Saint John's Church (Hagerstown, Maryland)
Encyclopedia
St. John's Church, or St. John's Episcopal Church, founded in 1786, is an historic Episcopal church located at 101 South Prospect Street in the South Prospect Street Historic District
South Prospect Street Historic District
South Prospect Street Historic District is a national historic district at Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland, United States. The district is a 19th and early 20th century residential neighborhood which was once the address of many of Hagerstown's leading citizens...

 of Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown is a city in northwestern Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County, and, by many definitions, the largest city in a region known as Western Maryland. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2010 census was 39,662, and the population of the...

. It is the seat of Saint John’s Parish, Diocese of Maryland
Episcopal Diocese of Maryland
The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland forms part of Province 3 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is made up of the northern and central Maryland counties of Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington...

, which covers most of Washington County, Maryland
Washington County, Maryland
Washington County is a county located in the western part of the U.S. state of Maryland, bordering southern Pennsylvania to the north, northern Virginia to the south, and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia to the south and west. As of the 2010 Census, its population is 147,430...

.

The present church building is built of coursed rows of rough-hewn blue limestone with stringcourses, sills and lintels of brownstone. Gothic windows are filled with stained-glass; and a bell tower, topped with a stone steeple, rises from the north corner of the church and the roof is slate. Two heavy oak doors, painted red, are covered with elaborate scrolled pattern in bronze reminiscent of the Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The Diocese of Lichfield covers all of Staffordshire, much of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands...

 in England. These doors open into a foyer at the base of the tower that is decorated in the Arts & Crafts style, the ceiling have sixty small six-point stars cut into the ceiling and illuminated from above.

History

Though it is the mother church of Saint John’s Parish in the lower Cumberland valley, Saint John’s Church Hagerstown is also the daughter church of the Broad Creek Church of Piscataway Parish. The current physical church is the fourth occupied by the congregation since establishment of the “Chapel in the Woods” (1747) as an ecclesiastical ease administered by All Saints’ Church (1742) in Frederick, Maryland
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...

. Services began in 1744. A brick church was erected on Mulberry Street, Hagerstown in 1785, the site of which is still maintained as the church cemetery. The General Assembly of Maryland separated the congregation from All Saints’ Frederick in 1786, creating a new “Frederick Parish” named for Frederick Calvert
Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore
Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, 4th Proprietor of Maryland was an English nobleman and last in the line of Barons Baltimore...

, last proprietor of Maryland. In 1797, Bishop John Thomas Claggett consecrated the sanctuary and in 1806, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland renamed the parish after Saint John the Evangelist.

Saint John’s rector in the late Federal period was the Rev. Thomas P. Irving, one of the foremost Greek and Latin scholars of that period. Native to Somerset County, Maryland
Somerset County, Maryland
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*53.5% White*42.3% Black*0.3% Native American*0.7% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*1.7% Two or more races*1.5% Other races*3.3% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...

, Irving attended Princeton College and thereafter embarked on an educational avocation. He was headmaster at New Bern Academy and later, the Hagerstown Academy, the educational mission of which is carried on by Saint James School
Saint James School
Saint James School and similar name forms may refer to* St. James' School, Kolkata, India* St. James' School Exeter in Devon, England* Saint James School in the US* St. James School, Maryland in the US...

. Irving was ordained by Bishop William White. The mission of advancing learning in Hagerstown has been integral to the work of Saint John’s Church. The Rev. George Lemmon conducted weekly lectures through to 1827. In 1842, Saint John’s rector Theodore Benedict Lyman
Theodore Benedict Lyman
Theodore Benedict Lyman , was the fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. He was born in Brighton, Massachusetts. Father of William Whittingham Lyman...

 served as the Bishop’s agent in identifying and purchasing the grounds for Saint James School
Saint James School
Saint James School and similar name forms may refer to* St. James' School, Kolkata, India* St. James' School Exeter in Devon, England* Saint James School in the US* St. James School, Maryland in the US...

.

A second church was built in the Federal style at the corner of Jonathan (now Summit) and Antietam Streets in 1823, and was consecrated by the second bishop of Maryland. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Saint John’s Church was attended by a large number of Southern sympathizers. The Rector, Rev. Henry Edwards, was decidedly pro-Union. Edwards served as the U.S. Hospital Chaplain at Hagerstown from Nov. 13, 1862 through March 5, 1863. This was the aftermath of the battle of Antietam
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam , fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000...

. On the Sunday prior to that battle, he preached from the pulpit of Saint John’s before a congregation of Confederate officers and soldiers, lifting up a prayer for Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

, the President of the United States. On another occasion, he did the same before “the whole of Longstreet’s division.”

Saint John’s Sanctuary

Neo-Gothic in style, the current church was built in 1872 and was an American adaptation of the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...

 in sanctuary design. In December 1871, a fire in the town's business district destroyed the Federalist style sanctuary built in 1832 at the corner of Jonathan and Antietam Streets. The initial sanctuary space was sparsely, but tastefully, accommodated. In 1899, Mollie Magill Rosenberg, a former communicant, donated a high Gothic Altar and associated supporting pieces, including a reredos. An identical matching set was installed at Grace Episcopal Church (Galveston, Texas)
Grace Episcopal Church (Galveston, Texas)
Grace Episcopal Church is a historic church at 1115 36th Street in Galveston, Texas.It was built in 1894 and added to the National Register in 1975....

