One small KY church has survived through pandemics, many crises and today

From Kentucky-

Because of COVID-19, schools and universities are empty. Businesses and restaurants are shuttered. Hospitals face shortages. Churches have closed.

When looking at our history, the story of one Kentucky church reveals that institutions can thrive after enduring tragedy and illnesses. It also reminds us that historic buildings can teach important lessons.

Built in 1830, Trinity Episcopal Church stands on Main Street in downtown Danville. Located across from the county courthouse, its sharp steeple and bright red door make it a visible community landmark.

Calamity soon struck the congregation. In 1833, cholera swept across the commonwealth, killing hundreds. Few communities were immune. Lexington, for example, lost more than 500 people. Smaller towns, including Maysville, Somerset, Paris and more, also suffered.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article242601111.html#storylink=cpy

More here-

https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article242601111.html

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article242601111.html#storylink=cpy

Closed houses of worship served during 1918 flu pandemic

From Pittsburgh-

The faded, single-spaced letter from the fall of 1918 has a jolting immediacy to readers today.

“A very unusual opportunity has come to Calvary Church,” the clergy of the Episcopal congregation in Shadyside wrote to its members. “To meet the present emergency of our pandemic-stricken community, the Vestry (governing board) has tendered the use of the Parish House to the United States Military authorities. The rooms will be used as a convalescent hospital” for military trainees recovering from influenza.

The global influenza pandemic of 1918 known as the Spanish flu peaked in Pittsburgh in October and November, ultimately killing more than 4,500 people and infecting more than 60,000 throughout Allegheny County, according to historical accounts. Worldwide, it claimed at least 50 million lives, according to estimates cited by the Centers for Disease Control.

Though far deadlier than the current pandemic, the influenza competed on newspapers’ front pages with the American military’s grinding progress in World War I and a relentless campaign to buy war bonds. Yet the headlines have a familiar feel. Houses of worship were shuttered as pastors urged people to worship in their homes, and faith-based groups rallied to help those affected by the illness.

More here-

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/faith-religion/2020/04/20/Calvary-Episcopal-Church-Pittsburgh-Spanish-flu-1918-pandemic-influenza-COVID-19/stories/202004010168

The Plague Village

From Philip Jenkins-

As Chris Gehrz remarked recently, many Christians right now are avidly looking for texts and stories that illuminate the response to plague and pestilence through the ages. There have been so many blogs and columns on many sites about the Cyprianic plague in the third century, about Luther and Zwingli in the sixteenth, about the influenza crisis of 1918. Here is another story, and, I would say, one of the most powerful. It is very famous indeed in Britain, but as far as I can tell, scarcely known in the US. It’s the story ofEyam, and it makes for good Lenten reading.


Eyam is a village and parish in the outrageously beautiful Peak District of Derbyshire, in the English north Midlands. Although in older times it was described as being remote, it stands only about fifteen miles from the city of Sheffield. Like much of England, in the seventeenth century Eyam was deeply divided between those who supported the established Church of England – the Anglicans – and those Puritans who opposed it, who were Independents or Presbyterians. The established church returned to power in 1660, and in 1662, any minister who would not agree to the new settlement was ejected from his parish living. In Eyam, that meant that Puritan Thomas Stanley was ejected, to be replaced by the Anglican rector, William Mompesson.

More here-

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2020/03/the-plague-village/

Royal saint's relics found in Anglican church

From The Tablet-

A skeleton hidden for centuries inside the wall of a church in Folkestone, Kent, is likely to be that of one of the first English saints.

After carbon-dating of teeth and bone samples and historical research, researchers have judged it “highly probable” that the remains belonged to St Eanswythe, a Seventh Century Kentish royal who became a nun in her teenage years.

Locally renowned for her piety, Eanswythe set up one of the first monastic communities in England, and reputedly the very first such community for women, in around 660 AD.

Her grandfather, King Ethelbert, was one of the first Anglo-Saxon kings to convert to Christianity as a result of St Augustine’s mission from Rome in the late sixth century. The Kentish royal family was therefore strongly committed to Christianity; both Eanswythe’s uncle Earconwald, a Bishop and her Aunt, Ethelburga, an Abbess, were declared saints during the medieval period.

