ChurchChurch of Our Savior Introduction · A Permanent Church · Chicago Fire · New Church on Fullerton Parkway · Dr. Petrie and the Diocese · Dr. Edwards and the Grand Days · Father Gratiot and the Rector · Great Missionary Work · The Catholic Religion · Reservation of the Mass · Father Burton's Mission · The Depression · The Darkest Days · Mission Status · Father Wetherell, Rector · Building Repairs · 80th Anniversary · Catholic Advances · Parish Growth · In Conclusion · The British Connection |
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The history of the Church of our Saviour shows an ironic picture often seen in the history of the Catholic Revival, of the God of the Holy Ghost working the great plan of salvation through man despite their willful opposition and protesting natures. Thus the parish, destined one day to take a fearless and unequivocal stand for the Full Catholic Faith, was actually cut off from the life of the diocese for several early years because the parish took exception to "medeival reactionism".
In 1867, the year the parish was founded, the Catholic Revival had found a firm foothold in England. But not for many years was its vitality to touch this parish and its life.
The Church of our Saviour was born, like the Saviour Himself, in a barn. That barn stood at Belden and Cleveland Avenues and was donated by a devoted churchman, Richard D. Van Wagenen, who also gave the $630 to fit it with chancel, pews and tower.
The first service of public worship took place on the evening of Easter Day, 1867, with the assistant pastor and the choir of St. James on hand for the occasion. On the fortieth anniversary of this event, the parish historian could boast that from its beginning forward, the church had had public worship every Sunday. Sometimes it was necessary for clergy from St. James or the Church of the Ascension to officiate; at times services were conducted by a layman under license from the Bishop; but never were the doors closed to the faithful.
In October, 1867, the little congregation called its first pastor, the Rev. Charles Ritter, and with the help of the Diocesan funds, offered him a stipend of $755 a year. And in September, 1868, the congregation numbering about 28 communicants and 72 souls was admitted to the Diocese at the same convention which admitted the now defunct Calvary parish.
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A Permanent Church That, briefly, was the beginning.
By Advent, 1869, the congregation had outgrown its
barn-church, and moved into a new frame at Belden,
Orchard and Lincoln. The rector, the Rev. William F. B.
Jackson, later recalled, "I think it was the Autumn
of 1869 that I was called to the rectorship, and that
Parish was then meeting in a barn which had been fitted
up in a very churchly manner...It has been my good
fortune to preach before a King of the Sandwich Islands,
and also before the Empress Dowager of Germany and all
the Foreign Ambassadors...but for real pleasure, and for
the feeling I was really reaching the hearts of the
people and doing some spiritual good, I never felt it
more than when officiating in that little barn." |
The great Chicago fire of 1871 spared the new building but burned the barn where the parish began. In this year the parish called as rector the Rev. William Jacob Petrie, who served until 1895. In the civic emergency the rector suspended pew rents for six months and refused to accept any salary.
By 1884 the city and the parish had recovered from the fire and the financial panic of the seventies. The prosperous parish bought a new pipe organ for $1,800--the same organ which is serving more or less dutifully today! In 1907, the Rev. John Herbert Edwards, rector, wrote of this organ: "With voice that yearly grows more feeble, and at times is plaintive and querulous, it is pleading for retirement."
In 1888, the cornerstone for our present church building was laid by Bishop McLaren, and the first service was held on Easter Day, 1889. In addition to the organ, the present Baptismal Font, Chapel Altar rail, some sanctuary furniture, eta. from the first church are still in use. The window overthe old church Altar is preserved in our parish house, which is about twenty years older than our present church. The parish growth during the first forty years was remarkable, and the work accomplished was noteworthy. By 1907 there were 521 communicants. The parish could point with pride to notable vocations from its ranks--the Rt. Rev. Frederic William Keator, Bishop of Olympia, was confirmed here, taught in the Sunday School, sang in the choir. The Rt. Rev. Samuel Cook Edsall, Bishop of Minnesota, grew up in the parish and sang in the choir. The Rev. Henry Edward Chase, youngest grandson of the first Bishop of Illinois, was confirmed here. |
One other characteristic of the parish is pointed up by the records. For many years the parish was virtually isolated from the life of the Diocese and the general American Church. Aside from paying Diocesan assessments and receiving the Bishop in his annual visitation for Confirmation, the parish was cut off from Diocesan activities. This position was largely due to the feeling held by Dr. Petrie that "I have no sympathy with the mediaeval reactionism which forms so distinctive a feature of this Diocese." So strongly did he feel that after he left the Church of Our Saviour he asked for a canonical transfer to the Diocese of Western Michigan. In 1904 he asked the Bishop of Chicago to receive him back.
