Four years in the business world led the Bishop to abandon his profession and he turned to the ministry. After his graduation in 1908 from Virginia Theological Seminary he was ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Woodcock, who preached at his consecration as Bishop in Idaho in 1925.The Bishop began his ministry in Shelbyville, Ky., which he left to serve as assistant at Christ Church, Baltimore, where he remained two years. The cotton mills city of New Bedford, Mass., next claimed his attention and then came 12 years at the Church of the Advent, Birmingham, Ala.

In 1924 he served as field secretary for the National Council, and in 1925 was elected Bishop of Idaho by the General Convention which met at New Orleans. The years in Idaho were busy ones, and when he left to become Georgia’s Coadjutor, there were permanent monuments to his industry. In the nine and a half years he spent there he had founded the Idaho Summer Camp on Payette Lake, Boise Junior College, and built St. Luke’s Hospital.

Arriving in Georgia about nine years ago, he served as Coadjutor until he succeeded Bishop Reese, as diocesan, on his death in 1935. The diocese of Georgia has gone steadily forward under his leadership and Church statistics show an increase in almost every branch.

Bishop Barnwell and his wife, the former Margaret Thorne Lighthall of Syracuse, N. Y., whom he married in 1912, now live in Savannah. When the fighting in Europe is ended and the need for bandages has lessened, the Bishop and his wife will move into the handsome home now used by the Red Cross, which has been recently given to the diocese as the Bishop’s residence by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Groves of Savannah. As part of his contribution to the war effort, Bishop Barnwell is often to be seen pedaling his bicycle about Savannah, saving his car for longer trips.

WOMAN’S AUXILIARY

A Comprehensive Program

The Woman’s Auxiliary of the diocese of Georgia has translated the Presiding Bishop’s slogan, “Through World Evangelism to World Fellowship in Christ,” into a comprehensive and vigorous diocesan program of missions, education, and fellowship.

With Bishop Barnwell, the women are promoting increased support to the worldwide work of the National Council. They are also working hard to strengthen diocesan missions, increasing their own contributions for this purpose and helping small churches to grow toward self-support. Some missions of the diocese are supported almost entirely by the Auxiliary, among them being St. Anne’s, Tifton, and St. Luke’s, Hawkinsville.

Young people’s work is helped by the Auxiliary in many ways. In cooperation with the diocesan Department of Religious Education, the women provide scholarships for Camp Reese, the diocesan conference center. Plans are being made for 1 diocesan college work program, including a full-time worker to give vocational guidance as well as to minister to students and teachers.

Vocational guidance among college students is stressed by Mrs. Roy E. Breen, diocesan W.A. president, as one of the important fields of future service. “There is need of leaders in the Church today,” Mrs. Breen declares. “The opportunities of service through Church work should be presented to our best boys and girls. Shall we not begin development in this field and grow along with expanding colleges? Recruiting workers is our personal responsibility.”

Worship and prayer have an important place in the Auxiliary’s program. Prayer committees are functioning through which the women grow in the prayer life, get a clearer idea of God’s nature and will deepen their knowledge of the gospels, and strengthen their fellowship in Christ.

Seeking to apply Christian principles to the whole fabric of life, the women are studying plans for making a better world for all people, socially, politically, and economically.

The Georgia Woman’s Auxiliary is actively carrying out the call of the Cleveland triennial meeting for a definite study of principles of proportionate giving—personal, parochial, and diocesan. This is resulting in a complete revision of the diocesan Auxiliary budget to meet the needs of the present time.

Study programs are being developed in accordance with the Forward in Service emphasis for the year on international and interracial understanding as a means of extending fellowship in Christ. The Auxiliary, through its individual members, is also stressing personal evangelism, with the objective of bringing more men and women to baptism and confirmation and increasing church attendance.

Calling Georgia Churchwomen to more effective Christian service, Mrs. Breen says, “Women of the Auxiliary, find your place in the Church’s program; let us all fulfil our responsibilities as co-workers with God in the extension of His Kingdom.”