, the Magill-Rosenberg family’s home church, by Silas McBee.

Easter Sunday 1899, Saint John’s dedicated the High Altar and continued a 60-year journey transforming the Sanctuary from the colonial Neo-classical style to a style embracing England’s Oxford Movement and the return to medieval forms. The transformation later continued, most notably through the replacement of the original windows with stained-glass designs depicting the life of Christ, chronologically, more or less. The donor, Mollie Magill Rosenberg, was spouse to Col. Henry Rosenberg, C.S.A. Henry served as Switzerland’s
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 consul to Texas after 1869. Mrs. Rosenberg attended the Columbian Exposition in 1893. The High Altar and its Reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....

 were on display in the Exposition’s Swiss Pavilion. Like the Oxford Movement, the Columbian Exposition highlighted revival, rather than progressive, movements in the arts and architecture. Abrupt changes in peoples’ lives during industrialization were thought to be ameliorated by antiquarian and, allegedly, more ‘authentic’ forms.
The High Altar and Reredos are metaphors for Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

 as the Word Incarnate. And while the Reredos is a reredos, it is also a Rood Screen
Rood screen
The rood screen is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or wrought iron...

 replica. Saint John’s wrought iron rood screen separates the Sanctuary from the Apex and Congregation. The Reredos is a scaled-down model of a larger more elaborate medieval gothic Rood Screen. The bronze relief at the center sits in what would have been the passageway from the Apex to the Sanctuary (through which the communicants would have witnessed the consecration of the Host). Above, a crossbridge (see the miniature passageway and small windows running laterally below the gables) connects what would have been the cathedral’s north and south transepts. Such crossbridges allowed non-celebrating clergy to move about the cathedral on business, unseen, while Mass was said below. So while the Reredos is a reredos, it is also a model of a Rood Screen.

Separating the Reredos from the High Altar is a Sanctus
Sanctus
The Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...

 ribbon from the 1559 B.C.P., drawing on Isaiah 6:3 but lacking the Benedictus
Benedictus
-Music:* Benedictus , the canticle sung at Lauds, also called the Canticle of Zachary.* The second part of the Sanctus, part of the eucharistic prayer* Benedictus , a song by Simon and Garfunkel...

 found in the 1549 B.C.P. Sanctus, derived from Matthew 21:9. The Sanctus is followed by Psalm 50:5, the call to be judged for the acts of one’s life, before the Throne of God.

The High Altar’s base features a triptych of two Old Testament events laying foundations for Christ’s priesthood. They flank a third central panel depicting the Last Supper at which Christ instructed on the Holy Eucharist. The Old Testament carvings both concern Abraham: The Binding of Isaac
Binding of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac Akedah or Akeidat Yitzchak in Hebrew and Dhabih in Arabic, is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah...

 Upon an Altar to God, Genesis 22:1-24 (left side) and the Blessing of Abraham by the High Priest Melchizedek
Melchizedek
Melchizedek or Malki Tzedek translated as "my king righteous") is a king and priest mentioned during the Abram narrative in the 14th chapter of the Book of Genesis....

 of Salem Following the Battle of the Kings, Genesis 14:17-20 (right side). The Last Supper, John 13-21 (center), was carved from a print of the mural by Leonardo da Vinci for dining room wall of the monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan, Italy). Between the triptych’s three panel carvings, the Swiss woodcarvers have made an artistic pun, using as pillars supporting the Altar itself three Church fathers–Peter
Peter
- Given name :In religion:* Saint Peter , Jesus' disciple * Peter the Deacon , a confidant of Pope Gregory I and rector of Sicily* Peter , saint and Bishop of Pavia...

 (Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 ), John (Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

) and James (Jerusalem) – identified by a fourth Apostle, the roving Paul as “pillars” of the Church. See Galatians 2:9. Peter holds the keys to Church; Paul holds the decapitating sword; John carries the New Testament to which he contributed; and James is supported by the cudgel used to make him a martyr.
Christ and Saint John are depicted three times in the combined High Altar and Reredos: Church patron and the Christ served by the Church numbered in the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. The “three theme” runs throughout the work, as in the trefoils – representative of the Holy Trinity – in peaked gables. The Last Supper forms the south arm of a Greek Cross. The Reredos itself provides the east, west and north arms. The center of the cross is the bronze relief of the Nativity
Nativity
-The birth of Jesus:* Nativity of Jesus, the Gospel story of the birth of Jesus* Nativity of Jesus in art, paintings depicting the Nativity* Nativity play, a dramatic production about the Nativity...

 and the Crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...

. Note the Star of Bethlehem
Star of Bethlehem
In Christian tradition, the Star of Bethlehem, also called the Christmas Star, revealed the birth of Jesus to the magi, or "wise men", and later led them to Bethlehem. The star appears in the nativity story of the Gospel of Matthew, where magi "from the east" are inspired by the star to travel to...

, centerline. This Star is often used in to mark the moment at which the human Jesus received divine aspect, becoming of the Trinity. It marks the moment of equipoise. Either side of the bronze relief stand two angels, one with arms crossed and the other with hands in prayer. Across the Greek Cross’s arms are the four Gospel authors, saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. John is holding the chalice poisoned to kill him at Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...

, performing the miracle which purified the cup, exorcising the Serpent. The other three Gospel writers hold quills and tablets, the tools of their craft.
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