b. September 20, 1944

by the Archives Committee of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, NC, 2016

Carolyn Todd Stokes is a “cradle” Episcopalian. She was baptized on Christmas Eve of 1944 at Pinkney Memorial Church in Hyattsville, Maryland. Her family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1947, where they became members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Carolyn attended Sunday School, was a member of the choir and was a member of Episcopal Young Churchmen as a teenager.

In 1963 Carolyn married her next-door neighbor, James C. Stokes, Jr., who was also a member of St. Paul’s. They were married by the new rector, Dudley Colhoun, who also baptized their three children.

Carolyn and Jim moved several times because of Jim’s job transfers, and they always found the Episcopal Church. St. Paul’s in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Church of the Good Shepherd in Asheboro, North Carolina, were homes for a while, but in 1985 a move back “home” to Winston-Salem found them back at St. Paul’s.

Carolyn was active in the preschool while her three children were there. The annual bazaar workshops on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the fall were a part of her life. She chaired several committees including sewing and cooking.

In 1996 Dudley Colhoun asked Carolyn to join the Altar Guild. It has always been a special ministry for her. She became the co-chair with Lynn Holtzclaw in 2000, with a reorganization of that committee. There were three revolving co-chairs and each would take the lead for two years. It now has two co-chairs. That pattern has remained to this day. The Altar Guild at St. Paul’s is made up of several subcommittees (linen, flower and communion) with many women being involved in these areas. The communion committee has four weekly chairs with a team that either sets up or cleans up once a month. The linen committee and flower committee each has a chair also. There are many services, including weekly services, weddings, funerals, Diocesan gatherings, including the ECW Annual Meeting in 2016. The Altar Guild does a lot of work behind the scenes, but it has always been very meaningful to Carolyn.

The other area that Carolyn has enjoyed is the Ecclesiastical Arts Committee. Members of this group are concerned with maintaining the historic, liturgical, and architectural integrity of St. Paul’s Church and grounds. This includes recommendations to the Vestry for expenditure of funds from the Ecclesiastical Arts Fund to support various long-term or permanent architectural, decorative, or liturgical enhancements.