COLORED WORK

Schools and Churches

Before 1854, there were no separate Negro churches in Savannah. Up until that time the Colored folk attended services in the White churches. In 1854, led by Bishop Elliott, some of the members of Christ Church, Savannah, realized the need for the Colored people of Savannah to have a church of their own.

This work was begun very simply. A room in the Old Grist Mill was rented for use as a Sunday school. But so rapidly did the work grow, that in a very, few years St. Stephen’s was admitted into the diocese as a parish. This parish organized the first kindergarten for Negro children in Savannah and served as a pathfinder for the work of the Church among the Negro people of the diocese.

In 1872, only 18 years after its own humble beginning, St. Stephen’s organized St. Augustine’s Church and located it in a strong Negro section of the city. Together these two parishes have ministered faithfully to the needs of the Colored people throughout the years. The present merger of these churches [see next column] is but evidence of their united intention to carry their people forward in God’s work.

Notable work has been done in schools supported by the diocese and the national Church at several points in the diocese. It is reported that not one child who attended St. Cyprian’s School, Darien, has ever been brought into civil court.

Very active church programs are being carried on in all of the Negro centers today. Outstanding work is being done under the Rev. Thaddeus P. Martin in St. Athanasius, Brunswick, and the Rev. Elliott L. Guy at St. Mary’s, Augusta. The Rev. Robert N. Perry continues his faithful services as pastor of the church and principal of the school in Thomasville.

ST. MATTHEW’S

Savannah’s Colored Churchmen are looking forward to one of the most attractive groups of church buildings in the entire diocese. Spurred on by the interest of local Churchpeople and the national Church in the project, St. Stephen’s and St. Augustine’s, which had decided to merge and become the new St. Matthew’s, anticipate an enlarged field of service.

Founded by Bishop Elliott more than 90 years ago, St. Stephen’s physical equipment had deteriorated and the neighborhood changed, so that a move had become necessary. St. Stephen’s buildings were in a similar condition and its neighborhood had become a noisy business district. By unanimous decision of the combined vestries, the two congregations voted to merge; St. Augustine’s property was sold and $10,000 was invested in a fine site, where a church, parish house, and rectory will be erected. Preliminary drawings have been prepared under the supervision of John C. Lebey, who was the architect for the lovely new St. Michael’s in Savannah.

At first it had been planned to build only the church, using the money the local Colored people could raise, the money the diocese could give, and the proceeds from the sale of the two old churches. Because of the interest of the national Church and the results of a survey conducted by the Rev. George Weiland, secretary of the Department of Domestic Missions, and the Rev. Bravid Harris, secretary for Negro Work, the new St. Matthew’s project was selected by the Division of the Christian Education of the National Council to be the recipient of the children’s Birthday Thank Offering. With the help from the children of the Church it is planned to go ahead with the construction of the entire group of buildings. The Colored members of the two congregations have adopted an objective of $7,500 and in addition are providing new pews and all chancel furnishings.

As soon as it is possible to begin building operations it is planned to let the contract for the entire program and the Colored people of Savannah will then have a congregation of more than 600 communicants and a group of church buildings in which they can take justifiable pride.

Local Church people hope that every diocese and parish in the Church will want to have its part in this project for strengthening the work of the Church among the Colored people. They feel that with racial tensions high as they are today, the cooperative effort of both Negroes and Whites in the project has deep significance. Any contributions sent to Dr. Lewis B. Franklin, treasurer of the National Council, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York 10, and designated for the Birthday Thank Offering will be used for the new St. Matthew’s project.

SAVANNAH

The City
By KENNETH E. PALMER

Savannah, the birthplace of the state of Georgia and the see city of the diocese of Georgia, has always been one of the principal ports of the South Atlantic. It was Savannah’s harbor that played so important a part in the early development of the town and state and each year on May 22d when National Maritime Day is observed throughout the country it is a tribute to the Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, which embarked from this port in 1819.

When Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin at Savannah toward the end of the 19th century it became the chief factor in the plantation production through slave labor of cotton, which in time came to be known as “King” in the South. Until after World War I Savannah’s cotton row on the Bay vied with the naval stores trade (turpentine and rosin) which was preeminent in this section.

Accustomed to an easy going life that was as attractive in its cultural and social aspects as the beauty of its tree-lined parks and squares, Savannah suffered from the depression and from the changed economic conditions relative to the cotton, shipping, and textile industries. But through alert civic leadership, centered in its Port Authority, Industrial Committee, and its Chamber of Commerce, Savannah was already well on the road to economic recovery long before the military, shipyard, and other war plant developments of World War II brought boom prosperity to the Southeast.

Churchmen have always been in the forefront of the business and industrial development of Savannah as they have been in its political, civic, and cultural life.

It was a Churchman who became president of the first of the system of railroads that combined with the shipping industry to give this city its early importance as a shipping center. It was a Churchman who not only led in the development of the modern residential section of the city but who organized the movement which made possible the trunk line highway system which radiates from the city. It is a Churchman for whom the first of the city’s two huge, modern airports is named. It is a Churchman who heads both the Industrial Committee and the Port Authority, and who has been since the war the head of the city’s civilian defense organization.

It was likewise a Churchman who, with his experiments in making paper pulp from pine trees, blazed the trail which brought the paper making industry to the South and led to the establishment in Savannah of what has become the largest kraft paper mill in the world.

In recent years Savannah’s industrial life has also seen the development of important factories in the fabrication of steel and other metals and it was Churchmen who played the important roles in bringing the major plants of this type to engage in the widespread business which they enjoy today.

Above all, Savannah is a happy place in which to live, and may the pardon of literary license rather than the condemnation of blasphemy be accorded the anonymous author who penned the exaggerated but significant lines, “I would rather he a fiddler on the coast of Georgia than a harpist in the courts of heaven.”

Savannah’s Churches

February 12th will mark the 212th anniversary of the Church in Georgia. Savannah, just as it was the “cradle of Georgia” was also the birthplace of the first work of the Church in this state. As a matter of fact, the state of Georgia has never been without the services of a priest of the Church. When the first colonists came, they brought with them the Rev. Henry Herbert, a priest of the Church of England.

But we might date the real beginning of the Church work in Savannah, and in Georgia, with the coming of John Wesley in 1736. This great figure of religious history, thought by many to be the founder of present day Methodists, is well remembered as the founder of historic Christ Church. John Wesley remained in Savannah only two years but during that time he laid the foundations of a mighty parish which continues today to be one of the outstanding churches of the South. Under his rectorship there was formed a Sunday school for children which has been recognized by the International Sunday School Association as the oldest Sunday school in the United States.

John Wesley was succeeded at Christ Church by that other well-known religious leader, George Whitefield, who continued Wesley’s evangelistic work and was instrumental in starting the first orphanage in America. This orphanage was called Bethesda and is today a wonderful home for some 100 boys.

The able work begun by the founders of this parish has been carried on most admirably throughout the years and Christ Church while proud of its past is a most vigorous and progressive organization. Although, never designated as a cathedral, this church has always been the center of diocesan life. The Bishop maintains his office there and in its sanctuary is a most exquisitely handcarved cathedra.

St. John’s, the church with the chimes, had its origin at a meeting of the congregation of Christ Church on December 3, 1840. It is believed that the coming election of the first bishop for the state of Georgia had a lot to do with the creation of this parish. Up until that date no city in the state had more than one church and so none had claim to be the see city. And so the people of Christ Church founded another parish to give Savannah the prestige it needed to bring the bishop to their city.

As was hoped, the Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Stephen Elliott, did come to Savannah and served as rector of both Christ Church and St. John’s for three years. But in a very few years, St. John’s, located in a most strategic section of the city, enjoyed a large growth in membership and became and remains today the largest parish in the diocese. Its communicant list numbers some 1,200 people.

