Reflections Upon a 100Th Anniversary St. Mary's

REFLECTIONS UPON A 100TH ANNIVERSARY ST. MARY’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH MORGANZA, LOUISIANA

The Reverend Peggy King Scott April 23, 2016

Preface

When I set out to collect scattered fragments and oral stories concerning the history of St. Mary’s Church in Morganza, Louisiana, I had no idea how captivated I would be by what I discovered. I will continue to ‘ponder in my heart’ the images which surfaced for me in the stories of the people who refer to themselves as St. Mary’s Church.

In writing this history, I also wanted to reflect upon, to search for an understanding of, the history of St. Mary’s Church within the context of its cultural and ecclesial history. What is presented here is only a beginning of such an effort. Many more documents need to be examined, stories told, subjects explored than what this limited work reflects.

This work relies mainly on secondary documents and the research of others. I am indebted to those who have already captured pieces of this story, particularly Brian Costello, Stafford Chenevert, Gerry Brown, Toppy Haag, T. Heard Campbell, and all of the Gustin clan. I bear responsibility for any errors that appear and hope that those who know better will correct them.

I also offer my gratitude to Grayson Gustin and Brandon Wiley for their illustrations. When I asked them to draw a picture, I did not offer any further guidance. What they produced delighted me. I love Grayson’s charcoal sketch of the church with the door open and Brandon’s picture with the church sitting in the middle of rain and sunshine, darkness and light with a flag pole reaching beyond the page. Their pictures capture the story perfectly.

I hope that these efforts will encourage others to share their memories of St. Mary’s Church and the other churches of our area so that history can record these memories and people can reach out to their neighbors in new and loving ways.

It is a privilege and a joy to serve as the Priest of St. Mary’s Church at the time of its 100th Anniversary Celebration!

Reverend Peggy King Scott April 23, 2016

Reflections upon a 100th Anniversary St. Mary’s Church Morganza, Louisiana

St. Mary’s Church in Morganza, Louisiana, is one of many churches which can trace its roots to the evangelical ethos which swept The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in The United States of America (now called The Episcopal Church) in the 19th century. At that time, ‘missionary bishops’ were officially designated and sent to the West and to other areas of the country where an organized Episcopal presence had not yet been established.1 The Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, D.D., had been appointed the Missionary Bishop of the Southwest in 1838 before being elected as the first Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana in 1841. He is said to have traveled long and frequently throughout his appointed geographical districts to establish and sustain local churches.2 Certainly his influence shaped the mission work which ultimately bore fruit in the establishment of St. Mary’s Church.

The Beginnings

It was during Bishop Polk’s tenure as Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana that Episcopal life in Pointe Coupee Parish can be first documented. Local historian Brian J. Costello, citing an 1888 history of the Diocese of Louisiana written by the Rev. Herman Cope Duncan, summarizes the beginning of this work as follows:

In 1847, Episcopal services were held in the home of Mrs. Charles Allen on Bayou Fordoche and a parish organized under the title of “St. Peter’s Church, Morganza.” In 1848, the mission was assigned to the Reverend Frederick Dean who, that same year, organized a congregation at Williamsport. During 1849-1852, Reverend Dean, while serving as headmaster of Poydras college on False River, conducted divine services at the Courthouse at New Road. Both the Morganza and False River missions were abandoned upon Reverend Dean’s resignation from the “cure” in 1852.3

This description illustrates what is true about any effort to describe the history of one of the local Episcopal churches in Pointe Coupee Parish: it is almost impossible to write about one of them without also mentioning one or more neighboring churches.

Other efforts to establish Protestant churches in Pointe Coupee Parish were made, but only a few of the mission churches survived. The mission at Williamsport was one of those which did. It was organized as St. Stephen’s Church in 1855 and consecrated by Bishop Polk in 1859. Two ladies’ names appear as early supporters of the mission at Williamsport: Julia Black (later married to Charles Stewart)

1 William W. Manross, A History of the American Episcopal Church, New York: Morehouse-Gorham Co., c1950, pp. 257-260. 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonidas_Polk, accessed April 12, 2016 3 Costello, Brian J. A History of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, Murray G. Lebeau Memorial Edition, Margaret Media, Inc., c2010, printed by Sheridan Books, Chelsea, MI., p.95.

3 and Mrs. Sarah Archer.4 Both of these women would prove to have continuing influence in the establishment of an Episcopal identity in Pointe Coupee Parish.