More here-

https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/12568/royal-saint-s-relics-found-in-anglican-church

Church of England to launch a 'Google Maps for graves' within five years enabling family historians to search for burial records and locations in an online database

From The Daily Mail-

Thousands of cemeteries across the UK will be imaged and mapped over the next five years to create a comprehensive database of British burial sites. 

The Church of England project hopes to immortalise the tombs of millions of people buried in Anglican graveyards as well as those interred on unconsecrated land.

Maps and photographs will be uploaded alongside burial records in a searchable database at some point before 2026. 

Volunteers from the Church of England have partnered with Historic England, which has injected £250,000 in funding, and private company Atlantic Geomatics is providing the technology and expertise.  

More here-

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8068893/Church-England-launch-Google-Maps-graves-five-years.html

Why they called Cleveland ‘Station Hope’

From Ohio-

In Cleveland, it wasn’t just homes that served as stops or stations. Saint John Episcopal Church on Church Street served as a beacon of hope and a stop on the underground railroad.

“When I walked into this church for the first time you can feel, as we were talking, you can feel something very special here,” says Raymond Bobgan of the Cleveland Public Theater.

Each year, the Theater puts on Station Hope at the church. ”At Station Hope, hundreds of artists perform simultaneously in this sanctuary, in the parish hall, outside, everyone is performing together,” says Bobgan. “Thousands of people come here for this one day, to not just celebrate the incredible bravery of the freedom seekers, but to look at where we are at today, but the journey we still have to go. That journey toward the North Star.”

During the time of the Underground Railroad, Station Hope meant the slaves were so close to freedom. 

More here-

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/black-history-month/why-they-called-cleveland-station-hope

Christ Church Episcopal: Weaving the spiritual and social fabric of the community for 200 years

From Greenville S.C.-

“They found it! They found it!” Rector Harrison McLeod rushes into his office at Christ Church Episcopal. “The cornerstone looks like every piece of vertical granite, so it was hiding in plain sight,” he says. “We’re going to dig it up this afternoon for Sunday’s celebration.”

Work crews had located the sacred cornerstone just in time to kick off the first of the church’s bicentennial celebrations that will run through 2020.

To thumb through the archives of Christ Church is to hold South Carolina history in your hands. Diplomat Joel Poinsett, businessman and benefactor Vardry McBee, U.S. Sen. Joseph Earle all have ties to the oldest church in the city of Greenville. For centuries, promises and programs presented from the religious center’s pulpit have canvassed the community, casting a hue upon all that has been as colorful as the nave’s great Ascension window.

More here-

https://greenvillejournal.com/news/christ-church-episcopal-weaving-the-spiritual-and-social-fabric-of-the-community-for-200-years/

Slaves felt kinship with the shepherds, the first to hear the news of Christ’s birth

From Dallas-

The Christmas spirituals of the enslaved people of the American South are among their greatest creations. The unknown poets powerfully identified with the refugees and castaways of the Christmas narratives. They recognized their own plight in the journey of the Holy Family; they understood what it was like to be hated, scorned and mocked. Like them, Mary, Joseph and Jesus were powerless, hunted and hounded by the absolute rulers of the land, forced to hide in tents and stables and caves.

And the slaves felt a deep kinship with the shepherds, the lowest of the low in society, the untouchables, consigned to society’s distant edges. Both spent much of their lives outside, under the stars, keenly aware of the great cosmic mandala of light that swept across the horizon against the endless black skies during the never-ending nights.

That’s why “Rise Up Shepherds and Follow” is still so evocative today.

