The "Wednesday With The Saints" Story

St. James Episcopal in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania

It was an ordinary day.  Checking out the St. James Episcopal Church email that I receive every week that tells of the services that are offered this week as well as any special events being held and a feature that I enjoy called "Wednesdays with the Saints".  

Bishop William White

Today's Saint was Bishop William White who played a big part in the consecration of our rebuilt church in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Bishop White was a key figure in the establishment of the Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA.  Shortly after the American Revolution, when peace had been restored in our new country, life began to return to normal in everyday life, work and worship.  At St. James Episcopal the boards that had covered the windows of the church were removed.  

St. James' original church in Lancaster.

They had been placed over the windows when the church had been closed due to the rector, The Rev. Thomas Barton, being a loyalist to England and being forced to leave Lancaster.  To keep the church safe it was boarded up and church was not held until after the war had ended.  St. James appointed the Rev. Joseph Hutchins to resume and renew parish life.  

The "new" St. James at Duke and Orange Streets.

At the same time the Rev. William White, who was  the Rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia, called a meeting to discuss how the American congregations of the Church of England should move forward.  Representing St. James of Lancaster were William Parr, Edward Hand and George Ross, Jr.  On September 14, 1786 the Diocese of Pennsylvania was established and the Rev. William White, D.D. was elected the first Bishop of the Diocese.  Five years later he returned to England to be consecrated in Lambeth Chapel by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, assisted by the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the Bishop of Peterborough.  

The Rev. Thomas Barton who was loyal
to the Church of England and had to leave.

Rev. White's consecration as a bishop was the first one outside England that didn't require allegiance to England.  On Sunday, October 15, 1820, seventy-six years after the founding of St. James Episcopal in Lancaster, the Rt. Rev. William White consecrated our "new building."  He said, "I here consecrate and set apart for divine worship the rebuilt Church of St. James in the City of Lancaster, agreeably to the form of consecration of a church or chapel ordained and of one in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America."  So, this week our church was celebrating the life of William White, first Bishop of Pennsylvania.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

One of my altered Polaroid prints of the archway at St. James.

A photograph I took of the courtyard from the belltower.

The interior of the historic church at the corner of North Duke and East Orange Streets.