Our History

Our Early Years

The first Episcopal parish in Springfield, Christ Church, was organized in 1859. In 1881, the rector, The Rev. Octavious Parker, initiated activity to establish a new parish in North Springfield, then a separate town, because Christ Church was too far away for many North Springfield residents to attend services on a regular basis. After The Rev. W. H. Osborne became the rector of Christ Church, it was determined that there were sufficient communicants living in North Springfield to warrant organizing a new parish. Accordingly, after Evening Prayer, conducted by Osborne, the first meeting was held on Monday night, March 29, 1886, in a hall on Commercial Street. At this meeting the Canonical Articles of Association were drawn up and a Vestry was elected. A group of devoted men and women signed the Articles of Association.

On May 26, 1886, Saint John’s Episcopal Church was admitted into the union of the Council of the Diocese of Missouri. At a meeting of the Vestry on May 31, a call was made to The Rev. Melville M. Moore, the rector of Holy Trinity Church, Nashville, Tennessee. Moore was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, a widower and father of a young son, Melville Jr. Moore held the first service of Saint John’s on Trinity Sunday, June 20, 1886 in the Wall Building on Commercial Street.

The following is a description of that first service, found in the Minute Book and written by the Senior Warden.

The first service of St. John’s Parish was held Sunday Morning, June 20, ’86. Morning Prayer, Sermon and Holy Communion. Thirty-two persons present. Services also in the evening, with seventy-six present. Rev. M. M. Moore, Rector-Elect, officiating. Chancel platform was arranged. Rude Altar (dry goods box) and Lectern constructed, neatly covered with white cloth, and tastefully decorated with vines, leaves, etc. The services were heartily enjoyed, and much is hoped from this small beginning.

The rector-elect accepted the call and returned to Springfield for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity. The service was held in the Merriman Building, at the corner of Commercial and Robberson. A small walnut altar, lectern, desk and stall were presented to the parish by the Ladies Social Club of North Springfield, many of whose members were parishioners. The year 1886 also marked the beginning of a building fund, and two lots at the corner of Benton Avenue and Division Street were purchased for $3,000.

In 1888, Moore was secretary of the annual Diocesan Convention in St. Louis, and he made a lengthy presentation in support of creating a second diocese in Missouri to better serve the rapid growth of the Church. At the May 1889 convention, the proposal was approved, and the Diocese of West Missouri (first called the Diocese of Kansas City) was established, incorporating the western half of the state. Moore had urged that the seat of the new diocese be in Springfield, but the decision was made that it should be in Kansas City, a more populous area.

The building for Saint John’s Church was completed in 1888, and the first services were held on Sunday, September 23. The architectural style is late English-Gothic, using quarry-faced limestone and timber with overhanging eaves. The roof, copied from that of William Rupert in Westminster Hall, London, England, is supported by open timber hammer-beam trusses. The woodwork throughout the interior is almost entirely of Georgia yellow pine, and the altar is of highly polished oak.

The rose window was reputed to have been the only window of the Gothic type in an Episcopal church in the Midwest and the only true rose window west of the Atlantic seaboard. The glasses in the windows are of fadeless stained glass, non-painted, and mark a period at the close of the 19th century when the first  such glass was made in America.

With the indebtedness against the building paid off, the consecration of St. John’s Church was held on St. Mark’s Day, Wednesday, April 25, 1894. The celebrant was The Rt. Rev. Dr. Daniel S. Tuttle, Bishop of Missouri, and the consecrator was The Rt. Rev. Dr. Edward R. Atwill, Bishop of West Missouri and President of the Diocesan Board of Trustees. (The early history comes from parish records, and much is adapted from the 1994 booklet Twelve Decades: A History of St. John’s Episcopal Church of Springfield Missouri by Maurice Bostwick.)

On May 1st, 1978, Saint John’s was presented a plaque designating the church to be a historical site.

 

125th Anniversary Celebration

In 2011 a year-long celebration recognized the 125th anniversary of Saint John’s Parish.

Events included a dinner with retiring bishop The Rt. Rev. Barry R. Howe and his wife Mary, production of a DVD on the history of the parish, a Founders’ Day Picnic, the planting of an oak tree, the development and publication of the Saint John’s Episcopal Church 125th Celebration Cookbook, and a new parish directory. The culminating event was a Solemn Evensong followed by a potluck dinner and the installation of a time capsule.

 

Moving Ahead in the 21st Century

Today, more than one hundred and twenty-five years after its founding, this parish continues to fulfill the vision of our earliest members. We trust they rejoice with us in the spreading of the Gospel over the years.

We wish to expand our mission to the people of Springfield and surrounding communities, being faithful to our Anglo-Catholic tradition, lived in the context of the twenty-first century.