More here-

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/12/24/slaves-felt-kinship-with-the-shepherds-the-first-to-hear-the-news-of-christs-birth/

‘John Henry Newman’ Review: A Heart That Speaks to Hearts

From The Wall Street Journal-

John Henry Newman was and is an exceptional figure. This October he was declared a saint by the Catholic Church, the first English saint created in half a century. For much of Newman’s life, he struggled with unpopularity, misunderstanding and vilification from his various opponents. He was the most distinguished and the most original English theologian since the Middle Ages, but he was disliked and distrusted by many in the Catholic Church, as well as by the English Protestants and unbelievers whom he had horrified by his defection, in 1845, from the Church of England. Yet when he died, aged 89 in 1890, in an England still generally anti-Catholic, he had become, as Eamon Duffy says in this splendid book, an unlikely “national treasure” to whom Tennyson and Matthew Arnold —by no means Catholics—had written polite but puzzled tributes.

Newman wrote a great deal. He published half a dozen books, a number of essays that are central to the understanding of Catholic thought, three good hymns (including “Lead, Kindly Light”), a bad long poem (“The Dream of Gerontius,” later transformed by Edward Elgar’s music) and 32 volumes of letters and diaries. Anyone daunted by more weighty biographies, the best being Ian Ker’s (1988), should read Eamon Duffy’s short, fresh account. The Cambridge scholar of religion’s calm judgment expertly illuminates every aspect of Newman’s life, work and—until he was very old—unceasing mental and spiritual attention.

More here-

https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-henry-newman-review-a-heart-that-speaks-to-hearts-11576857796

Historic Falls Church Episcopal Celebrates 250 Years Sunday

From Virginia-

The congregation of the City of Falls Church’s iconic, living historical monument, the Falls Church Episcopal Church, will celebrate the church’s 250th anniversary at a series of special events at the church site in the center of the City this Sunday.

The original church was opened in 1734 and the existing historic church building, since renovated and still fully functional, now one of the oldest church buildings in the U.S., was opened on Dec. 20, 1769, prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution, under the leadership of George Washington and George Mason among others. Mason was elected a vestryman of the Falls Church in 1745 and Washington in 1762.

In a proclamation signed by current Falls Church Mayor David Tarter at this Monday’s City Council meeting, it is noted that the Declaration of Independence was read to the public from the steps of the church in 1776 and the church served as a recruiting location during the Revolutionary War.

More here-

https://fcnp.com/2019/12/12/historic-falls-church-episcopal-celebrates-250-years-sunday/

Church Unearthed in Ethiopia Rewrites the History of Christianity in Africa

From Smithsonian-

In the dusty highlands of northern Ethiopia, a team of archaeologists recently uncovered the oldest known Christian church in sub-Saharan Africa, a find that sheds new light on one of the Old World’s most enigmatic kingdoms—and its surprisingly early conversion to Christianity.

An international assemblage of scientists discovered the church 30 miles northeast of Aksum, the capital of the Aksumite kingdom, a trading empire that emerged in the first century A.D. and would go on to dominate much of eastern Africa and western Arabia. Through radiocarbon dating artifacts uncovered at the church, the researchers concluded that the structure was built in the fourth century A.D., about the same time when Roman Emperor Constantine I legalized Christianty in 313 CE and then converted on his deathbed in 337 CE. The team detailed their findings in a paper published today in Antiquity.

More here-

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/church-unearthed-ethiopia-rewrites-history-christianity-africa-180973740/?fbclid=IwAR0xKqeT6zi-VaK1jzKWTdx85_LBc-3_FY0Bh9u9i0JZAeR0VC0Zv3C4sOU

A Christian and a Democrat: A Religious Biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt

From Presbyterian Outlook-

This book contributes to the growing literature of religion and the presidents of the United States. Franklin D. Roosevelt, a master politician, might not spring to mind when pondering the religious convictions of presidents, but this work makes a convincing argument that his political philosophy had roots in his religious background.

Roosevelt’s parents adhered to a liberal Episcopal form of Christianity that embraced the Social Gospel; that ideology was reinforced at Groton School, and headmaster Endicott Peabody remained influential in Roosevelt’s adult life. Roosevelt affirmed that God was involved in the world, ordering and guiding it for the betterment of the whole and for individuals.  There was a vision for a good society in that theology, which Roosevelt understood to promote such values as the common good, equity, justice, security (economic and otherwise) and the importance of each person. Roosevelt understood that government could play a role in that work of God, and the New Deal grew out of that conviction.

