Good
Shepherd Episcopal Good
Shepherd Episcopal
Written histories of churches are very different from the written histories of other human institutions. With most institutions, a good historical record gives a clear picture of how the institution came into being and what nurtured its development. That’s not true for churches. Written histories of churches can never adequately capture or even describe that which brought the church into being or what has nurtured and sustained the church over it’s lifetime. The reason that a historical record cannot capture or describe that “mysterious something” is because clearly that “mysterious something” is God’s Holy Spirit at work in the heart of every person who has ever worshiped in the church.
The history of Good Shepherd Church is the history of God’s interaction with all the people of this church. While we can never hope to know all the intricacy of that interaction or the many ways that God has nourished the souls of all who have passed by this way, we can look at the “footprints” of that interaction. Those “footprints” are the record of the ministry of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church from it’s founding in 1901 to the present day. In no way does this brief history make the claim of being a complete record of that ministry. However, if the reader can get a glimpse of the ways that God has been at work in this church, then this history, despite it’s brevity, will have served God and God’s purpose. The reader should also note that this history is a compilation of the work of several contributors who are listed in the ending acknowledgment.
IN THE BEGINNING (The first 50 years)
The Rev. Ralph Macy, the eighteenth clergyman to serve Good Shepherd, and the first Rector of Good Shepherd after moving from mission to parish status in the diocese in 1950, wrote an excellent history of Good Shepherd Church for the celebration of the church’s 50th anniversary. What follows are excerpts from Fr. Macy’s history with additions from a document written by Mrs. Jean Brown and Mrs. William M. (Anna Belle) Taylor on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the church: (Note that Fr. Macy’s history of the church was written when the Church of the Good Shepherd was located at the Northeast corner of the intersection of Walnut and Thompson streets in Sapulpa. The original church building still stands on that corner and houses a church of another Christian denomination).
The Church of the Good Shepherd is one of the pioneer churches of Sapulpa, having its beginning shortly after the founding of the town itself, and it owes its beginning and its early existence to one of the pioneer families of the community. On July 15, 1900 Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Mason and their son Ben moved to Sapulpa. Mr. Mason was a dispatcher for the Frisco Railroad. The Mason’s originally lived in the Porter House Hotel and later the St. James Hotel before establishing their home on East Dewey Avenue. On June 14, 1901 a daughter, Margaret, was born to the Masons in their home.
Mrs. Mason was a member of the Episcopal Church before coming to Sapulpa, and she soon set about to see that her church connections could be continued here. Since there was no Episcopal church in Sapulpa at that time, she established a Sunday School in her home. On November 7, 1901 the Rt. Rev. Francis Key Brooke, first Bishop of Oklahoma, sent The Rev. Frank R. Jones, of Vinita, to the Mason’s home to baptize Margaret. On December 2nd of 1901, Bishop Brooke visited the Mason’s home in Sapulpa and confirmed Ben Mason. After these two services, the Church of the Good Shepherd began to take shape. Regular services were begun in 1902 at the Mason home. At the end of 1902 the congregation reported a membership of six families with twelve adult members active. Fr. Jones continued to serve Good Shepherd Church from Vinita until 1904 when he returned to New York City to serve as a hospital Chaplain.
Fr. Jones was succeeded by The Rev. Richard D. Baldwin who also served Good Shepherd from Vinita. By the time Fr. Baldwin came in 1904, the church had outgrown the Mason’s home and services were held in various public buildings. These included the old “Dewey College” school building that stood where the present Creek County Courthouse is now located, the “Sample Room” of the Porter House Hotel which was owned by a member of the church, Robert Virden, and the public Library.
During Fr. Baldwin’s ministry at Good Shepherd, a small frame church was constructed at the corner of Dewey and Walnut. The building was financed chiefly from the local congregation with the aid of funds from the missions board of the Episcopal Church. This structure is the basic part of the present church building (at the time of Fr. Macy’s writing). Shortly after its construction at the corner of Dewey and Walnut, it was moved to a lot two blocks south to its location at Thompson and Walnut. When the foundation work at the new site was delayed, the building actually stood in the street for a week waiting on it’s new footings. It was also during this time that the church got its first organ. It was, of course, a true organ that needed air to make sound and stories abound that it took at least four boys pumping the organ to make enough air to make music.
The Rev. Benjamin Thomas Benstead succeeded Fr. Baldwin and served Good Shepherd for a brief period in 1906. The first resident clergyman of the Church of the Good Shepherd was Henry H. Fay who came to Sapulpa from Massachusetts to work as a layman under the direction of Bishop Brooke. Fay was later ordained and it was during his tenure that the congregation established its first regular schedule of services.
