The Story Goes On
THE STORIES OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH WOMEN
OF THE DIOCESE OF NORTH CAROLINA
IN THE WORDS OF THOSE WHO LIVED THEM.
We will tell the stories not because we live for the past but because the past informs the present,
and we must be present before we begin, with God’s help, to claim our future.
The story fragments below were collected and published during the five-year lead-up
to the 200th anniversary of the Diocese of North Carolina in 2017.
The “Home and Hospital,” under the charge of some of the ladies of the congregation, has cared for seven or eight patients since I took charge. A new organ, which is much needed, will be purchased by a society of the young ladies by the end of the year.
(Source: The Rev. John K. Mason, Parochial Report, St. Peter’s, Charlotte, 1880 Journal of Convention, 148)
A society has been formed in this Parish, by the title of the Thompson Orphanage Guild, consisting at present of forty-seven members. This body has a special aim to further the interest of the Thompson Orphanage, and in other ways to promote the prosperity of the Parish in stirring up an interest in all good works to the glory of God and the increase of his Church. The offices are: The President, Mr. Samuel S. Nash; Vice-President, Miss Minerva Pittman; Recording Secretary, Mr. James S. Paull; Corresponding Secretary, Miss M. Pittman; Treasurer, Mr. T. E. Lewis.
(Source: The Rev. Joseph B. Cheshire, Parochial Report, Calvary Church, Tarboro, 1897)
The above report has a sad blank as the result of our fatal calamity on the night of March 27th, last, when our beautiful church, with Sunday School books, Pipe organ, all the furniture, and the Parish Register was all consumed by fire, the actual loss to the Parish being not less than seven thousand dollars. At the present we have pledged about $2,800 to start the erection of a church in the town. Who will help us in this our day of necessity?
(Source: The Rev. H. G. Hilton, Parochial Report, Trinity Church, Scotland Neck, 1884 Journal of Convention, 83)
Our Medical missions in China and Africa need assistance. They find it absolutely necessary in many cases to supply proper nourishment as well as medicines to the destitute sick. I have received several requests for such aid. Suppose each of our thirty branches promises to send something for this purpose this year, according to their ability! United work for distinct purposes will help us all, and draw us nearer to each other, and to those for whom we work; will make us sure that we accomplish something, and that our mites are not frittered among so many places as to count for nothing. We can draw from the Church Missions House information about the object which we select, which will quicken our interest in Church work.
(Source: Jane R. Wilkes, Diocesan Secretary, N. C. Branch Woman’s Auxiliary, “Minutes of Annual Meeting,” May 16, 1895, 6)
The new church was consecrated on the 18th day of April, 1894, ten of the Clergy present. In the death of Mrs. Caroline Burgwin Ashe, who was taken from us March 6th, this parish has sustained a great loss.
(Source: The Rev. Charles C. Quin, Parochial Report, Calvary Church, Wadesboro, 1894 Journal of Convention, 136)
From colonial times to the present, African-Americans have affiliated in various capacities with the Episcopal Church. Saint Ambrose Church was established during the post-Civil War era in 1868. By an act of the North Carolina legislature’s 1868-1869 sessions, a lot was granted on the corner of Lane and Dawson Streets for 99 years to Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church and Parochial School. By a subsequent act of the Legislature, the Vestry (trustees) of the initial property was authorized to sell the original site and reinvest the proceeds in other real estate in or near the city. Under this authority, the Vestry purchased a lot on the corner of Wilmington and Cabarrus Streets and there relocated the church building intact. This relocation took place around the turn of the 20th century. The church and parochial school operated many years in this location. The school was located in the basement of the church. Later a rectory was built adjacent to the church. The church, then a mission congregation in the diocese, remained so until under the leadership of the Reverend George A. Fisher; it became the first black parish in the Diocese of North Carolina.
In 1896 it was reported, “We now have a Vestry of six faithful men, a Woman’s Auxiliary and an Altar Guild in good working order.”
(Source: The Rev. James E. King, Deacon, Parochial Report, St. Ambrose’s Church, Raleigh, 1896 Journal of Convention, 95)
Today, February 28, we honor Anna Julia Haywood Cooper. A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Mrs. Cooper was born August 10, c1859 and died on February 27, 1964. It was while attending St. Augustine Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a school in Raleigh founded by the Episcopal Church to educate African-American teachers and clergy, that she became an Episcopalian. Now a saint of the Episocpal Church, she shares this day with another African American educator, advocate, scholar and humanitarian, Elizabeth Evelyn Wright.
Said Mrs. Cooper, who was also married to the second African-American man ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in North Carolina, “It is not the intelligent woman v. the ignorant woman; nor the white woman v. the black, the brown, and the red, it is not even the cause of woman v. man. Nay, tis woman’s strongest vindication for speaking that the world needs to hear her voice.”
A day school has been taught at Southern Pines the past winter by Mrs. Wheeler, whose salary has been paid by the Massachusetts Branch of the Woman’s Auxiliary.
(Source: The Rev. William Walker, Report of the Archdeacon for Colored Work, 1897 Journal of Convention, 112)
As an Auxiliary we are asked to think of Christian social service not merely as visiting the sick or prisoners, the sending of flowers or clothes and magazines but as a constructive plan for making a better citizenship, for removing the causes leading to crime, poverty, disease and ignorance and helping others to help themselves. In order that we more effectively work for these things I recommend that the Woman’s Auxiliary have a representative on the Legislative Council for Women. Our prisoners call to us, our inter-racial relations are a reproach to our profession as Christians and our treatment of our returned soldiers is without excuse.
[Source: Fannie N. Bickett (Mrs. Thomas W.), Report of the President, 1923 Woman’s Auxiliary Annual Report, 14]
I have written the National Church for information concerning the need for recruits, and have the following from Rev. A. B. Parsons, the Associate Secretary: “The opportunities which are before us on the Mission Field never were greater. Evangelistic workers are needed. These should be young women of unquestioned devotion, winning personality, and those with the very best of educational preparation. They should be sturdy in physique, free from family responsibility or financial obligations here or at home; and these women should be prepared to devote a substantial number of years to this work. It is also desirable that the candidate should have had at least one year’s experience in her chosen vocation.” May we hope that some young women in this Diocese may be inspired with the love and faith sufficient to be willing to go unto the uttermost parts of the earth, in answer to these calls, and that the Woman’s Auxiliary well see fit to finance the venture?
(Source: Alice W. Spruill (Mrs. F. S.), Recruiting Secretary, 1935 Woman’s Auxiliary Annual Report, 46)