CHURCH WITH THE CHIMES

St. John’s is affectionately known to Savannahians as the “Church with the Chimes.” Each Sunday morning and each evening during Lent the chimes of St. John’s call all men to thoughts of God and of His holy purpose for them.

The great esthetic pride of this parish is its magnificent reredos, which was erected in memory of one of its former rectors, the late William T. Dakin. The reredosdepicts our Lord as King reigning above the cross (which is seen in the background) with arms outstretched inviting, “Come unto me all ye that travail.”

During its entire history, St. John’s has had but ten rectors. The most outstanding of these was the rectorship of the late Charles H. Strong, who served the parish for 36 years. Dr. Strong was probably the first citizen of Savannah and under him St. John’s attained a leadership in civic affairs which carries on today. Its Men’s Club is one of the finest organizations for men in the city.

Under the present rector, the Rev. Ernest Risley, St. John’s has acquired ground for a new parish hall and social service center and has purchased the old Meldrim home (headquarters for General Sherman when he visited the South) to be used as a parish house and rectory.

The spirit of Georgia Churchmen has always been the spirit that has sent the Church into all the world. The Church-people of Georgia are missionary laymen and women. Just as St. John’s was started by Christ Church, so St. John’s has always been a strongly missionary minded parish.

ST. PAUL’S

In 1852 St. John’s and Christ Church working together founded a mission called St. Matthew’s. The first efforts failed, but these courageous missionary men and women were not to be stopped. And their efforts were finally rewarded when their mission was admitted as the parish of St. Paul’s Church in the diocese in 1892. St. Paul’s has always been the center of Anglo-Catholicism in the diocese and has sometimes been nicknamed the “AngloCatholic Cathedral” of the South. The present church building, English Gothic type, was erected in 1907. And in that same year the Rev. Samuel 13. McGlohon began his 25 year rectorship. Under Fr. McGlohon, the parish grew in both numbers and devotion. A schedule of daily Eucharists was begun, sacramental confession was taught, and a handsome parish hall was erected. The spirit of St. Paul’s so firmly established by Fr. McGlohon is being carried forward today in a progressive program under the present rector, the Rev. William H. Brady.

The chief architectural joy of St. Paul’s is the magnificent rood screen erected by the people of the parish as a thanksgiving for their Church. The rood screen, extending entirely across the chancel, serves as a dais for a most impressive wood-carved representation of Calvary.

Evidence that Church life of Savannah is in the past only because the past serves as a mighty foundation for future is found in the newly consecrated Church of St. Michael’s. This parish was formed originally (about 30 years ago) as a Sunday school by Christ Church. Later it was made a mission and in 1920 it was admitted as an independent parish into the diocese. In 1941 a new church building was necessary in order to take care of the large and active membership of the church. Under the Rev. Howard McGudden Mueller, the present rector, plans were made and the money raised to erect a handsome colonial style church fashioned on Old Bruton Church, Williamsburg, Va., and in less than three years, this past December 3d, the church was consecrated.

St. Michael’s is situated in a new residential section of the city and carries on the fine missionary tradition laid down by its forefathers—where the people are in Georgia, there is the church.

Savannah is proud of three former rectors who are now leading Bishops in the Church: Bishop Wing of South Florida, who was at one time rector of Christ Church; Bishop Carpenter of Alabama, one-time rector of St. John’s; and Bishop Walker of Atlanta, who began his ministry in charge of several missions in the suburbs of Savannah.

NOTED CHURCHES

The Church in Augusta

The founding of Augusta and the establishment of the Church in this section are very closely knit together. The early settlers built their own church, “near by the King’s Fort,” in the year 1750 and named it St. Paul’s. A plea from the congregation to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel resulted in a priest’s being sent to them. And for the next 18 years, St. Paul’s not only ministered to its own congregation but served all Church-people for a radius of over 100 miles.

