One hundred years ago this week, the women of Emmanuel Episcopal Church Guild were probably deeply involved in preparing dinners for community events, teas, bazaars and quilt fairs to raise money to pay for their just -completed church building at 501 N. Broadway.
The centennial of Episcopal Church services in Shawnee was celebrated in 1996, but the present church building was completed in 1909, according to its cornerstone.
Observance of the building’s 100th anniversary and rededication for a second century will be this weekend.
Records reveal that the Rev. Francis Key Brooks, first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, conducted the first confirmation service in Dexter Hall, Main-Bell (present location of Shawnee Travel Shop), in January 1896.
Documents also show the first church building was erected at Tenth-Broadway at a cost of $350 in 1897; that the framework of the present church was up in July 1909, and services were being held in it in November, 1909 but exact date of its completion and consecration are lost in the sands of time.
“So we had to figure that logically, it had to have been in October 1909,” the Rev. Clark Shackelford, rector, said this week.
Its cost is also unknown today but the late Jane Baptist-Witcher recalled in 1996 that “the women did almost all of the work in paying off the 1906 debt.”
The women served all of the community banquets, like the Shawnee High School junior-senior banquet.
“They brought their own silver and linens from their homes and they were all wonderful cooks,” Mrs. Witcher said.
“Everything was made from scratch. There were no cars and they walked home.”
She remembered her aunt, with whom she lived as a child after her mother’s death, coming home at 2 a.m., after washing dishes by hand following fund-raisers at the church. And her own job of ironing as many as 75 napkins with “the old kind of iron you heated on the stove” for community banquets.
The building at Tenth-Broadway was moved to Broadway-Highland, next to the new church in 1909, to serve as a parish house.
The recently renovated Nativity Window on the present church’s west side, was installed in 1909 by a Minneapolis, Minn. company at a cost of several thousand dollars—also paid for with the Emmanuel Guild women’s hard work.
At 5 p.m. Saturday, the church will be rededicated for the next 100 years by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Edward J. Konieczny, Episcopal bishop of Oklahoma in an historic and colorful service.
“We’ll gather with the bishop outside the church doors,” Fr. Shackelford said. “After he gives the opening prayer, the bishop will say, ‘let the doors be opened.’
“He may knock on the door with his crozier,” the rector said.
The congregation will follow him inside where he will lead more prayers rededicating the building itself, the recently upgraded organ, the stained glass windows, parish hall, kitchen and educational wing.
Then he will go outside to bless a new Peace Pole containing a prayer for peace in several languages including Native American. Its installation immediately west of the church entrance was a project of the church outreach group, led by Nancy Langley.
Jane Burke, Shawnee, will sing, “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”
Sandra Meyer, organist at Emmanuel during the late 1970s and early 1980s, now associate professor of music at Oklahoma Baptist University and organist at Wesley United Methodist Church, will play an organ solo when the bishop rededicates the organ, and a postlude after he dismisses the congregation following the Peace Pole blessing.
Participants will then move back to the parish hall for a reception, toasts to the church’s next century and a centennial dinner, catered by Benedict Street Marketplace.
A program, “Music Through The Ages,” will follow. Elizabeth Davis is centennial planning committee chairwoman. Jim Keefover is co-chairman.
All events are public. Dinner tickets are $15, available by calling the church office at 273-1374.
Bishop Konieczny will confirm at least 37 persons at the 10:30 a.m. service Sunday. “Only three churches in the diocese are experiencing that kind of growth,” Fr. Shackelford said.
The anniversary observance has been ongoing all month. Services Oct. 4 and 11 were from the 1892 edition of the church’s Book of Common Prayer and its successor, the 1928 edition. The current, 1979 Book of Common Prayer, which succeeded the 1928 one, has been used for subsequent services.
Through the last 100 years, Emmanuel parish has had 22 rectors.
The original wooden altar, designed by the Rev. Franklin Smith, the church’s first rector, is in use in the Lady Chapel, created from the church’s original entryway during extensive remodeling in 1974-76 by then rector, the Rev. Martin Goller. He was a professional architect before entering the ministry.
The old parish hall, Emmanuel’s first church, was razed and the new one, with modern kitchen, was built in the 1950s during the Rev. Norman Quigg’s 14 years as rector.
An educational wing was added in the 1960s.
Emmanuel members over the years have contributed much volunteer service to many community organizations ranging from CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children) to Shawnee Little Theatre and Boy Scouts.
