East Worlington is now a single Ecclesiastical Parish coterminous with East Worlington Civil Parish.
Ecclesiastical parishes in the Devon can be traced back to their origins, considered to have been between 8th and 12th century. Early parishes often mirrored the boundaries of manors and emerged as a way to organize religious life and provide pastoral care for communities. Each parish would have a church and a priest, initially focused on religious matters, and gradually fulfilling secular roles like managing local affairs, maintenance of public highways, administering justice, and providing for the poor, and funded by the parish rates. Parish priorities were vulnerable to the influence of the church and local lords of the manor. This resulted in varied range and quality of provision across the different parishes.
During the 13th century there were three parishes within the current footprint of East Worlington Parish, namely Affeton, West Worlington and East Worlington.
A church and village came into existence at Affeton during the 13th century, a small community having sprung up around the de Affeton family who were landowners The de Affeton line in the parish was superseded by that of Stucley around 1434 when Sir Hugh Stucley whose family were from Huntingdonshire married Katherine, the only daughter and heir of Sir John de Affeton.
From its establishment Affeton had always been a small parish with a small population to serve and low level of resources. This context created issues about its capacity for sustainability and in around 1437 led to a merger with the adjacent parish of West Worlington when Edmund Lacy, Bishop of Exeter, gave the rector of West Worlington ministry over its smaller neighbour. This resulted in two parishes, West Worlington and East Worlington each had its own church, both with the dedication to St Mary, and both had their own rectory and their own rector. This arrangement continued until the late 19th century when in 1894 the Government passed the Local Government Act which resulted on 25th March 1885 the merger of the civil parish function of West and East Worlington into one civil parish of East Worlington. Civil parishes were designed to provide a local government structure, and parish councillors elected from parishioners to represent and serve the local needs of their communities. Elections were and continue to be held every four years.
The two ecclesiastical parishes of East Worlington and West Worlington continued to exist as separate parishes until 1919 when the two parishes merged to form one ecclesiastical parish of East Worlington. As a consequence of this merger only one rector was required and therefore one residence, the Rectory of East Worlington being preferred. The West Worlington Rectory was sold 1919 and initially converted as a farm, and more latterly a private residence. The living of East Worlington continued until 1958. In 1967 the two St Mary’s became part of Little Dart Team Ministry, which is a group ministry of twelve churches (Burrington, Chawleigh, Cheldon, Chulmleigh, East Worlington, Eggesford, Meshaw, Romansleigh, Thelbridge, Wemworthy, West Worlington and Witheridge).