ALLELUIA. “THE LORD IS RISEN” AND ST. ANDREW’S IS DONE , WELL ALMOST
It is Easter day, April 19,1908 and the first regular service is being held at St. Andrew’s. Everyone is seated in the choir area since that is the only place that is finished. Still it must have been exciting and a blessing to be out of the cramped space of the newspaper office that was known as the St. Andrew’s chapel.
In the weeks and months before this the pews and woodwork you see today were being made in the Phillips furniture factory. Oak and chestnut lumber was used for the pews and woodwork, the lumber being cut from trees harvested from forests that surrounded the area. The walls have been plastered directly over the stone and painted a light green. Lights were hung from the ceiling but not the ones we have today, at the time they were just a white globe with one bulb.
Several months before this the stained glass windows would have been designed and ordered. We know our windows were made in a craft factory just outside of London, England. This was a large industry at the time, some companies employing over a hundred men. We know that our windows came from England and the area in which they came because of the yellow glass. The area was known for making this color of glass and it was not allowed to be shipped anywhere else. There were several factories making stained glass windows and unfortunately we have no records to tell us which one.
It would be another six months before the building was completely done. On the next St. Andrew’s day, Monday, November 30, 1908 the building was consecrated. As told by the News-Chronicle in an article written in 1940. Bishop Darlington and his Chaplain, the Rev. John Costello of Waynesboro, were admitted to the church by J. Clifford Phillips and Joseph Mifflin, wardens. Mr. Phillips, who gave the church building as a memorial to his mother, read the instrument of donation and the Rev. Alexander McMillan of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Carlisle, read the charter of incorporation. The Bishop celebrated Holy Eucharist and preached The Rev. E. V. Collins and Rev M.A. Thathen,
newly-appointed rector, both participated in the service and made brief addresses. Peter Neff, Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Coy and Miss Kathleen Reed were confirmed at the service.
I often wonder what people thought as they walked up the smooth sandstone steps and in the front doors for the first time. To walk in and smell the fresh plaster and new paint. To sit on pews that no one had ever sat on and to look up to see the wood panels with the different crosses. To see the reredos and a wood altar lighted with candles. To look around to see the stained glass and see the light shining through.
When I started attending here about fifteen years ago, I walked up those same steps, well-worn from hundreds of footsteps. I walked through the same doors that John Phillips had built just for this church. I saw the oak pews, a little worn after ninety some years, the painted walls now an off white and peeling in places, the chestnut wall panels and the hand craved altar. I saw light shining through the stain glass and knew it was something special. I knew I had found a home.
I would like to know what you thought the first time you walked in the front doors. It doesn’t matter if you have been coming here forty years or your first time was last week. A few things have changed, the sandstone steps are covered up with stone pavers, the walls were painted a few years ago, new hymnal racks were installed but things are pretty much the way they were. E-mail me what you thought, it just might make a good vergers voice.