Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea

The parish began in 1889, when four communicants gathered on the shores of Lake Worth.

Bishop of Florida E. Gardner Weed had asked for a mission in South Florida. The Rev. Joseph N. Mulford, rector of Christ Church in Troy, New York, volunteered to go. He gathered a small seasonal congregation in a simple wooden church that could only be reached by boat from the mainland.

Three churches

• 1889: the first wooden church on Lake Worth
• 1896: a second church, a little further north, is consecrated. The building is now a private home
• 1925: led by Canon James Townsend Russell, who had served at the National Cathedral, the congregation begins building the church it still worships in today

The parish belongs to the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Southeast Florida.