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BProp21 James 5:13-16; Mark 9:38-50 September 27, 2009 Heritage Sunday
Thanks to: The Heritage Festival Committee: Lynda Averack, chair Barrie Aycock, Frank McCann, Ray Rowell - food Jim Owens – arranging for exhibits by artists Valerie Fenlon and Jaime Huffman - auction David Todd – Signage and coordinating the youth to volunteer Walton Smith, Linda Hill Jordan – demonstrators David Greene – arranging for music performers ECW, Jennifer Tench/pres - Just a Taste Todd Blandin & Pat Molnar in the parish office for support Lane Gresham, Elsie Sumner, Sandy Bunce – coordination of the parade Sandy Calloway and the choir for special preparation of period music and Anglican chant And so many volunteers who supported all of this.
Our heritage festival this weekend has celebrated the 1890’s. Even though some parts of the weekend regrettably had to be canceled due to the rain, we have enjoyed a delightful parade of children and scarecrows, some really great music, delicious food and wonderful fellowship.
You’ll see a page in the bulletin with details of interest from the 1890’s contributed by three of our members – Heather Murray, David Greene, and John Kollock.
It’s good to learn the stories of our parish church. And so I’ll share a bit from the 1890’s with you this morning. Grace Episcopal Church… The congregation formed in 1838 and in 1842 this church building was completed. It was Percival Miller Kollock who first brought his family to this area seeking a better atmosphere for his wife’s respiratory ailments.
But it is his cousin, George Jones Kollock, whose name appears in our church history in the 1890’s.
And so, I want to tell you a little bit about George. It was in 1890 that George Kollock and his wife, Susan. celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the Kollock home, Woodlands. Their golden wedding party, as it was called. George’s first marriage was to Susan’s sister, Augusta. When Augusta died, Susan took care of the children. George then married her and they added more children to their home. You can see photos of the golden wedding party and of George Kollock on the table outside on the porch.
The priest who was here in those times was the Rev. Thomas Goulding Pond. He was sent as a missionary in 1889 to the northeast territory of Georgia to serve the Episcopal congregations in this area. It was while the Rev. Pond was here that Grace Church began to see some activity after 25 years of dormancy. From the end of the Civil War until the 1890’s there was no vestry. At one point during that time George Kollock wrote to the Bishop of Georgia, offering to return the church keys to the diocese as there was not enough of a congregation to keep the church open and functioning. But, things began to turn around. Enough so that in that same year 1889, a vestry was elected and a committee was appointed to repair the church at a cost not to exceed $50. The Rev. Pond lived in Mt. Airy, and the vestry of Grace approved the payment of $1 to him for each time that he travelled from Mt. Airy to Clarkesville. The minister is mentioned twice in George Kollock’s diary as being a guest at Woodlands.
In 1894, George Kollock died. He was senior warden of the parish for many years. We have record of a resolution passed by the vestry memorializing George for his many years of faithful service to this church.
An unusual event took place during this time. The diary recounts that a fair was held for the Chapel.’ Holy Cross Chapel was a ‘chapel of ease’ seven miles out of town on the Kollock property. It would be on the circuit of the travelling minister and would save those who lived so far out of town, 7 miles, from the drive in for services. Holy Cross Cemetery remains where the chapel was and it’s where we go every year on All Saints Sunday to have ‘soup with the saints.’ Anyway, a fair to raise funds for the Chapel was held and netted a grand amount of $41.55. We raised much more than that at our festival this weekend!
Two years after George Kollock’s death the parish records show that Grace Church had grown to a grand total of 25 communicants. The annual expenses to run the church that year came to $ 81.99. There were ten worship services and Holy Communion was offered 4 times. So, about one Sunday a month, services would be held here. On the other Sundays, the missionary priest would be either at Calvary Church in Mt. Airy or Holy Cross Chapel, or possibly other missions in his territory.
And so part of the story of this place tells of a season of growth, new life, coming forth from fallow years. We see efforts to restore and preserve consecrated worship spaces. People came and went, the congregation ebbed and flowed, but there have been those in every generation called to be the custodians, the keepers of the keys.
We are in a season of growth. This consecrated space is once again being renovated. The original shutters have just been restored. The chancel area has been returned to its original shape of having two pews on each side. Next on the list is to repair areas of rot and paint the building. And there have been improvements. New carpet and refinished floors are waiting for the completion of our new tapestry kneelers, woven by Pat Williams. They will depict the seasons of our church year woven into a background of our familiar foothills and countryside. Three of them are already in place.
And so we are adding our chapter of the story of Grace-Calvary Episcopal Church. Before I close, I’ll point to this imposing pulpit. What is now our altar used to be a reading desk, from where the Holy Bible was read. And below it, was a small marble table, the Holy Table, where the occasional Holy Communion was celebrated. These days church architecture reflects a different theology that of a balance between the proclamation of the Word and the celebration of Holy Communion. And so, pulpits have gotten a bit smaller and altars have gotten a bit larger.
A pulpit the size of this one was built to proclaim something important. The good news of God in Jesus Christ. I’ve talked a lot about buildings and furniture and the humorously minute amounts of money it took to run the parish. All the while ministry has gone on – teaching our children, helping the needy. But I’ll close with a proclamation that I believe is worthy of this pulpit.
I turn to the epistle of James. Within the content of this epistle is a sermon that was written by James, the brother of Jesus in the mid-60’s. Not the 1860’s now! But about 30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Assemblies of people were beginning to stabilize and call themselves the church. Then the James’s sermon was expanded by someone else in the late 90’s and became the epistle we have today.
It is an appeal for those who call themselves Christians to adopt a strong faith that will help them cope with the trials of life. James encourages people to show and share their faith by having moral integrity and loving actions. If you read it, you will want to be a better person!
The bottom line in James is this: Underneath the buildings and the history and the future far beneath the traditions and the prayer books, and the hierarchy, at the core of belonging to Christ James urges us simply to love one another. Oh if it were simple! But the picture we get is a community whose faith and actions spring from the love that the believer has for God because if our actions spring from our singlehearted love of God there won’t be room for partiality or hypocrisy. We will be free to regard every person with the same singlehearted love. And when we act from that love, whatever we do is done with gentleness born of wisdom; wisdom from above, which means knowing how to love each other. It is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, yielding much good fruit.
Grace-Calvary has been preserved for us - a place consecrated for us to be the church. This is a place from which goes out a lot of love and many acts of faith. May we grow more and more in faith to love one another as Christ loved us.
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