In Lawrence today, the newest church in the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas will help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the diocese’s founding.

St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 5700 W. Sixth St., will play host to a celebration and service at 4 p.m. for all of the diocese’s congregations in northeastern Kansas, including the Kansas City area.

And Bishop Dean E. Wolfe will lead the service from the 1789 Book of Common Prayer, which settlers used in services during the time of the diocese’s founding.

“We decided it would be perhaps interesting to use the service that would have been used at the time the diocese was founded in 1859,” said Melodie Woerman, director of communications for the diocese.

The service is open to the public. People are also welcome to come in period dress from the 1850s.

“We’re trying to recall some of the flavor of what those early worship services would have been like,” Woerman said.

Today’s service will be the fourth across the state this year, and it’s the final one to kick off the diocese’s yearlong celebration of its founding in 1859. The actual founding date is in August.

The diocese today has about 12,000 members in 50 congregations across the eastern half of the state.

Also as part of the founding celebration this year, the diocese’s members will work to build a house in Coffeyville through Habitat for Humanity after a 2007 flood devastated the area.