Subsequent years were difficult for area residents and particularly so for those in Morganza. During the Civil War, a Union garrison was stationed in Morganza. As a result, occupational thievery, local skirmishes and the wider Port Hudson campaign brought much destruction.5 The original settlement of Morganza was burned; and what the armies did not destroy, subsequent floods did.6 Major crevasses occurred in levies around Morganza in 1865, 1866 and again in 1874, that latter break remaining unrepaired for ten years.7

Despite these contingencies, the St. Stephen’s Church in Innis continued to survive. And the people of St. Stephen’s parish continued to pay attention to other communities around them and to mission possibilities within them. Morganza was one of those communities. The Seventy-fifth Annual Session of the Diocese of Louisiana, published in 1913 but reporting on activity for the previous year, listed an ‘Unorganized Mission’ in Morganza with the date of 1912.8 The following year, the Diocesan report listed St. Stephen’s Church in Innis as the sponsor for two mission churches – one in Morganza and one in Fordoche.9 By 1914, The Women’s Auxiliary of the Diocese had undertaken a plan to build a church in Morganza. Some funds had already been collected and land acquired. By 1915, construction of a chapel had begun and the Women’s Auxiliary had presented a Communion Service for Morganza.10

Bishop David Sessum’s Address to the Seventy-Eighth Annual Session of the Diocese, held in April of 1916, describes the fulfillment of this mission work:

I proceed to mention with gratification special matters of Diocesan history during the past year. The Woman’s Auxiliary of the Diocese have successfully fulfilled their plans with reference to the purchase of land and erecting a church building at Morganza; and I would here express my grateful appreciation of their enthusiasm in this undertaking, and of the generous way in which they have supplied the funds for these needs. The Chairman of the special committee in connection with the erection of the church was Mrs. W. S. Holmes; and her earnest work is to be cordially appreciated. The building is completed and was consecrated on May 7th. The land was purchased sometime ago; and the title has been placed in the Diocese. We felicitate the Rev. Mr. Prosser and his congregation at Morganza upon the erection of the church. This gift of the Woman’s Auxiliary has brought great rejoicing, and necessarily it will give impetus to the work.11

The Consecration

This citation in Bishop Sessum’s address, particularly the phrase “was consecrated on May 7th” has proven confusing in subsequent years. Because the Annual Session generally reports activity in the

4 Costello, pp. 95-96. 5 Ibid., pp. 116, 120-121. 6 Ibid., pp. 186-187. 7 Ibid., pp. 138-139. 8 Seventy-Fifth Annual Session Anno Domini, 1913, p. 15 9 Seventy-Sixth Annual Session Anno Domini, 1914, p. 45. 10 Seventy-Seventh Annual Session Anno Domini, 1915, p. 45. 11 Seventh-Eighth Annual Session, Anno Domini, 1916, p. 58.

Diocese for the previous year, a straightforward reading of the speech would seem to indicate that the Bishop was speaking of a consecration that had already been held and would assume that May 7, 1915, was the consecration date. The uncertainty focuses upon whether the usage of the past tense was should have been the future tense will be.

The local congregation at St. Mary’s has always held that May 7, 1916, was the date of consecration. This later date is attested in two newspaper articles published in the Pointe Coupee Banner on May 6, 1916, and May 13, 1916. The first article announces the upcoming event and the second reports on the actual occurrence of the consecration of St. Mary’s Church in Morganza on May 7, 1916, citing the eloquent sermon of the Rt. Rev. Davis Sessums, D.D., Bishop of Louisiana and the presence of visitors from Baton Rouge, Lakeland, Innis, Torras and New Roads who filled the church to its capacity.12 A subsequent publication of the Diocese also reports that the consecration took place on May 7, 1916, and that the church was named St. Mary’s in honor of the women who made it possible.13 Writing in a diary some years later, Mr. T. Heard Campbell, whose father James Walter Campbell served as the first Warden of St. Mary’s Church, also cites the 1916 date14 and reports that the Morganza Branch of the Woman’s Auxiliary hosted all of the guests and members of St. Mary’s at a dinner in the home of his parents following the consecration.15 Nevertheless, a history of the Episcopal Church in Louisiana published in 1955, cites May 7, 1915 as the date of consecration.16

The most visible evidence of date is carved into a marble plaque which still hangs on the walls of the church. The plaque commemorates Mrs. Sarah Archer, in whose memory “THIS CHAPEL WAS ERECTED BY THE WOMANS AUXILIARY OF LOUISIANA EASTER 1916.” The consecration date of 1916 is “carved in stone” as far as the people of St. Mary’s Church in Morganza are concerned. Certainly a noteworthy event occurred at St. Mary’s Church on May 7, 1916 (which was the third Sunday of Eastertide, Easter being on April 23 in 1916) – even though it is possible that some other consecration event occurred earlier.

