A Brief History of the Parish

Saint Gregory the Great Parish has an interesting history.  The first Catholics, the Pinckney Family, arrived in the Bluffton-Pritchardville area in the 1860s.  From that time until about 1917, there was no church building.  A priest would celebrate Mass in the home of one of the Pinckney families as infrequently as once a year.  A small chapel called Our Lady in the Woods was constructed by the family on Pinckney Colony Road in 1917.  In 1932, what was then the “new” church, Saint Andrew, was built next to the chapel, which was finally dismantled in the early 1940s.  In 1947, the community received its first resident priest, Father John Simonin. In 1960, the growing Catholic community was elevated to parish status.  Membership in the parish remained very small, comprised primarily of Pinckneys.

In the early 1960s, Hilton Head Island began to develop.  Over the next 20 years, two parishes would be formed there, divided from the small Saint Andrew Parish.  In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Bluffton area, formerly a very quiet, rural setting, began to witness residential and commercial development.  In 1995, as an immediate result of the opening of Sun City, development escalated.  From that year, when Father H. Gregory West arrived as pastor, a congregation numbering some 70 souls grew, within three years, to over 1000.

In 2000, the parish moved from the quaint, old Saint Andrew Church into the new interim church of Saint Gregory the Great, on a 63-acre campus. Saint Andrew Chapel, newly renovated, celebrates its 75th anniversary in April, 2007.

By early 2007, the parish numbered more than 4200, demonstrating the wisdom of the development, in 2002, of a parish Master Plan for eventual construction of an elementary school, a Resurrection Garden,  a new church capable of seating more than 2000 at a time, and a ministries building.

Every year the population of the parish increases in multiples.  The diversity of ages, ethnic and racial backgrounds, and interests of our parishioners builds all of us up. We are building the Body of Christ - together!

SAINT ANDREW CHAPEL

Saint Andrew Chapel is used for the celebration of holy Mass Monday - Friday at 6:45 am, Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament Monday - Friday from 7:15 am to 9:00 p.m., weddings, funerals, baptisms, and private prayer.   It is also used by members of Holy Resurrection Greek Orthodox Church as their regular worship site. The Holy Resurrection community celebrates the Divine Liturgy every Sunday at 10:30 a.m.