Fr. Fay was succeeded by a number of clergymen who came to conduct services at Sapulpa but they all served various other congregations and none of them was assigned to serve Good Shepherd. During the time from 1910 to 1911 only one minister served with any regularity (The Rev. William D. Morrow) and because of the congregation’s uncertainty over stable clergy leadership the church grew very little during this time. However, the congregation continued to work to build up the church. In fact, it was in 1911 that the church first got electricity and electric lights (to replace the coal oil lamps) were given by Good Shepherd Women’s Guild.
Under the leadership of the second Bishop of Oklahoma, The Rt. Rev. Theodore Payne Thurston, The Rev. George C. Gibbs was assigned to serve the churches in Okmulgee and Sapulpa. Fr. Gibbs spent several days each week in Sapulpa from 1911 to 1915 and it was during this time that the parish experienced its first real growth. Unfortunately, following Fr. Gibbs’ tenure, another period of uncertainty followed as one of his successors (The Rev. Dr. Frederick DeWitt Sturgess) died shortly after coming to Sapulpa and the other stayed only a short time. One interesting note from the period around 1918 was a public notice of a baptism service with the location given as the end of Hickory Street at Pole Cat Creek.
The next period of growth for Good Shepherd came under the leadership of The Rev. John Warren Day. Fr. Day served Good Shepherd from 1921 to 1923 and was very involved in community affairs. It was his involvement in the community and in helping the church look outward that brought new life to the church. It was during Fr. Day’s tenure that the rectory of the church was built and he and his wife began their married life in that rectory. Not long after leaving Good Shepherd, Fr. Day was called to be Dean of Grace Cathedral in Topeka, Kansas.
One of the best known men in church’s history of ordained leaders was the Rev. Paul R. Reese who came to Sapulpa as a lay reader in 1926 and was later ordained at Good Shepherd. Fr. Reese remained at Good Shepherd until 1931. Reese was noted for his pastoral ministry and his talent as an architect. Under his direction the parish hall and tower were added to the church greatly improving the appearance as well as the usefulness of the building. Much of the money for the project was raised through the efforts of the Women’s Guild of Good Shepherd. Church records indicate that a great deal of work was done to improve the building under Fr. Reese. It was during Fr. Reese’s tenure that water and gas were brought into the church building, a bathroom was added, an organ blower (electric) was put in place and the old coal and wood pot-bellied stoves were replaced with open faced gas heaters.
Clearly, Fr. Reese’s gifts of ministry helped Good Shepherd grow in numbers as well as building space and photographs from this time reflect not only an adult choir of eleven but a children’s choir of twenty. Church records from this time also indicate that Good Shepherd was becoming increasingly involved in the life of the Episcopal Church beyond the Sapulpa congregation.
Between 1931 and 1939, Good Shepherd was served by three Vicars, The Rev. Edwin A. Morton, The Rev. John A. Klein, and the Rev. William P. Barnes. Notably, both Fr. Morton and Fr. Klein married their respective spouses during their tenure as Rectors of Good Shepherd. Fr. Barnes served as Good Shepherd’s fifteenth Vicar, but served only three months which makes him the Vicar with the shortest time of service (excluding Fr. Sturgess, who died after only one month as Vicar of Good Shepherd).
The Rev. Charles M. Hill came to Sapulpa in 1939 and in the following five years the Episcopal Church advanced considerably in strength. The church building was lengthened to provide additional seating, and the old fashioned interior was modernized and beautified. Under the direction of Hill and members of the parish, a youth program was instituted. It was also during Fr. Hill’s tenure that two of the three Tiffany stained glass windows that still adorn the sanctuary of Good Shepherd Church were purchased. These windows came from the old South Methodist Church and were originally created around 1910. They were purchased as a gift in memory of William and Martha Ziegler and Henry and Mary Bostock and given to Good Shepherd.
Hill was followed in 1945 by The Rev. B. Franklin Williams who came to Sapulpa as a lay reader and was later ordained. By 1950 the congregation had grown sufficiently to warrant a full time clergyman. Until this time the local clergy had always served at least one additional church, usually in Claremore or Cushing. Part of the financial support had always come from the Diocese of Oklahoma. Now that the Vicar spent his full time in Sapulpa, it was decided to take the next logical step and become a fully self supporting parish. The Diocesan convention of 1950 approved the petition for parish status and a Vestry was elected. Shortly thereafter, Fr. Williams resigned, moving to St. Thomas’ Church in Pawhuska. The church there also has taken on parish status with Fr. Williams it’s Rector. It was in 1950 when Good Shepherd became a parish, that we acquired the third Tiffany window that still adorns our Sanctuary. That window is the “Good Shepherd” window that is centered over our altar and it was given to the church in honor of Fr. Williams when Good Shepherd became a parish. That window has, since it was given, had a place of honor above the altar of Good Shepherd in all of our locations.