Certainly more significant than the date was the fact that the church building was a gift – delivered free and clear of any debt to St. Mary’s Church. The project to build the church was an effort of the Diocesan Woman’s Auxiliary at a time when the Diocese of Louisiana encompassed the entire geographic boundaries of the State of Louisiana. Each member was asked to contribute $1 and those subscription payments, along with other donations, were sufficient to pay for the construction.17 The Diocesan Journal of 1916 (reporting on 1915 activity) listed the building as valued at $1,000 and

12 The Pointe Coupee Banner, May 6, 1916 and May 13, 1916. 13 The Diocese of Louisiana, Vol 30, No 4, New Orleans, October 1925. 14 Unpublished Diary of T. Heard Campbell, entry January 15, 1937. 15 Quoted in the unpublished A Brief History of Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church in the Village of Morganza, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana compiled by St. Paul’s Holy Trinity Parish Administrator Gerry Brown with the assistance of Julie Gustin & Toppy Haag, December 2008, p. 1. 16 Hodding Carter & Betty Werlien Carter, So Great A Good: A History of the Episcopal Church in Louisiana and of Christ Church Cathedral 1805-1955, The University Press: Sewanee, TN, c1955, p. 254. 17 Brown, p. 1.

5 indicated that two services of Holy Communion had been held.18 [That $1,000 value would be worth be $22,964 in inflated 2016 dollars! No wonder Mrs. Holmes received the Bishop’s accolades!]

In these beginnings of the Episcopal presence in Pointe Coupee Parish one can detect patterns of common life which reoccurred in subsequent generations: the influence of mission-minded women, an understanding of what makes a church, and the necessity of cooperation among different communities.

The Women on a Mission

The story of the Episcopal women in Pointe Coupee Parish is a multi-faceted one to which these brief remarks will not give due justice. Two women were prominent in the early mission work.

Sara Archer was influential not only within her own mission church but also for the mission established in Morganza. T. Heard Campbell relates some of her family history:

Mrs. Archer was the wife of Dr. John G. Archer of Longwood Plantation, located in upper Pointe Coupee parish, several miles north of Morganza. Mrs. Archer was also the great-aunt of General John Archer LeJeune of Marine Corps fame. One of her sons, Dr. William Bisland Archer, died during the yellow fever epidemic in Greenville, Mississippi, where he had gone to assist the sufferers of yellow fever.19

The Rev. Frederick Dean, writing about the establishment of St. Stephen’s Church in Innis during his pre- Civil War tenure there, also wrote about her:

Mrs. Sarah Archer, more than anyone, contributed to the prosperity of St. Stephen’s. Every Sunday she traveled by wagon from her home, picking up along the way anyone who wanted to go.20

According to the records of St. Stephen’s Church, in 1872 The Rt. Rev. Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer, D.D., Second Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana, “appointed Mrs. Sarah Archer, one of the founders of the church, to read services from her pew, as there were no male communicants available at the time.”21 Multiple reports call this an ‘unprecedented’ event. Unprecedented indeed, as women were generally not permitted to officiate at public Episcopal services for the next 100 years! I suppose that having her speak from her pew made it seem less ‘official.’

The little we know about Sara Archer is compelling and stirs the imagination. In what ways did she connect with other families in the river settlements? Was she affiliated with the earlier St. Peter’s mission in Morganza that had failed? Did she want a church closer to home than Williamsport? Was she a financial patroness? Was she a fervent missionary in her own right? We do not know. But her

18 Seventh-Eighth Annual Session, Anno Domini, 1916, p. 98. 19 Brown, p. 2. 20 Pointe Coupee Parish History, pp. 68-69 21 Pam Sulzer, an undated and unpublished historical summary, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church: Innis, Pointe Coupee Parish, LA., p. 2.

6 influence and legacy within church circles must have been a significant one for her name to be commemorated at a church that was not consecrated until after her death.

Another woman, Mrs. W. S. Holmes was also influential, not only for her successful state-wide campaign to raise money to build the church at Morganza, but also for efforts to provide a four-piece communion set for that church. She was part of the Wycliffe family whose home near St. Francisville had burned to the ground. After retrieving from the ashes lumps of melted gold and silver from the family heirlooms, she started to collect metal from other women of the diocese, and this metal was used to craft the communion set.22 What had been a tragedy, she transformed into a beautiful and lasting gift. That original communion set is still in use at St. Mary’s Church in Morganza today.

Allen, Stewart, Wickliffe, Holmes - these women were missionary pioneers in the fullest sense of the term. They experienced hardships – floods, fires, wars, yellow fever epidemics, crop failures, economic reversals. Yet they had a vision of what it meant to serve and worship God and they marshalled energy and perseverance and resources to see their dreams come to fruition. They were Anglicans and their Protestant heritage shaped their beliefs and practices. And they were decidedly fewer in number than the French, Spanish and mostly Roman Catholic immigrants who settled in Pointe Coupee Parish before them.

The Church as Mission

What did it mean to be a Protestant Church in a predominately Catholic culture? It meant that you were going to start with only a few people and that you were going to need some help. One of the original uses of the term mission for 19th and 20th century Anglicans was as a code word to indicate the necessity of receiving outside financial help for the support of your work.23 And certainly this was the case for St. Mary’s Church at its beginning, as the mission at Morganza received not only a church building and a communion set from the Woman’s Auxiliary, but also the furnishings of the church. According to T. Heard Campbell, “the altar, baptismal font, credence shelf, lectern, prayer desk, altar rails, and pews came from the Episcopal Church at Port Allen, where services had been discontinued at the time Saint Mary’s Church was built.”24 All of these gifts were free and clear of any debt of the church.

