October 26, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

St. Paul’s focuses on the future as it celebrates its past
The 150th anniversary of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill allowed the congregation to revitalize itself and welcome a new, promising rector
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

The Rt. Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, former rector of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and current bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, will be presiding over St. Paul’s 150th anniversary service on Nov. 5. (Photo courtesy of St. Paul’s church)

Although the yearlong celebration honoring the 150th anniversary of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill concludes on Sunday, parishioners will have a lasting remembrance through A Parish Journey: 1856-2006, a history of the parish written by local historian David R. Contosta.

In its glossy 266 pages, the book tells the story of a church that has survived dramatic social and economic changes since it was established in 1856. Ten chapters highlight not only the church’s history — as it develops from a summer chapel for Philadelphia’s affluent, to a church frequently expanding its walls around its growing congregation — but also society’s challenges and changes throughout the 150-year history.

St. Paul’s, at 22 E. Chestnut Hill Ave., was accepted as an official member of the Episcopal diocese in May 1856, although the first vestry, which had come together in 1855 to found the church, had hired the church’s first rector, Alexander Shiris on Nov. 5 of that year.

Coincidentally, Nov. 5 falls on a Sunday — All Saints’ Sunday — and the church purposefully scheduled its celebratory anniversary service for that day, exactly 151 years after the first rector was hired.

After Sunday’s 10:30 a.m. service, parish families present will receive a copy of A Parish Journey, provided by the private donors who underwrote the book. The book will not be available to the public until Nov. 7, and then it will be available only at Border’s Book Store in Chestnut Hill.

Arabella Pope, a former rector’s warden, and her husband have been parishioners and actively involved in the church since they moved to the city nearly 30 years ago.

“It’s amazing to me that the parish has been around for so long, despite all the changes that occurred around it,” said Pope, who helped edit the book. “Thinking of an institution living through the different social changes and events that St. Paul’s congregation witnessed, and thinking about the role the institution played to its parishioners, it’s just amazing to see how things are now so different, yet still the same in some ways.”

Stewart Graham, the church’s rector’s warden and a 15-year parishioner, said he viewed the anniversary “as not only a delving into the past, but a look forward to the future of St. Paul’s under the ministry of Rev. Cliff Cutler.”

The Rev. Cliff Cutler came to the church in February after the congregation survived for two years under the well-accepted, but unstable leadership of two interim rectors. Cutler said the opportunity to help St. Paul’s heal and redevelop was an exciting one.

He added that the anniversary gave the parishioners the opportunity to take the redevelopment and renewal of the parish into their own hands.

“I think the church is where we can make a real foundational difference in the community,” Cutler said. “[The anniversary and the church’s revitalization] are a wonderful step for the parish and Chestnut Hill.”

Clark Groome, a 63-year parishioner and the main coordinator of the church’s year-long celebration, said the hope while planning the anniversary was that the celebration, coupled with the new leadership of Cutler, would serve as the inspiration the congregation needed to recapture its faith and energy.

Groome’s grandfather, Clarence Clark Zantzinger, was a parish member and an architect who lived in Chestnut Hill. He drew up plans for a new building in 1910 that never was built, according to Contosta’s history, but was one of the architects of the current church that was completed in 1929.

Groome said the yearlong celebration was initially planned as a “birthday party,” but it now includes a celebration of Cutler’s ministry and the future the church envisions for itself.

“We were hoping that this wouldn’t be just a celebration of the 150th, but also, in many ways, it would be tonic to the stresses in the parish, and that the people who were moving away would be reenergized,” Groome said.

The anniversary celebration included numerous musical events, including the premiere of a new anthem, “Psalm 145,” composed by the American composer Stephen Paulus. St. Paul’s organist and choirmaster, Rick Alexander, underwrote the song’s a cappella part, and the entire psalm will be performed for the first time at the Nov. 5 service.

Also part of the yearlong celebration was a lecture series, aptly titled “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” which began Nov. 27, 2005, the first day of Advent and the start of the church’s new year, Groome said.

The series welcomed the the Rev. Dr. Jean Mather, rector of Christ Church and St. Michael’s; Dr. Sheldon Hackney, former president of the University of Pennsylvania; Phyllis Tickle, author and journalist, and the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School.

The Rev. Dr. Gordon Lathrop, an emeritus professor of liturgy at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, will be the last speaker in the series on Feb. 11, 2007, at the church’s parish hall.

The Rt. Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, former rector of St. Paul’s sister church, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, will be the preacher and celebrant at Sunday’s special service. The day before he will have completed nine years as bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.

Graham said the church will be presented with a City Council resolution, recognizing its 150th anniversary, on Thursday, Oct. 26, and the resolution will be available for viewing by the congregation during a parish celebration on Saturday.

Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or Kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com.