More here-

https://pres-outlook.org/2019/12/a-christian-and-a-democrat-a-religious-biography-of-franklin-d-roosevelt/

Philadelphia 11 reunion recalls ministry of pioneering women priests

From National Catholic Register-

The women gathered on the eve of their ordinations on a farm outside Philadelphia, where they shared a meal. The next day, July 29, 1974, they entered the Church of the Advocate to become the first women ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in the United States. Initially referred to simply as the 11, they quickly became known as the Philadelphia 11.

On Nov. 1 of this year, five of the priests gathered again, this time at the horse farm of Carter Heyward, one of the 11. Those traveling came through a line of East Coast storms, one of them leaving her home where alarms, activated by violent winds, had sounded all night, but by the time they had arrived at Heyward's place deep in the Appalachian Mountains, the November sunset was clear and cool.

More here-

https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/philadelphia-11-reunion-recalls-ministry-pioneering-women-priests

Philadelphia’s Christ Church preserves historic steeple

From Philadelphia-

A centuries-old artifact of architectural, church and American history is being restored.

Philadelphia’s Christ Church steeple design dates back to 1754 when Scottish immigrant and architect Robert Smith completed the project.

“It was the Comcast Tower of its time,” said Christ Church rector, Rev. Tim Safford. “It put Philadelphia on the map. It proved to the European world that Philadelphia was a first-class city.”
It was America’s tallest structure until 1810, with a weather vane reaching 196 feet.

Church officials knew in the early 2000s that the tower and steeple would need work. It’s leaning almost two feet. That’s bothered Rev. Stafford every time he crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge. The restoration will stabilize the structure from further deterioration, though it won’t straighten it. Pulling it on one side of the structure would threaten the structural integrity of the entire building. 

Scaffolding was erected around the tower and steeple in August, and restoration — including repointing, shingling, and reinforcement with steel beams to prevent further leaning. This is all being done with help from a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

More here-

https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphias-christ-church-preserves-historic-steeple/

Emmanuel Episcopal holds Underground Railroad program

Maryland-

The spire of Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a beloved landmark at the top of the hill that overlooks Cumberland downtown.

According to local oral history, Emmanuel was an important landmark for African Americans escaping slavery.

The tunnels under the church were a station on the Underground Railroad and provided refuge for those on their way to Pennsylvania.

Emmanuel held a celebration of the Underground Railroad in the local area as well as a commemoration of the anniversary of Emancipation Day on Nov. 1. Maryland was one of the earliest states to abolish slavery — a full year ahead of the 13th Amendment.

More here-

https://www.times-news.com/community/emmanuel-episcopal-holds-underground-railroad-program/article_8c85f22f-1d97-5bfa-9faa-439828ded174.html

Richard Hooker and the Historic Episcopacy

From The Living Church-

Today we commemorate Richard Hooker. In the words of today’s collect, he arose “in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning the great charity of the catholic and reformed religion.” I want to consider how the “great charity” of holding the Catholic and Reformed streams together uniquely shapes the Episcopal Church’s ability to engage in ecumenical dialogue. More specifically, I want to explore how Hooker’s argument for keeping the historic episcopacy in his day should influence questions of polity in ecumenical discussions of our own day.

Although Hooker argued for the continuation of the historic episcopacy, it is not clear that he gave an unqualified defense of the episcopacy for all times and places. Yet in the preface to his 19th century collection of Hooker’s Works, John Keble enshrined Hooker’s reputation as the great defender of the historic episcopacy. Keble wrote that although “on the whole, it should seem that where he speaks so largely of the mutability of church laws, government, and discipline,” the actual substance of Hooker’s views were that the “episcopacy grounded on apostolic succession was of supernatural origin and divine authority” (lxxiv–lxxv). In other words, although Hooker entertained the possibility of reform, in Keble’s interpretation, when it came to the question of the historic episcopacy, Hooker spoke only from the Catholic stream and argued that bishops were instituted by divine law.