But to be a church for 19th and 20th century Anglicans – whether of an established or a ‘mission’ status - also meant that the body of people who were gathered as the church were going to engage in particular activities. These activities included praying and reading and studying Holy Scripture. And that is exactly what the Protestant women of Morganza did as they gathered people together in their homes. They did these things on their own initiative - not waiting for someone else to do it for them. It is not insignificant that the first recorded gift to the people of Morganza – before the church building was constructed – was a Bible. The large family Bible given to the church by Katherine B. Kitchell bore this inscription, dated April 30, 1914: “Given to The Protestant Episcopal Church at Morganza, Louisiana, together with the most earnest prayers for God’s blessing upon its’ work”.25 These women instrumental

22 Brown, p. 2. 23 Manross, p. 247. 24 Brown, p.3. 25 Brown, p. 2.

7 in establishing St. Mary’s understood that the “gathered church” meant something more than the “church building”.

Certainly the work of this church involved catechizing the children. T. Heard Campbell attributes the beginning of St. Mary’s Church to the Sunday School started by his mother, the former Ellen Watson Turner (Mrs. James Walter Campbell), and his aunt, Miss Evie Turner, prior to the construction of a church building. It seems that Sunday School started and stopped and started again at various junctures during the history of St. Mary’s. A Sunday School was reorganized in 1937, with the following students attending the organizational meeting: Bobby Branton, Janice Branton, William David Branton, Buster McConnell, Betty Jane McConnell, Calvin Bryant, Evelyn Delk, Floma Gustin, Quentin Gustin, Mary Lou Gustin, Patricia Gustin, Archie Reynolds, Cecil May Ortis, [?] Ortis and Marie Louise Ortis.26 Within a short time, 31 children were in attendance.27 Alma Reynolds and Helen Campbell made notebooks for the children’s study. T. Heard Campbell cited amazement at the number of children who came, reporting that one night he stayed up until midnight pasting “sacred pictures” into notebooks for the Sunday School classes.28 Rev. Roy Melish (1993) also conducted a Sunday School class during his tenure at St. Mary’s.

As Anglicans, church traditions were taught as well. Choirs were formed and acolytes trained. Rev. Edwin L. Conly (1943-1945) remembered spending five days a week collecting children after school and bringing them in school buses to the churches under his care for Church School, followed by choir practice. Tuesday was his day to conduct these classes in Morganza. [Innis on Monday, New Roads on Wednesday, Lakeland on Thursday and Melville on Friday.] Father Conly began his work in The Innis Field, as his ‘cure’ was called at the time, as a deacon; when he was later ordained as a priest at St. Stephen’s Church by Bishop Jackson, the combined choirs from all of the churches sang at the service. Father Conly remembers with delight taking the acolytes on trips – to New Orleans during the week of Sugar Bowl and to Camp Morris, a Diocesan camp located at All Saints Girl’s School in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He traveled to the latter camp with 30 kids from Pointe Coupee Parish, apparently to everyone’s astonishment and Bishop Jackson’s delight. He also remembers repeatedly scolding the Morganza acolytes for not hanging up their robes after the church service!29 Father Conly also established a St. Mary’s Chapter of the Order of St. Vincent on March 12, 1944. Surviving membership cards indicate that Charles Earl Reynolds, Robert L. Reynolds Jr., Kenneth Gerald Laiche, Frederick Joseph Laiche, Arnold Fred Walter Hess Jr., R. Laiche, C. J. Laiche Jr., John Henderson and Gilbert Soileau Jr. pledged “Obedience, Regularity, Reverence and Devotion at the Altar of this Church” through this guild.

To be an Episcopal Church, the church also needed to be a gathered body, a visible congregation, in which “the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance.”30 This meant that St. Mary’s also needed the services of a priest to preach and to celebrate Holy Eucharist. At various times, St. Mary’s was responsible for finding a priest. At other times, St. Mary’s shared a priest with other churches through various combinations of

26 Campbell diary, January 17, 1937. 27 Campbell diary, March 22, 1937. 28 Campbell diary, February 6, 1937. 29 Reverend Father Edwin L. Conly, Unpublished memoir, THE INNIS FIELD: Diocese of Louisiana, February 1943- May 1945, sent to Toppy Haag in 1998 at the time of the St. Paul’s Holy Trinity Church centennial, p. 3-5. 30 Article XIX of the Articles of Religion, 1801, reprinted Book of Common Prayer, c1979, p.871.

