African Americans History

Holy Cross-St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Closing

The following article is from the May 27, 2014 edition of the Cumberland Times-News. It pertains to the closing of the St. Philip's Episcopal Church which is discussed elsewhere on this website:

Holy Cross - St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Closing
Congregation will hold last service June 15

CUMBERLAND — An Episcopal church with important historical roots in the community will be closing its doors next month.

This is the altar that served St. Philip's Church on South Smallwood Street. St. Philip's had begun as a "missionary enterprise" of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in 1890. Black Episcopalians would regularly attend services at Emmanuel and be seated in what was historically known as the "slave balcony" (see the write-up on Samuel Semmes). When the balcony was removed during a renovation, Emmanuel held special services and Sunday school for its black congregants in the Parish Building which at that time was located at the corner of Washington and Greene Streets.

Saint Philip's Chapel
CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND
The Reverend G. Stanley Schwind, Vicar
Consecration of the Chapel by the
RIGHT REVEREND NOBLE C. POWELL, D. D.
Bishop of Maryland
The Sunday after Ascension Day, June 2, 1946 - 7 P. M.

ORDER OF SERVICE
The Bishop, accompanied by visiting clergy, proceeds to the vestry door and strikes upon it three times. The door is opened, the Bishop enters and pronounces the PEACE.
Psalm 24: Prayer Book p. 559 - The Bishop and Clergy
The Request for Consecration - Johnson M. Denson

The following history of St. Philip's Chapel was published in A History of Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Cumberland, Maryland, 1891-1991. It goes into detail surrounding the Smallwood Street site of St. Philip's. For instance, the initial chapel was originally a home, purchased in 1901 and remodeled to serve the needs of the congregation until the erection of a new, more adequate chapel in 1930. The final service is also precisely identified as being held on November 1, 1966. St. Philip's served as a center for worship, church, and community based activities until its closing:

St. Philip's Chapel and members of the congregation, 1924

Top left - Adults, left to right are Oscar Martin, Stanley Cooper, Billy Cooper, Elmore Gates, Horatio Ruffner, Beulah Burley (lived in Ridgeley, West Virginia), Clayton Denson, Mary Ann Long, Mrs. Dawson (the wife of Reverend Dawson), Clara Gates Jackson (daughter of Jane Gates), Lillian Lee Boston, George Dawson, and the Reverend Cornelius R. Dawson who served as St. Philip's Priest from 1922 to 1926.

The children, left to right, are Dana Armisted and Romaine Denson Franklin.

Converts honored at First Communion

Diverse congregations coming together as one
Potomac Park, McKendree will worship under same roof together as one

TAI SHADRICK
TIMES-NEWS STAFF WRITER

POTOMAC PARK — One is a small church not big enough to host services for all its members.

The other is a larger church struggling to recruit new members and retain its current population.

One is a predominately black congregation.

The other is predominantly white.

This photograph depicts the former McKendree United Methodist Church building on Paca Street. The McKendree Methodist Episcopal congregation, later known as the McKendree United Methodist Church, was established in 1854. It was also in 1854 that the original McKendree site, a modern two-story brick structure, was purchased on North Centre Street in Cumberland.

McKendree M.E. Church Construction, 1962

New Church Nears Completion

HISTORY OF MCKENDREE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Cumberland, Maryland
(as of 1981)