In August of 1950, the Rev. Ralph E. Macy came to Sapulpa as a deacon from the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Mass. He and Williams were the first native Oklahomans to serve as Vicars of the local church. (Note: It seems that Fr. Macy meant Oklahoma born when he used the term native Oklahoman which some might confuse with the modern term Native American referring to American Indians). Following Macy’s ordination to the priesthood in December of 1950, the Vestry elected Macy to be the first Rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church.
THE YEARS AS A PARISH (1950-1981)
Most of what you have read up till now has primarily been from Fr. Macy’s article celebrating Good Shepherd’s fiftieth anniversary of its founding. What follows is a continuation of Fr. Macy’s format relying on the names of the clergy who served Good Shepherd and the dates of that service to provide the framework for telling Good Shepherd’s history.
Fr. Macy served Good Shepherd Church from 1950 until 1952. It’s not clear from church records why so many of the clergy who came to serve Good Shepherd got married during their time of service here, perhaps it was because many of the clergy who came here were very recent graduates from seminary and Good Shepherd was a good place for new ministers to develop their skills. Regardless of the reasons though, Fr. Macy joined several of his predecessors in that group of Good Shepherd’s ordained leaders who were united to their spouses in marriage during their tenure as Vicars or Rectors.
When The Rev. O. Malcom Langley came to Good Shepherd in June of 1953, the people of Good Shepherd were ready to launch some new ministries. There can be no doubt that the Women’s Guild of Good Shepherd had a major role in the fund raising that had built and sustained Good Shepherd Church. Activities put on by the women of the church in the 1950's brought new attention to the Episcopal Church. Bake sales and Bazaars and the famous (or infamous) May Breakfasts brought needed publicity to help the church raise money, but more importantly to increase membership. Fr. Langley also worked to increase membership among young people. It was during his tenure that the Episcopal YPF (Young People’s Fellowship) was started with the help of sponsors like Bill and Anna Belle Taylor and Keith and Rosalee Plummer. Fr. Langley served as Good Shepherd’s Rector until March of 1958.
The Rev. F. Grover Fulkerson succeeded Fr. Langley as the 20th clergyman to lead Good Shepherd Church taking that responsibility in October of 1958. Church records indicate that ongoing activities sponsored and promoted by the Women’s Guilds of Good Shepherd were largely responsible for the growth that would soon push the church beyond the capacity of the Walnut and Thompson building. During a recent presentation for the 2001 building fund campaign, members of the congregation were asked to share their memories of life at Good Shepherd in their past. In the remembrances that Wesley Vinyard offered the congregation he stated, “By the early 1960's it became obvious that Good Shepherd was going to have to move if we were going to progress. The Presbyterians owned the whole west half of that block, and what was then the Church of Christ, now the Vanguard Ministry, held the north part of the east half of the block. There were no parking facilities, and no room to grow. So a Building Committee was formed, with the first duty to find a new location for the church. Ken Holt was the chairman, and his main assistant was Joe Robson... After quite a bit of searching, Ken and Joe found the property on East Dewey where the church is now located.”
Fr. Fulkerson served Good Shepherd until February of 1960. An interim priest, Fr. Norman B. Quigg served from February through June of 1960. Despite the fact that Good Shepherd continued to operate with an ever-changing clergy leadership, the church was growing and people recognized the need for more room. But it wasn’t quite time to move yet. The Rev. Dr. William M. Arbuckle began his service as the Rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church on September 1st, 1960. It was during Fr. Arbuckle’s tenure that the old church rectory was converted into Sunday School rooms and a connecting way was built from the back of the Parish Hall to the Sunday School rooms. While the church records aren’t clear on this point, it also may have been during Fr. Arbuckle’s tenure that the old church organ was replace by a newer electronic version. Not long after the rectory was converted to classrooms, the church allowed community sponsors to start a school for handicapped children in the building. That school continued to use the church facilities until enough money was raised to build the Bartlett School. Clearly this was the beginning of Good Shepherd’s ministry of sharing God’s blessings of a church building with other groups in the Sapulpa Community. Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Alanon have used and continue to use Good Shepherd’s facilities to do their ministry. It’s just one of many ways Good Shepherd reaches out beyond the walls of the church to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The Rector who had the honor of leading Good Shepherd during its relocation was The Rev. Jerry Crawley. Fr. Crawley served Good Shepherd from January 1965 to January 1969. It was during this time that Good Shepherd’s address changed from Walnut and Thompson to 1420 east Dewey. Wesley Vinyard’s remembrances give some valuable insight into what was going on in the church at the time. “The property was then owned by the people living in the rock house on the southwest corner of the block. They owned the whole block, which was sub-divided into twelve lots. They offered to sell us the whole block except for the two lots containing the house for $12,000. After quite a bit of negotiation, Ken Holt got the price down to $10,000 and we closed the deal. Of course, the church didn’t have $10,000, but after a period of fund raising we paid off the land, or at least most of it, and began to make plans to build.” According to Wesley, the first building was built on the new site for $40,000 or approximately $8.00 per square foot, which was as Wesley stated, a good price even in the 1960's. The first worship service was held in the new building on Sunday, May 7, 1967.