8 arrangements worked out through Diocesan assistance. When no priest was available, Lay Readers led services of Morning and Evening Prayer in lieu of the mass. Some of these trained Lay Readers came from the congregation, some from neighboring congregations. For a period of time St. Mary’s Church was one of ten mission churches in the Diocese which received assistance from the Rev. Joseph S. Ditchburn of St. Alban’s Chapel in Baton Rouge who trained young lay readers particularly for service in the mission field.31

Due to the difficulty of maintaining a local priest, church services were held whenever a priest could travel to Morganza – regardless of the day of the week. Mr. Campbell recalls just such a service on a Thursday evening, February 18, 1937, when the Diocesan Bishop and the Rev. Ditchburn and one of his LSU lay readers, Carey Womble, came for a service at St. Mary’s.32 Services were held regularly on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. during Father Conly’s time – one of the five services that he conducted on Sundays, each at a different place.33 Service time was moved to Saturday evening during Rev. Miller Armstrong’s tenure and has remained on that day of the week since that time. We ‘ring the bell’ at St. Mary’s on Saturdays to signal the start of worship - which begins at 4:00 p.m. during Central Standard Time and at 5:00 p.m. during Central Daylight Savings Time - unless otherwise announced, such as those times when Rev. Flip Bushey was delayed by an exciting baseball game in Alex Box stadium!

Episcopal worship also meant use of approved Episcopal liturgies and texts and hymnals. At least three authorized service books have been in use at St. Mary’s: The Holy Communion with Music for Congregational Use No. 2, Parish Press c1926; The Book of Common Prayer c1928; and The Book of Common Prayer c1979. The Hymnal c1940 was well used, as evidenced by remaining copies that had to be re-bound with cardboard and vinyl, and the church kept up with changes in hymnody with the use of The Hymnal 1982, given in memory of Fay C. Lambert by her husband Lawrence L. Lambert. Even when small, the congregation was a singing congregation. For over fifty years, Helen Gustin played the organ for church services; when she retired in 2008, the church acquired a computer, which remains the means of musical accompaniment today. Also used were Episcopal Eucharistic Lectionary NRSV books, given in memory of Earl V. D. Wood by Mary Sue Marsh. The importance of all of these books to the parish is evidenced by the number of copies which survive and the bookplates indicating their donation in memory of beloved people.

No discussion of worship at St. Mary’s Church would be complete without mention of All Saints’ Day, when St. Mary’s participates in the local custom of blessing the graves. All Saints’ Day is one of the three services of the year with the highest attendance. For years Mrs. Muriel Dickinson Gustin wanted the church to have its own ‘watering can’ for this purpose [one needing to be borrowed from another church for the occasion]; her desire was granted with the donation to the church in her memory of a brass water bucket and aspergilium by her family.

St. Mary’s remains a church with a small number of participants and it remains classified on Diocesan records as a ‘mission’ church. But what that status means in the 21st century is somewhat different from what it meant in earlier times. The focus upon financial necessity has faded into the background. The people of St. Mary’s stand on their own with regard to financial matters – often contributing labor needed for maintenance tasks. It has been a tradition for the church to pay its full

31 Carter & Carter, p.302. 32 Campbell diary, February 18, 1937. 33 Conly, p.

Diocesan assessments. In today’s ecclesial terminology, the status of a ‘mission’ is defined more in terms of number of communicants, ecclesial authority and the number of delegates permitted to attend the Diocesan conventions. What has not changed in terms of a ‘mission’ status is the necessity for small churches to collaborate with each other in order to accomplish their work. St. Mary’s continues to benefit from such associations and currently utilizes the services of St. Paul’s Holy Trinity Church in New Roads for its financial and administrative functions and shares the cost of providing a priest for both churches. Nor has anything changed in regard to the church’s calling to be a mission in the world in the same way that any church, regardless of size, is called to be – to be formed in accordance with Spirit of the Living God which dwells within the people of God so that they can be a ‘light on a hill’ and a loving servant to those around them.

The Priests

Each of the priests who came to serve at St. Mary’s for extended periods through the years brought their own particular emphases - missional, ecumenical, liturgical. Through the years some changes were made, new practices adopted, things acquired for liturgical worship. At least two of the priests – Rev. Conly and Rev. Scott – were ‘newly minted’ at the time of their service to St. Mary’s. Those who would have remembered the earliest priests are no longer with us. A picture survives of the first priest, Rev. R. Hylton Prosser (1915-1919); his photograph was presented to St. Mary’s Church in 1942 by his daughter. Photographs and a memoir of Rev. Edwin L. Conly (1943-1944) capture some of the spirit and circumstances of his era.

Rev. Miller F. Armstrong III (1967-1992) was the longest serving of St. Mary’s priests and he was perhaps the first of St. Mary’s priests to become involved in the Diocese’s work at Angola Prison. He is still remembered at Angola today with the annual presentation of the Miller F. Armstrong III Memorial Good Samaritan Humanitarian Award given to an inmate at Angola selected by other inmates as an example of service to others. His family members continue to attend this event. He also paid particular attention to the children at worship services and joined with outside volunteers to hold Vacation Bible Schools in Morganza during the summer – with a big boast from his wife and children.

