Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
States & Territories

Virginia

South

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Jamestown's Anglican parish church, founded with the colony in 1607, made the Church of England Virginia's established religion for a century and a half, funded by taxes on Anglican and dissenter alike until disestablishment followed the Revolution. Williamsburg's First Baptist Church, organised by enslaved and free Black worshippers around 1776, is among the oldest Black congregations in the country. Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, enacted in 1786, became the direct model for the First Amendment's religion clauses and remains one of the founding texts of American religious liberty.

Facts
Identity
Jurisdiction Status
U.S. state 1
Religion
Leading Religious Affiliation
Evangelical Protestant 2
Virginia: Evangelical Protestant is 25% of adults, ahead of Nothing in particular at 16%. Margin of error plus or minus 4.5 points. Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/state/virginia/
Law and State
Establishment Status
Disestablished 1
The Church of England was established in colonial Virginia; the General Assembly passed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, in January 1786, ending public support for any church.
Geography
Census Region
South 1
Origins
Origin of the Name
Named for Elizabeth I of England, remembered as the Virgin Queen, by the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. 1
Learn More
A Century and a Half of Establishment and the Statute That Ended It

The Church of England was Virginia's established religion for a century and a half, funded by taxes levied on every colonist regardless of their own denomination, a system that dated to the Anglican parish founded alongside the Jamestown settlement itself in 1607. Dissenting congregations, Baptist and Presbyterian above all, grew steadily through the eighteenth century despite the tax burden and occasional legal harassment, building the popular pressure that made disestablishment possible once the Revolution had already broken the colony's political ties to England.

Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, drafted in 1777 but not enacted until 1786 after a fight James Madison led through the legislature in Jefferson's absence, went further than simply ending the Anglican tax. It declared that no person could be compelled to support any religious worship at all and that opinions in matters of religion could never be a proper object of civil government, language scholars of the establishment clause treat as the direct model for the First Amendment's own religion clauses three years later. Jefferson himself considered the statute one of his three great achievements, alongside writing the Declaration of Independence and founding the University of Virginia, important enough that he had it listed on his tombstone while his presidency was not. Williamsburg's First Baptist Church, organised around 1776 by enslaved and free Black worshippers before the statute even passed, is among the oldest Black congregations in the country and its own founding predates the religious liberty Virginia law would soon guarantee it.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

This source names Virginia directly: "Religions and Spirituality Project (Virginia Commonwealth University) reference article on Asatru in Iceland, tracing Asatruarfelagid's registered membership from fewer than 100 through most of 1972..."

Source Asatru (Iceland)
Baptist, Denominations

This source names Baptist directly: "Williamsburg's First Baptist Church, organised by enslaved and free Black worshippers around 1776, is among the oldest Black congregations in the country."

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

This source names Virginia directly: "Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Virginia and Texas, organized several sessions there, among them a multi faith panel on Cao Dai's practices of self realization held together with Jewish, Unity..."

This source names Virginia directly: "religious movements maintained at Virginia Commonwealth University, recording the Vietnamese government's 1997 recognition of the Tay Ninh branch and the 1998 founding of the Caodai Overseas..."

This source names Virginia directly: "Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, it coordinates and supports around 168 member agencies that between them run the largest private social service network in the United States, delivering food..."

Source Catholic Charities USA (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Virginia directly: "in 1986, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the national office of the network of local diocesan Catholic Charities agencies."

Source Catholic Charities USA (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Church of England directly: "with the colony in 1607, made the Church of England Virginia's established religion for a century and a half, funded by taxes on Anglican and dissenter alike until disestablishment followed the..."

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

This source names Virginia directly: "Bond's academic study of religion in seventeenth century Virginia places Robert Hunt's Jamestown ministry within the founding of the established Church of England in the colony, tracing how the..."

This source names Virginia directly: "after her family moved there from Virginia, and excelled academically, though she was passed over for a teaching position in the segregated D.C."

This source names Virginia directly: "Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Virginia and Texas, and lists the sessions they organized, including a multi faith panel on Cao Dai's practices of self realization held together with Jewish..."

This source names Virginia directly: "reference project founded in 2010 at Virginia Commonwealth University, covering the movement's founder Masaharu Taniguchi and its core scripture, Seimei no Jisso, including its translation history."

Source Seicho no Ie (World Religions and Spirituality Project)World Religions and Spirituality Project contributors

This source names Virginia directly: "and Spirituality Project's (WRSP, Virginia Commonwealth University) profile of Synanon, published 2016-10-08 and read 2026-08-16, tracing Synanon's own reported membership from about 1,000 residents..."

Source Synanon (World Religions and Spirituality Project)World Religions and Spirituality Project editorial staff

This source names Virginia directly: "spanning New York, New Jersey, Virginia and the Carolinas, roughly four hundred twenty congregations in all, and adopted the new denominational name in keeping with the recently ratified United..."

This source names Virginia directly: "Hunt had sailed with the Virginia Company's first expedition in December 1606, and when the settlers made landfall at Cape Henry on 29 April 1607 he delivered what colonists' own accounts describe..."

This source names Virginia directly: "documents his 1606 departure with the Virginia Company's first expedition, his sermon at Cape Henry on 29 April 1607, and the first service of worship and Holy Communion he held at Jamestown under a..."

Principal Tradition Of

Evangelicalism, Denominations

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
2. Pew Research Center: 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source
The Establishment Clause: Religion and the First Amendment
Leonard W. Levy, University of North Carolina Press, 1994View the Source
A Religious History of the American People
Sydney E. Ahlstrom, Yale University Press, 1972View the Source
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