During the Revolution the building erected in 1750 was destroyed, but in 1786 a new building was erected. This latter building gave way in 1819 for the erection of one of the finest examples of Colonial architecture ever known in the South. This building of 1819 served the congregation until 1916 when it was swept by fire. In 1919 the present church was erected.

A walk about the beautiful churchyard of St. Paul’s takes one back to some of the greatest moments in the history of the South. The noted Bishop-General of the South, Leonidas K. Polk and his wife were interred here until December, 1944, when their remains were taken to Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans, in accordance with the Bishop’s wishes. Here, too, are buried General Matthews who prevented the route of the American Army at Brandywine; George S. Washington, nephew of the first President; and William Longstreet, who put a steamboat on the Savannah River a year before Fulton experimented on the Hudson.

Under the roof of St. Paul’s was held the meeting which officially began the diocese of Georgia and here in 1862 was held the one and only meeting of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Confederate States of America.

However, the glory of St. Paul’s is not confined to the past, for under the present rector, the Rev. Hamilton West, St. Paul’s stands as one of the leading parishes of the South.

CHRIST CHURCH

In 1886 Augusta Churchmen began their third church center known as Christ Church. This church was located in the extremely poor residential section of the city which has since come to be known as the Mill District. Ever since the day of its founding, Christ Church has served and been most loyal to its people. In 1928 the work in this center was greatly augmented by a most generous bequest from the late Mrs. Margaret S. Byllesby. With the income from this fund the Christ Church Neighborhood House was established and endowed and began a great social service work which it continues today.

Under the present vicar, the Rev. Edward Claytor, the work of this mission is being vigorously pushed forward; the church school numbers some 200 children, the parish hall is being used continuously, and while the demands for material help are not as great as they were, the social service department is doing a wonderful work in assisting people to readjust themselves to new and trying conditions of life.

Also under Mr. Claytor’s care is the Church of the Atonement. A recent editorial in an Augusta paper reports that this church might well be called the Resurrection. For years this parish appeared to be dying out, but under Mr. Claytor a new growth has begun which finds a large and growing church school and well attended services.

CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Augusta, with the Rev. Allen B. Clarkson as rector, is putting its emphasis on the family as the basic unit in parochial life. Each family in the parish has selected a date of special significance to them as their Family Day. On this date the family make their Communions together, with any members of the parish who wish to celebrate this day with them. The hour of the service is set for the convenience of the family, and small children attend with their parents. Intercessions are offered at the altar for each member of the family by name and for their loved ones. Some time during the day, when the whole family is at home, the rector calls upon them, and often joins them for a meal.

A regular Sunday service of Evening Prayer has developed into another means of cementing family relationships and developing fellowship within the larger family of the parish, and has become one of the high spots of parochial life. Often at this service new members are received into the Church through the Sacrament of Baptism. About four times a year the young people of the parish take complete charge, singing in the choir, reading the lessons, and making a talk. Special intercessions are offered by request in the quiet of the candle-lit church. And the junior choir of boys and girls under the direction of Mrs. Clyde Graham regularly fill the choir stalls. Whole families attend together, often with small children, for whom this service has a special appeal. Immediately afterward, the whole congregation enjoys fun and fellowship and a simple supper of sandwiches in the parish hall. In a day when Evening Prayer is never read in many churches, it is assuming an increasingly large place in the Christian life of worship, instruction, and fellowship in the family of the Good Shepherd.

BRUNSWICK

The town of Brunswick has one of the greatest war growths of any place its size in America. From a lovely county seat of 20,000 people four years ago to a population of 65,000 in July, 1944, is a growth in population seldom read about. But despite this growth, St. Mark’s Church still continues to take care of the people of that city. In order to care better for them a chapel has been erected near one of the war housing centers. Regular services are held in this chapel every Sunday, a temporary vestry has been established for it, and a full Church program put into being. St. Mark’s is one of the oldest and most famous of the Georgia coastal churches. Its foundations are rooted in the past, but its glory in the future. No church in the diocese has had such tremendous problems placed upon it and met them so definitely.