St Thomas Episcopal Church

St. Thomas Episcopal Church of Beattyville overlooks this small riverside community as she has since 1896. Built when the community was flourishing because of coal and lumber , the church has stood sentinal through the transition to oil and tobacco and two centuries of dramatic change. Its legacy is recognized in its designation as an historical landmark.

Father Duane Smith, who has been the priest in charge since August 2009, is a bi-vocational priest and Religion professor who lives in Berea and travels to Beattyville twice a week to commune with members and give the Sunday service. Reared in Iowa a Quaker, he has degrees from William Penn College and Harvard.

Since the beginning of his tenure at Bereas College in 1995, his teaching responsibilities include: Introductions to the Old and New Testament, Cultural Anthropology and the Old Testament, Introduction to Hebrew, Readings in Biblia Hebraica, The prophets, Contemporary Christian Thought, Islam, and Western Traditions.

Come visit St. Thomas for the Sunday Morning Worship Service at 11:00 or Sunday School starting at 10:00. All are welcome to share their faith.

About Us

Nestled in a valley where the North Fork and South Fork rivers come together to create the head waters of the Kentucky river, rests a true mountain community, Beattyville. With a population of 1,178, It is the center piece of a mountainous, timber covered county with dramatic cliffs, abundant wild life and miles of country roads and waterways. Beattyville (named for a local land owner Sam Beatty in 1843) along with communities named Heidelberg, Tallega, Fillmore, Fincastle and Cressmont, among others, boasts a rich and diverse history of trials and victories which began well before the formation of Lee as the 115th county.