Dr. Edwards and the Grand Days
But the plush days of Fullerton Parkway were drawing to a close. Dr. Edwards, writing in 1907, observed that apartments were crowding out the homes of the neighborhood. No longer was it possible for a few well-to-do people to support the Parish. Contributors in 1907 numbered three or four times as many stated contributors just twelve years previously. Under Dr. Edwards the parish became an integral part of the Diocese, a vested choir was introduced (which cost the parish a few families, he observes wryly,) and mission-giving was increased to the point where the parish won honors for its generosity!
The Rev. John Herbert Edwards, D.D., served as Rector of the parish from 1895 until 1912, when he resigned to become Rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit, Lake Forest, Illinois. Here Dr. Edwards served until he retired from the active ministry in 1922. He died in 1941 at the age of 87.
In early 1921, the Rev. Frederick L. Gratiot became rector. He had served previously as curate at Trinity, Highland Park, St. James, Chicago, the Church of the Holy Spirit, Lake Forest, and as instructor at the old Western Seminary in Chicago. With great zeal and cheerful determination, he set about to guide the parish to great achievements both materially and spiritually. It was under Fr. Gratiot that a central steam heating plant was installed to replace f1ve obsolete hot-air heaters used to heat the buildings. Gas jets were replaced by electric lights and all the woodwork in the church itself refinished. The sanctuary was improved and redecorated; a new altar was installed in 1926, and Miss Electra Papadopolous was comrnissioned to produce the painting above the High Altar portraying the eternal priesthood of Our Lord. In the period, 1921 1926, about $20,000 was spent in modernizing and decorating.
This same energetic approach was also applied to the parish's spiritual life. In the early twenties a mission church school, St. George's, was established at 1503 West Fullerton Avenue to provide children of that neighborhood with proper religious instruction. A Mass was said about once a month at the Mission Altar. Summer camp was provided, not only for the parish boys' choir, but for the children of St. George's Mission. Among the lay readers who staffed the mission church school was Mr. John W. Snyder, who is a parishioner still.
It must always be recorded that it was Father Gratiot who brought the first definitely Catholic teaching and practice to the Church of Our Saviour. From the beginning of his rectorate the Full Catholic Faith was openly, but patiently, taught. The Catholic nature of the Church and Priesthood was emphasized over and over again in sermons and writings. The Parish Monthly, begun in the summer of 1923, was used for this teaching. The gradual instruction of Catholic practice came after several years of solid teaching.
When the new High Altar and first Tabernacle were dedicated in March,1926, the practice of Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament was begun. Later in 1926 Fr. Gratiot introduced the use of proper Eucharistic vestments at the Church of Our Saviour. Christmas, 1926, the first Midnight Mass was celebrated. In 1927, having procured the aid of a curate, the Rev. Charles Evans, the daily offerings of Morning and Evening Prayer as well as daily Mass were begun. Mass at the 11 o'clock hour on Sundays became more frequent than the first Sunday of the month which had been the parish custom, and by the early thirties the Mass had been restored as the chief service of Sunday worship in the parish. The public posting of hours for Confessions came with the other advances in the late twenties. In short, by his patience, human understanding, and careful instruction, Fr. Gratiot succeeded in bringing the solid basis of the Catholic Faith to the Church of Our Saviour. The parish, and--of course--the whole American Church, must be forever grateful to Fr. Gratiot for these achievements. The blessings of full Catholic teaching and practice which the parish now enjoys are directly due to Fr. Gratiot's courage in brooking criticism (from both clergy and laity) and his Apostolic zeal in winning over the doubtful.
The year 1926 was a year of tragedy, too, for it was then that the frame apartment building on property east of the church was so severely damaged by fire it had to be razed. Thus the parish lost a valuable source of income.
Then came 1929. The very week of the nation's financial crash, the parish was holding its first Great mission, conducted by Fr. Spence Burton, S.S.J.E. By December, the economic plight and widespread unemployment were to be sorely felt. In his Christmas letter, the Rector pointed out the urgent need of $25,000 to pay off indebtedness and carry on the parish program during 1930. Despite these worries, the Rector courageously arranged for a broadcast of the Christmas Midnight Mass, which was carried to a wide radio audience.
The depression years struck the parish a blow from which it never fully recovered. Its difficulties were tripled by fast-depreciating property in constant need of repair, an accelerated "urbanizing" trend in the neighborhood, in which homes gave way to apartments, and the prosperous middle class moving out to make way for a transient population, many of whom were unable to find employment. As the parish property crumbled here and leaks sprang there, priest and people could only "retrench" and find a safer, drier spot to pray in.