Rev. Roy Mellish (1993) served St. Mary’s while also serving as priest at St. Stephen’s Church in Innis. His tenure was short but he left an enduring and beloved memory in the hearts of parishioners. He is credited with talking Rev. Krutz into coming to St. Mary’s, fulfilling his promise ‘not to leave them without a priest’ when he moved to another city.

Rev. C. Dana Krutz (1993-2000) served as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Interfaith Conference during his tenure at St. Mary’s. Rev. Krutz’s wife Julie created a processional banner for St. Mary’s Church – the first and only one that the church has owned. During his time new nativity set pieces were crafted by Debbie Gustin. Rev. Krutz was also involved in preserving some of the church’s records at the Louisiana State Archives.

Rev. Howard W. “Flip” Bushey (2000-2004) was a meticulous liturgist. During his tenure, the original Eucharistic vestments were removed from storage and re-stitched by hand by Debbie Gustin. Wax candles were replaced by oil candles, which still fit into the brass altar candle holders which had been given to the church many years earlier by Mrs. Eggleston’s Sunday School Class of Trinity Church,

New Orleans. The congregation began to celebrate Rose Sunday during Advent – which meant a cake or something else good to eat following the church service! The brass-plated Gospel Book was purchased and the two large altar chairs were refurbished.

Rev. Don Brown (2006-2008) continued a liturgical emphasis. Under his tenure, his wife Gerry and her mother stitched blue advent window hangings, introducing the modern usage of blue for Advent in place of the more traditional purple. Rev. Brown negotiated the transition between organ and recorded music to accompany the services. He also participated in the Diocesan prison ministry.

Rev. Peggy King Scott (2010 – current) was the first female priest assigned to St. Mary’s – although not the first female priest to celebrate Holy Eucharist there, that honor belonging to Rev. Karen Gay on November 19, 2006. Rev. Scott renewed a focus upon the children of the church – there actually being some present after an absence of some years. She trained acolytes and traveled with them and their mothers to Diocesan Acolyte Conventions. She re-instituted summer Vacation Bible School with St. Paul’s Holy Trinity Church sponsoring the event and the children and adults of St. Mary’s Church being active participants. Debbie Gustin created the currently used cut-work altar cloth and other table coverings. Decorating a Jesse Tree was also incorporated into the Advent celebration, with the children coloring the ornaments for the first year and Debbie Gustin cross-stitching beautiful ones for continuous use. Debbie also began a collection of Christmas angels. A brass Advent wreath candelabra was purchased in memory of Helen Gustin. A funeral pall was purchased in memory of Helen and Vernon Gustin. Rev. Scott also coordinated the Diocesan Prison Ministry at Angola and worked with Deacons Suzie Johnston and Camille Wood to expand prison ministry at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel.

Other priests who served as supply priests at St. Mary’s church included Rev. Mark Holland, Rev. Stewart Cage, Rev. Ralph Howe Jr., Rev. Stephen Craft, Rev. Jarvis Burns, Rev. Karen Gay, Rev. R. G. Rogers, Rev. Terrell Griffins, Rev. H. G. Randolph and Rev. R. W. Trent.

In reflecting upon the past fifty years of priestly service, it seems almost ironic that the successive priests each focused so much upon Advent celebrations. Surely this was appropriate for a church whose patron saint is the Blessed Virgin Mary!

The Church Building and Grounds

The church building which was constructed in 1915 has been in continuous use since that time and continues to serve the St. Mary congregation well. It remains in good condition with only minor structural changes since its construction. It originally had no electricity or plumbing. Oil lamps were still in use as late as 1937.34 Interior changes included adding electricity and eventually central air and heat (dates unknown); the electrical wiring was completely replaced in 2010 in conjunction with the installation of new lighting and roof repairs necessitated by damage from Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

It is remembered that during the tenure of Rev. Armstrong, the altar area was raised to a level higher than the floor. Also during his tenure, a portion of the narthex was walled off for the installation of plumbing and a child’s size sink and toilet; these improvements remained unchanged until the

34 Campbell diary, February 18, 1937.

11 bathroom was completely renovated in 2014 with memorial donations from the family of Mrs. Toppy Haag (a renovation that was very much needed by that time!)

The other notable interior change during the tenure of Rev. Armstrong involved the windows.35 The original white or clear-glass window panes were replaced by colored glass, except for the triangular panel at the very top of the window above the entrance. This is the oldest remaining pane of glass; only when the light strikes a certain way can the naked eye barely detect the outline of what was once a visible picture of Mary that had been etched into the glass.

During the tenure of Rev. Krutz, ‘cathedral red’ carpeting was added to the center aisle and altar area, these improvements being dedicated April 18, 1998.36 More recently, two cane-bottomed chairs were refurbished by Gerry Brown; and three upholstered chairs were added to the nave.

