One of America’s foremost humanities scholars and one of the nation’s leading presidential historians will headline the Historic Christ Church & Museum (HCC&M) 2025 Spring Speaker Series “A Revolution in Liberty: Lexington and Concord to the First Amendment.”
The series is part of HCC&M’s multi-year effort to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the American founding, reported executive director Robert Teagle.
Clay Jenkinson and Lindsay Chervinsky will join forces at 5 p.m. May 15 for a special program inside Christ Church (1735), 420 Christ Church Road, Weems. The theme will be the struggle for religious liberty and its enshrinement in the First Amendment. The pair will discuss the history of the First Amendment and Virginia’s role in defending freedom of religion.
A Rhodes scholar and winner of the National Humanities Medal, Jenkinson is a writer, filmmaker, historical re-enactor and virtuoso moderator. Many know him from his portrayal of the nation’s third president on The Thomas Jefferson Hour, a weekly public radio program that ran for three decades. In May 2023, Jenkinson launched Listening to America. Described as “part Kerouac, part Charles Kuralt (without the schmaltz), part Steinbeck, all with a serious humanities perspective,” Listening to America seeks to travel the country’s “less visited byways” to hear the “many voices of America’s past, present, and future.”
Dr. Chervinsky is the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon and author of multiple award-winning books. She spoke at HCC&M last year on her new book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic. She and Jenkinson regularly appear together on Listening to America and will bring their witty banter and love of history to the Historic Christ Church community.
The series opened April 10 with National Park Service historian Mark Maloy speaking on “The Shot Heard Round the World: The Battles of Lexington and Concord.” The series will conclude June 12 with historian and Patrick Henry biographer Jon Kukla presenting “Patrick Henry: The Civic Faith of an Enlightened Patriot.”
Tickets for Jenkinson and Chervinsky are $125 and include a cocktail reception before the presentation and a light supper following. Tickets for the Maloy presentation are $35 and include a wine and cheese reception.