The combination of debt, critically deteriorating buildings, and declining membership seemed almost too much to surmount, and many loyal parishioners concluded sadly that perhaps the Church of Our Saviour had "seen its day" and should follow many other urban parishes and close its doors.
As one examines the records of the period, it seems almost miraculous that this did not happen. Perhaps God simply did not will such an ignominious end for a church which had grown and struggled to such a noble witness for the Faith. At any rate, when the depression was over, but in the midst of World War II, the parish began the long, difficult climb back to health. In December, 1942, the Rev. Donald B. Kline, who had been a curate at St. Luke's, Evanston, became the Pastor, and began to lead a program of renovation and repair performed largely by volunteer labor. Under him St. Mary's chapel was constructed to provide a heated spot for the daily mass.
When Father Kline came, the Church of Our Saviour was reduced to mission status, in the hope that diocesan funds would provide the "transfusion" needed to get it on its feet. The plan succeeded in a measure, and at Easter, 1945, the Church of Our Saviour was restored as a parish. Father Kline served the parish, first us priest in charge and then for a year as Rector, from December, 1942, until April, 1946. He must be given credit for increasing the size of the congregation and the church school. But more especially he deserves credit, together with hard-working and faithful parishioners, for restoring parts of the property so that they might be used again. This was done on almost no money, and with a minimum of materials. "Blood, sweat and tears" were expended in many nights and days of painting, patching and repairing by the Rector and his helpers. It seemed an impossible job, but at the end of Father Kline's tenure, important portions of the property were in usable condition. It is doubtful if Father Kline could have continued any longer the day by day strain of heavy manual labor that he endured during his three-and-a-half-year pastorate. To this burden was added the mental strain of financial insecurity.
After the Church of Our Saviour was restored to parish status at Easter, 1945, it became apparent that the move was premature by several years, and that the financial and physical problems carried so bravely by Father Gratiot and Father Kline could not be solved in a few years. The restoration to parochial status, though it gave the parish an increase of hope and the rector a more than earned reward really enlarged the scope of financial and building problems for the next few years. Under these conditions the present rector, the Rev. William R. Wetherell, arrived, in Passion Week, 1946.
A native of Wilrnington, Delaware, a graduate of the University of Delaware and General Theological Seminary, he had served briefly as curate at St. Paul's, Brooklyn, N.Y., five years as curate at St. Clement's, Philadelphia, and as rector of Grace Church, Sterling, Illinois, 1943-1946.
Despite all previous efforts, the ancient frame parish house was still literally caving in when Fr. Wetherell arrived. The basement was almost completely gone, and the frame siding was curling off the walls. The following summer, city inspectors declared the structure unsafe for human occupancy and ordered it repaired or torn down.
There was no money to repair it; but there was no money to tear it down, either. A small loan was obtained from Bishop Conkling and a building committee formed. Chairman was junior warden, Arthur C. Bowers; he was assisted by the senior warden, James E. Tripp, now a priest in the diocese of Quincy. Including a $1,000 gift from the Bishop this committee raised almost $10,000 for the needed repairs. This sum exceeded the annual parish budget which is still raised with difficulty. How such a sum could have been raised in the parish can only be explained by two words--miracle and devotion. From Edward C. McMullen, a loyal parishioner and vestry-man, the building committee obtained professional help and advice which permitted them to restore the parish house on the very limited funds available. Some bids for the work had been $25,000. With about $10,000 and over a year's manual work by men of the parish, the parish house was rebuilt and repaired. The basement foundation and wall were rebuilt, new siding was put on, the interior wall painted, new steps were added, and the kitchen was re-floored and re-equipped.
In 1947, as the building program was getting under way, the parish observed its 80th anniversary. This began with the annual national meeting of the Guild of All Souls, which included a Solemn Mass of Requiem sung in the presence of the Bishop of Chicago, and a luncheon meeting in the parish house the first such event in many years. The next day was observed as 80th anniversary Sunday. The Rev. Franklin Joiner, D.D., Rector of St. Clement's Church, Philadelphia, and Superior of the Guild of All Souls, preached the anniversary sermon. In October, 1947 (concluding on the Feast of Christ the King, which Fr. Kline established as our Patronal Festival) the Rev. Alan G. Whittemore, then Superior of the Order of the Holy Cross, conducted a great preaching mission in the parish. This mission was attended by clergy and people from all over the city.
