt, who died from pneumonia on December 29, 1916.

A civic leader and philanthropist, Merritt had built his fortune in the lumber industry and had also served as mayor of the city of Reading and officer on the boards of directors of the Berks County Tuberculosis Society, Hope Rescue Mission, Masonic Temple Building Trust, Mt.

A frequent guest preacher at Episcopalian churches in the region, he died at the age of 102 in his room at the Berkshire Hotel in Reading on Wednesday March 25, 1970.