More here-

https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2019/11/04/richard-hooker-and-the-historic-episcopacy/

In Year of Apology for its Role in Slavery, New York Episcopal Diocese to Revive Rejected Anti-Slavery Motion from 1860

From New York-

In September 1860, John Jay II—grandson of the founding father and first US supreme court chief justice—introduced four resolutions condemning slavery and the slave trade (see link below) at the Episcopal Diocese of New York's annual convention in New York City. 

Although the slave trade had been illegal in the state of New York since 1799 and the last enslaved persons had been freed in 1827, Jay's resolutions—so uncontroversial today—did not pass.

Instead, they were tabled, in the face of insuperable opposition from an overwhelming majority of the assembled Episcopalian clergy and laity, many of whom continued to have an interest in the slave trade, which in 1860 continued unabated in the port of New York in spite of its illegality and violation of the "teachings of the Church …and the laws of God."  

More here-

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/in-year-of-apology-for-its-role-in-slavery-new-york-episcopal-diocese-to-revive-rejected-anti-slavery-motion-from-1860-300950007.html

Church momentarily casts aside 1,000 years of history

From Premier-

The Church of England momentarily omitted a thousand years from its history when a post on the CofE Twitter account claimed: "For 485 years we have been welcoming people to church, and this week we'd love to welcome you too."

It wasn't long before clergy and parishioners who know their history picked up on the error, with Lloyd Llewellen-Jones professor of ancient history at Cardiff University and an Anglian tweeted: "I think that we can trace the roots of the established Church in England to at least 664CE, if not earlier. 485 years? Pah!"

The 664 date refers to the Synod of Whitby, when the kingdom of Northumbria chose to follow Roman rather than Celtic church practices.

Some members of clergy commented an earlier start date to the CofE was accurate. One of Anglican chaplain responded to the tweet: "That's funny, I thought my diocesan cathedral dated to the mid-4th century as a site of Christian worship? Are we simply one of many protestant sects, or Ecclesia Anglican, the Church of England? Please delete this and read the history page of the CofE website."

More here-

https://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Church-momentarily-casts-aside-1-000-years-of-history

Old North Church, a cherished symbol, opens up about its link to slavery

From Boston-

The slender white steeple of Old North Church is a cherished symbol of American freedom, the place where two signal lanterns dispatched Paul Revere on his famous 1775 ride to warn the colonists of approaching British troops.

But it’s also a symbol of something else — an American reckoning.

New research shows that Boston slave traders who attended Old North helped build that iconic steeple, and that those parishioners were deeply entwined in a slave-smuggling ring that shipped captive Africans from the British West Indies to notorious Dutch plantations in South America.

Startled by this discovery, the vicar at Old North plans to revamp the tours there, change interpretive signs, and ensure that the 150,000 yearly visitors to this Episcopal church have an opportunity to learn about these newly unearthed connections to Colonial slavery.

More here-

 https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/10/26/old-north-church-cherished-symbol-opens-about-link-slavery/tOKwIqLkBgeujRLyWELPfJ/story.html

Does a 19th century priest haunt St. Mary’s Episcopal Church?

From Kansas City-

Jason Dean, a parishioner at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, wrote of hearing about a controversial priest who died in 1886 and haunts the church to this day. In conjunction What’s Your KC BOO?, our special Halloween edition of What’s Your KC Q focusing on Kansas City’s haunted lore, he asked us to investigate.

We found … intrigue.

St. Mary’s wasn’t St. Mary’s when the church was first established in 1854. St. Luke’s Mission, as it was initially known, had humble beginnings. Lacking a permanent home, its congregation met at a variety of locations near today’s River Market neighborhood. The church prospered and, by 1867, had purchased a lot on the southeast corner of Eighth and Walnut and erected its first permanent home.

More here-

https://www.kansascity.com/news/your-kcq/article236604123.html

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/your-kcq/article236604123.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/your-kcq/article236604123.html#storylink=cpy