A few months after becoming rector Father Wetherell introduced the full Mass Rite of the Missal and the full Universal Calendar at the Church of Our Saviour. However, not until 1960 was a Sung Mass established as the norm for the late Mass on Sundays, and not until 1951 was Solemn Mass established on the greatest feasts. At Christmas, 1946, a large Christmas crib was blessed. In May, 1948, the Shrine of Our Lady of Victory was dedicated, and the annual May Procession in her honor instituted. Later in 1948 the complete service of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was established having been made possible through the gift of a monstrance in memory of Mrs. John C. Sutphen, a faithful Church School teacher. Easter that year the stone font from the first church was again set up in the church, and the beautiful angel font with Holy Water was placed in the narthex. Not until Easter, 1952, when the "Asperges" was added to complete the Sunday High Mass, was the introduction of Holy Water really completed. Stations of the Cross, each given as a memorial, were placed in the church and first used in Lent, 1949, and, as if to complete the Way of the Cross, the Confessional Box was placed in the church, Lent, 1950. Church flooring, seat covers, interior painting, altar remodeling, etc. were projects in 1951 and 1952 which made the church more beautiful than ever before. The record of this period would not be complete without mention of the high level of liturgical music which was introduced in the parish by Organist John Adamson.
In 1951 parish wards of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, the Guild of All Souls, and the Living Rosary of Our Lady and St. Dominic were formed. New members are constantly being added to each. In 1951 the Church of Our Saviour had the distinction of having the largest enrollment in the American Church Union (for the defense of the Catholic Faith) of any parish or mission in the Diocese of Chicago.
Also, during Fr. Wetherell's rectorship the playground was equipped and thus on parish property there is the only supervised playground in a fifteen block area. The Sunday Church School has grown, and continues to grow; a Wednesday afternoon "Released Time" School has been established. More recently, our Penceman, Floyd W. Jones, won Diocesan honors for his successful efforts over many years. Summer vacation supply work in the parish by the Rev. William Pin McCune, Ph.D., has brought the Church of Our Saviour many blessings.
In 1952, the 85th anniversary of the parish, was kept on "Good Shepherd Sunday," when the Rev. Franklin Joiner, D.D., preached, and in October a teaching mission was conducted by the Rev. Father Joseph, Superior of the Order of St. Francis, Mount Sinai, Long Island, N. Y. The clear cut teaching night by night, based on the Apostles' Creed, will long be remembered by all who attended the mission, especially by those who came into the Church and to the Sacraments as a result of this instruction.
The Feast of Christ the King in 1953 was observed with a Pontifical Mass sung by the Rt. Rev. Robert Erskine Campbell, D.D., Superior of the Order of the Holy Cross. That Sunday night and the two following nights Bishop Campbell conducted a memorable "School of Prayer."
As one reads the records of the years, one is impressed by this--the diff1culties we face today are in no way as great as problems faced and surmounted by brave men and women who preceded us. The fact that our parish exists at all is a tribute to their faith--faith that persisted when hope was nearly gone. It is God's Holy Spirit that enables the weak to confound the strong. Only in this way can we explain why a parish with an annual budget smaller than many rector's annual stipends has managed to find its way into the affections of so many people.
A leaf from the past should be our guide in the future. Nothing but the full Christian Faith built this parish and kept it going in its darkest hour. This is the sum total of wealth, and if we can keep our faith, the rest will be "added unto us."
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the church has a British connection...In the early 1970's the Vestry decided that it would be good to have a bell. Although we always had a tower on the church, we had never had a bell. An advertisement in the Episcopal newspaper told about some bells for sale in England in the little village of Everton, Bedfordshire. St. Mary's tower had suffered greatly from lightning and a fire. They were offering their total ring of bells for sale in order to raise funds to repair the church. One of our parishioners was visiting England in 1976. He was asked to visit the village and inspect the bells. He took a side trip to Everton and met the vicar of St. Mary's. The church dated from about 1200, and the bells were case during the reign of Elizabeth I. The parishioner chose a bell at about the cost of $500, and the money was raised to transport it to Chicago. At that time the church had a mot generous parishioner by the name of Daggett Harvey of Harvey Restaurant fame. he gave a good deal of money for the bell as he had generously provided funds in the past for improvement of the fabric. On December 19, 1976 the bell was christened by Bishop Montgomery as "John" and lifted into the tower by the Paschen Bros. Construction Company. They had also prepared the tower, reinforcing it and reinforcing the floor. The bell was given in honor of Father Reed's ten years with the parish and rang for the first time to toll the death of Mayor Daley. Paschen Brothers gave their services for free in honor of Mr. Harvey, who had also passed away by this time. A year later, a group of parishioners, led by Father Reed traveled to England with the objective of visiting the home of parish of our bell. Father Reed was asked to preach the sermon at the Sunday Mass, and it was a solemn and happy occasion. |
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