With regard to exterior changes, the outside walls of the church were painted – most likely multiple times – before vinyl siding was placed on the building, recollected by current parishioners as occurring sometime in the 1990’s. A concrete sidewalk from the street to the door steps was added in memory of Walter L. Gustin (1895-1970), the patriarch for multiple families of Gustins who worship at St. Mary’s today. On August 13, 2011, Bishop Morris K. Thompson, Jr. dedicated the new church sign, dedicated to the memory of Walter C. Parlange Jr. The sign previously in existence had deteriorated and been torn down. Although no one currently knows for certain, it is believed that the cross which originally rested on the top of the roof of the church is the same cross which is now attached to the front facing of the church over the entrance window. Lattice work was added to the front foundation facing of the church in 2016 to replace the decorative bricks which had been knocked down as part of an earlier replacement of a gas line.

35 Brown, p. 4. 36 Brown, p. 5.

With regard to the grounds maintenance, multiple generations of parishioners remember cutting the grass. It seems to have been something of a rite of passage demanded by the elders of their children, with the responsibility passing down from oldest sibling or cousin to the next when one would get a job or move away or get married. Perry Gustin remembers the grass being cut with a mule-driven sickle-type mower. Nina Gustin remembers using a push mower and being glad that her turn to mow came at a time when so much overgrowth had occurred around the property borders that there was not as much to mow! Today the men of the church continue to mow the grass and maintain the cemetery grounds themselves. To the outside observer, their labor seems to be as much an act of devotion as it does a task of necessity.

Another story of note concerns the grounds maintenance. St. Mary’s parish report for the year 1917 indicates that $90 had been spent for “permanent improvements” and that the “Church grounds are securely fenced.”37 The earliest available photograph of the church appears in a 1925 Diocesan publication. This picture shows the fence and its well-remembered topping of looped rolls of wire.

A gate to the property was added in 1937 and its construction process closely observed and described in the diary of T. Heard Campbell. Mr. Robert H. Reynolds supervised the project and hauled sand from a levee to pour into the fresh post holes.38 The two concrete posts of that gate remain; still visible on them today are the initials of the two men who built them: RHR for Mr. Reynolds (maternal grandfather of current parishioner Nina Gustin) and W.B.W. for William B. Wells. Both men are buried in the cemetery which they helped to secure for a time with their gate.

Despite the good fortune with which this fence was initially heralded, its remains were eventually removed along with what had become a dense thicket of trees and shrubs. Sometime in the early spring of 1966, Rector James P. Williamson called for a work day to remove the overgrowth of trees and bushes around the church, some of which had begun to lift the church building off of its foundation. This clean-up is remembered today as taking place over several weekends, with people from the community and the church working long days to cut down the overgrowth and haul away the debris in pick-up trucks. The Morganza community had a vested interest in the project. The boundary of the church property bordering St. Ann’s property (marked by the fence shown in the 1925 photograph) was next to an open field that was used for many years as a baseball field. When balls went over the fence, the undergrowth was so thick that no one could get to them. By the end of the clean-up project, multiple buckets of baseballs in various stages of decomposition had been collected!

37 Eightieth Annual Session, Amno Domini, 1918, pp. 95-96. 38 Campbell diary, entry January 7, 1937.

Despite how much better the grounds looked, this clean-up project yielded an unfortunate result. The remaining members of the Campbell family, which had nurtured the church from its inception –serving as its Wardens, Treasurers, Secretaries, Sunday School teachers, musicians, sacristans, sponsors for baptisms and confirmations and genuinely hospitable hosts for all sorts of visitors and members – walked out of the church in disagreement over what had occurred. The Register of Church Services had regularly recorded the signatures of Helen C. Campbell, Church School, and T. Heard Campbell as Lay Reader for Morning Prayer, but their names never appeared again after March 31, 1966. Their departure was abrupt, irrevocable, and mostly silent, the only remembered conversation about their disapproval being T. Heard Campbell’s remark that “God plants the trees.” Presumably that meant that what God had planted, humans should not cut down. The departure of the Campbell’s was a painful loss for everyone. With them went the earliest original records for the church. The first Parish Register was recovered years later, when someone noticed the book at a local antique dealer and demanded that it be returned to the Church as it was church property; the antique dealer reluctantly did so!

More recently, the last remnants of that original fence

- pieces of fencing and twisted iron which had become embedded into multiple tree trunks grown together – were seen in 2015 when the trees remaining on the perimeter of the grave sites were professionally removed to prevent further deterioration of the graves and to clear the debris and overgrowth encroaching them. This project was jointly funded by St. Mary’s Church and its neighbor, St. Ann’s Catholic Church. Jerrold Purpera from St. Ann’s Church had long been of assistance in helping with the clearing of debris from the trees which bordered the churches’ property, and his assistance with the tree-cutting project was significant. This final cutting of the trees was painful also. The task brought to mind uncomfortable memories and unanswered questions and one protest, “Why are we spending so much money on the dead?” It was an honest and truth-seeking question. But with an aging membership faced with the responsibilities of upkeep for the cemetery, the truth of the answer was its perceived necessity.

