History of Episcopal Wichita Falls, Texas

Part I - 1951-2008

For 47 years All Saints worshipped in a magnificent building on Southwest Parkway. Then, came the schism. The then-bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth sought to secede from The Episcopal Church and take all the parishes, people and property with him. All Saints had a new conniving priest who was able to get the bishop and Standing Committee to fire more than half of the vestry and treasurer in late summer of 2008.

On the sad Saturday, mid-November 2008 a vote at diocesan convention made an official move to depart the Episcopal Church and align with the Province of the Southern Cone, based in Argentina. The next morning an even dozen read Morning Prayer at the home of Owanah Anderson. By the following Sunday arrangements had been made to use the chapel of First Presbyterian and 35 were present when Mother Maurine Lewis preached and celebrated.

The Journey thence has been difficult at times but thanks be to God we have survived.

In the Beginning

The war was over. The town was a’booming. The sky was the limit. Young families were searching for forward thinking companions in faith and in fellowship. On August 5, 1951, families of 35 young doctors, lawyers, teachers, bankers and business men and women left the old downtown Episcopal Church (Good Shepherd), took their baby-boomer children and formed a new Episcopal mission—one of the city’s first suburban congregations.

For the first decade, a growing All Saints Parish worshipped at a liquor warehouse on Barnett Street in Faith Village, one of the first new housing developments in the a bustling community. Use of the warehouse was courtesy of the late Virgil Evans, who provided communion wine for the rest of his life. There in the little liquor warehouse our forebears had their children baptized, stressed Christian formation, developed strong youth programs and dreamed dreams of a tall and towering, grand and glorious building for their families to worship God. Among new members in the early days were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Glover and their niece, Bonnie, along with Gene and June Richie whose children (Boyd, Alieca and Steve) were all baptized and confirmed at the ware house. June and Steve are still active at All Saints Episcopal as is Laurie Naylor Cruse who was also baptized and confirmed there and who has done every volunteer job of the parish at least thrice – and is now (again!) on the Vestry.

In April of 1952 the highly energetic, outgoing Fr. Francis (Pat) Fowler was called as rector. Described by old timers as a “stem- winder,” Fr. Pat set about stimulating the parish to raise the money to build that tall, grand and glorious building. The late Dr. Joe Wells, then a new dentist and a former fighter pilot, set out to find the property. Dr. Wells negotiated for six acres out of Mr. Louis Sikes’ wheat field on the far, far south side of the city on Farm Road 369. Nothing was nearby. Eventually the farm road became Southwest Parkway.

Fr. Pat and the building committee raised enough funding to see their way clear to hire an architect and begin construction. The architect was Eugene Elam, a parishioner, who offered as focal point a lofty stained glass “creation” window that was custom made by an Ohio firm. The shake shingle and fieldstone edifice with a 55-foot ceiling was the talk of the town and dubbed everything from a hay barn to an airplane hanger.

In the summer of 1961, a joyful and jubilant congregation moved to their awesome new home. In an amazingly short time— only 15 years—the mortgage was all paid off on the $400,000 building, thanks to a large extent to a very generous gift of the late Syd Gaines, founder of a local air-conditioning firm.

Bishop A. Donald Davies, who died in 2011 at age 91, came up for a fine celebration of mortgage-burning on the windy eve of March 31, 1976.

Soon after the building was completed Fr. Fowler departed. Membership rolls numbered over one thousand. A couple of clergymen came and went. The first to come, Fr. Harold Bel-liveau, was a scholarly introvert; the second, Fr. Edwin Caudill, was a “morning prayer devotee” who disappointed many of the faithful.

1973 – 2008

More than one-half of all the years since our founding, All Saints Episcopal has been served by a single rector: the Vy. Rev. John Douglas Payne. There had been a very long vacancy prior to his calling. The search was thorough, inclusive, and singularly intense with Henry J. Anderson as chair of the Search Committee.

It was early January 1973 when the thirty-seven-year old new rector arrived from Louisiana with his wife Kay and three-year-old precocious daughter, Jennifer. The new priest discovered he had a “morning prayer” parish and one that was totally in the dark about the new Prayer Book. Trial Use had been ignored and congregants were, in fact, using something a prior priest had obstinately self-created. He was faced, as well, with a dwindling financial base and significant loss of membership. Their new priest used patience and sensitivity to move the parish forward.

A graduate of General Seminary in New York, Fr. Payne led the parish to Eucharistic-centered worship—with sung mass. Soon, there was daily Eucharist, reserved sacrament, incense and weekly Stations of the Cross liturgy during Lent. Fr. Payne made adult bible study a significant center of parish life.

He held several diocesan posts including that of dean of the Northern Deanery three times, president of the Standing Committee, chair of the Commission on Ministry and was nominated from the floor for diocesan bishop in 1992 but lost on the fourth ballot to Jack Leo Iker.

Fr. Payne retired from All Saints June 30, 2006 after having served 33 and half years. He also retired from the US Navy Chaplains Corp at the rank of Commander. He continues to serve as a supply priest for St. Stephen’s Mission, Wichita Falls. At the 60th Anniversary celebration Bishop Steven Charleston of Oklahoma on behalf of Bishop Wallis Ohl presented Fr. Payne with a plaque attesting to his having been declared Dean Emeritus of the Northern deanery,

Litany of our Forebears read at 60th Anniversary Celebration

Now let us praise our own forebears,

Whose vision we harvest still.

Who pledged their time and treasure

To leave the legacy we cherish

Across six demanding decades.

Our beloved forebears sang in choirs, taught the young, ran the thrift shop, served the food, dressed the altar, mowed the grass, paid the priest. And, thence, departed for pilgrims’ rest.

Let us raise up a handful to remember on the night of our Diamond Anniversary:

Lady Hancock, Pat Fowler, Ned Walker,

Julia Taubert, Syd Gaines, Josephine Aboussie

Irene Webb, Al Comstock, Charley Glover, Lucy Smith,

Frank Browne, Dick Long, Pearl Collins, Charley Salter,

Marie Aboussie, Doc Collier and Henry Anderson.

May they Rest in Peace, one and all.