My name is Curt Benham. My wife, Michelle, and I have been married for twenty-six years, and we have three children—Sam (nineteen), Ginny (fourteen), and Margot (eight). Michelle and I grew up in Jacksonville, but after grad school, we lived in Atlanta, Georgia, for twenty years, where I served as a pastor and Michelle as a homemaker.

 

In 2020, I received a call to serve as a pastor at Trinity Episcopal Parish in St. Augustine. It was the middle of COVID (oh, the memories!), and we hadn’t found a house here yet, so we put most of our earthly possessions in storage and moved into a rental condo in WGV. During our first weekend here, our realtor took us to see a few houses in King & Bear, and we fell in love. The mature Live Oaks! The sense of beauty, peace, and serenity! We found a great house in Grovewood on the preserve, submitted an offer that day, and closed in less than a month.

 

We love it here! It’s great to live in a place with such wonderful neighbors, where our kids can go outside and play with their friends, and we don’t have to worry about their safety. Michelle is a bird watcher, and living on the preserve means her feeders and garden are always busy with feathered friends. I love to fly fish, and being this close to Six Mile Creek, the St. Johns River, and the Intracoastal has provided much angling action.

 

Part of my ministry at Trinity Parish is to plant a new campus of our church and preschool. Our historic downtown campus is bursting at the seams, so we wanted to relieve pressure there as well as provide a place of traditional Protestant worship for those living in this part of the county. Trinity acquired twelve acres of land on 16-A, just outside the “back gate” of King & Bear, in late 2022 and began construction on phase one of our North Campus in the spring of 2023. Our preschool opened in August 2024, and we held our first Sunday morning worship service in September 2024. At Trinity, we’re all about welcoming people into a life of grace, forgiveness, and hope in Jesus Christ. If you’re looking for a church home or a preschool for your children, we’d love for you to join us! In the meantime, we hope to see you on the sidewalks or at the amenity center of King & Bear. We’re blessed to be your neighbors!