The Church Universal

Certainly the story of St. Mary’s Church cannot be told by just talking about the building which houses it and the land which surrounds it. The church is about the people who worship there. At end of 1915, when communicants were transferred from the role of St. Stephen’s Church to the role of St. Mary’s Church, St. Mary’s listed 60 baptized persons and 23 communicants. These family names occur at some point in the first Parish Register, covering the period 1916-1942:

Barz, Baugh, Bennett, Bouquet, Bryant, Burton, Campbell, Deaton, Debatz, Dickerson, Fabre, Fletcher, Fleming, Gustin, Hess, Ioor, Jones, Krewitz, LaCour, LeCoq, LeSeure, Litchliter, McDonald, Mougeot, Milligan, Ortis, Phillips, Paremelle, Powell, Reynolds, Sadden, Singletary, Stockfleth, Strother, Syrett, Torbert, Turner, Wells, Wakefield, Wilson, Woodcock.

The first recorded baptism was of Willie Anna Deaton, September 21, 1916. Baptisms were the most prolific during the years 1935-1959. The first recorded confirmations by Bishop David Sessums were not dated but included Edward Hunt Phillips, Ruth Phillips, Helen Campbell, and John Dickerson, Sr. Large numbers of baptized persons were confirmed in the years 1916, 1925, 1935, 1937, 1940, and 1941, with numbers decreasing thereafter. The first recorded marriage took place between Banks Jennings Powell and Mary Frances Krewitz on September 27, 1931. The first recorded burial in the St. Mary’s cemetery was of James William Litchliter on September 24, 1917. A visitor to St. Mary’s cemetery today would notice several grave markers for people who died prior to the establishment of the church. It is believed that these graves were moved from other now flooded grave sites. Local anecdotes are still being told about moving graves from such places; however, specific records relative to graves being relocated to St. Mary’s Cemetery have not been located.

In successive years, the people of St. Mary’s parish participated in these events. This is what the holy catholic church does – from birth to death – marking life events with celebrations and the ordinary with sacred space and holy worship and loving service and blessed community.

Conclusion

On April 23, 2016, we will celebrate a 100th anniversary. We will do so mindful of a connection among us that extends beyond the divisions which normally characterize our lives. We will celebrate with our Diocesan Bishop presiding in the presence of priests formerly assigned to St. Mary’s, with guests from the community and from other churches with whom we have been formally associated in years past, with friends and family of current and former St. Mary parishioners, with a caterer from St. Stephens serving food in the Parish Hall of our Roman Catholic neighbors.

As we prepare for this celebration, many of the images of the people associated with St. Mary’s Church continue to captivate my imagination:

 Sara Archer driving her wagon over dirt roads to pick up people who wanted to go to church and standing in her pew to lead the Office of Morning Prayer at St. Stephen’s Church;  T. Heard Campbell walking from the Post Office to St. Mary’s Church repeatedly;  Helen Campbell producing chocolate and sandwiches for every occasion;  Helen Gustin playing the organ;  Vernon Gustin growing flowers for the altar and for the graves;  Generations of women cleaning the church and baking Morganza cakes;  Debbie Gustin delivering bakery boxes of Christmas goodies to an ever-growing list of people and sewing linens and crafting other items of beauty and usefulness;  Fay Rock Gustin telling stories and doing all that Senior Wardens do;  Nina Gustin taking care of the church finances and altar linens and sweeping the floor;  Perry Gustin cracking and sharing pecans;  Acolytes and choir children having trouble hanging up their robes and tying their cinctures;

 Teenagers cutting the grass and men taking care of the church property with unfailing devotion;  Priests traveling across Pointe Coupee Parish to hold multiple services in different places;  Young families filtering the ancient stories and apostolic traditions through new lenses.

These images humble, encourage and inspire me. I have come to believe that the history of the churches in Pointe Coupee Parish and its neighboring river parishes have something to say to a Church that is struggling to re-emerge in the 21st century. Their histories call us to remember the very beginnings of the Church - those communities of people scattered across distant places, often living in difficult and dangerous circumstances, calling themselves Followers of the Way. They remind us of what it means to be a ‘mission’ and to embody the life of Christ in the world. And they show us how paying attention to our children and to our neighboring churches and our local communities are both necessary and joyful for the life of the Church.

On the day in which we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the consecration of a building, we celebrate much more than a building. We celebrate the lives of the people who have come through the buildings’ doors. We offer our thanksgivings for God’s providence which has flowed through the people who have sustained our life through 100 years. And we proclaim our faith that regardless of whether history records our names, God does. And we will be proclaiming that the work that we do as the Church, the Body of Christ in this world, is life that will last eternally – a life that will influence those whom we may never know who will come after us. May we be faithful to this call, this life in the days ahead.