Robert Raikes (1735-1811) began the first Sunday School in England in 1780 as a charity school to teach poor children to read and write. The Sunday Church Schools were gradually freed to engage in religious instruction by the spread of general public education. Their moralistic educational models were inherited from Reformation and eighteenth-century learning theory. However, as new developments occurred in the field of general education, church leaders called for catechetical instruction in Sunday Church School teaching.
The first Episcopal Sunday Church School was opened in 1790 by James Milnor and Jackson Kemper at the United Parish of Christ Church and St. Peter's, Philadelphia. William White was rector of the United Parish at that time. The Sunday School in the Episcopal Church became a conscious instrument for religious education in 1826 with the organization of the General Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union. Its focus was catechetical, and its energy arose from the nineteenth-century evangelical impulse. The 1946 General Convention provided funding to undertake a complete overhaul of Sunday Church School programs. The Department of Christian Education developed a "new curriculum" under the leadership of the Rev. John Heuss. This new curriculum called on the Sunday Church Schools to encourage faith development. Sunday Church Schools continue to have an important place in the life of many Episcopal parishes.