Joy Naifeh’s remembrances offered during the 2001 building fund campaign told of how the three Tiffany stained glass windows moved with the church. When the new church was built two of the stained glass windows were placed at the back of the nave in lighted shadow boxes with the Good Shepherd window placed above the altar in the west end of the building. As Joy said, “Some in the church didn’t want to spend the money to move the windows but there was a concerted effort by several parishioners to keep them in our church.” For most parishioners today, it would be hard to imagine our nave without them. Supposedly the South Methodist Church paid $100 each for the windows in 1910. And the people of Good Shepherd bought them for $20 each when South Methodist was razed in the 1940's. Today, it would cost nearly $10,000 to replace one of them.
The Rev. Max B. Berry, Jr. was the next clergyman to serve Good Shepherd Church. Fr. Berry served from June of 1969 to October of 1972. Fr. Berry was one of many clergymen who came to Good Shepherd directly from seminary (Seabury Western seminary in this case) to serve the church. Because many of the clergy who served here were fresh out of seminary there were several ordination services at Good Shepherd. Fr. Max Berry was ordained to the priesthood here on December 14, 1969. The Rev. Jesse K. Renew followed Fr. Berry as Rector of Good Shepherd serving from January of 1973 to July of 1974.
The twenty-sixth clergyman to serve Good Shepherd Church was Fr. Glenn McCulloch. During his tenure he became the longest serving Rector / Vicar in Good Shepherd’s history, serving as the Rector of Good Shepherd for just over 6 years from December of 1974 to July of 1981. During Fr. McCulloch’s tenure the church’s worship took on a more “charismatic” character which was a reflection of Fr. Glenn’s spirituality. Good Shepherd also began planning for yet another building expansion that would include a new nave, a new parlor and new offices. That work was completed in 1982 and the first service in the new nave was in February of that year. When Fr. McCulloch left Good Shepherd he went to Honduras to serve as a missionary. Fr. Glenn McCulloch was buried from Good Shepherd Church on May 27, 1998. Notably the stained glass windows that came with the church from Walnut and Thompson were moved again to their present location directly looking over the altar of the church. The story goes that David Gilliland was the one who walked the Good Shepherd window up a very tall ladder to put it in it’s present place. (Editor’s note: I’m glad that was him and not me). The story also goes that David had something to do with the making of the cross that now hangs above our altar and that he made it from parts of the communion rail of the church in the first nave at our Dewey location.
A RETURN TO MISSION STATUS (1981 - 1996)
The Rev. C. DeWitt Boyce began his service to Good Shepherd Church as its Vicar in April of 1982. In the interim between Fr. McCulloch’s departure and Fr. Boyce’s arrival Good Shepherd returned to mission status. The return to mission status was an acknowledgment that Good Shepherd had slipped below that level of membership and financial strength that called for some diocesan help to put the church back on track toward independence again. Fr. Boyce’s commitment to Good Shepherd became clear in his willingness to serve this congregation until his retirement in 1993. That length of service made Fr. Boyce the longest serving clergyman in the history of Good Shepherd Church and it was that length of tenure along with Fr. Boyce’s excellent pastoral skills that made Good Shepherd stable and ready for the growth that would return the church to parish status. Fr. Boyce brought Good Shepherd Church into a new level of involvement in the life of the Diocese of Oklahoma. He served as the chair of the Council on Missions and on many diocesan boards that helped people in the diocese recognize the good work that had been going on at Good Shepherd for nearly 90 years. Certainly, Fr. Boyce was more of a traditionalist than a charismatic and the worship of the church during his tenure returned to traditional prayer book worship. When Fr. Boyce retired from Good Shepherd, the people of the church dedicated and named the area just south of the church building to be Fr. DeWitt Boyce Park.
PARISH STATUS (AGAIN) 1996 - PRESENT
In July of 1993, The Rev. Donald L. Lawrence, Jr. came to Good Shepherd Episcopal Church directly from seminary like many of his predecessors. And like many of his predecessors, he was ordained to the priesthood at Good Shepherd in December of 1993. Fr. Lawrence’s ministry has generally been focused on increasing lay involvement in the church with an emphasis on evangelism by invitation. As Fr. Don points out, this is not a new concept. It was first pioneered in the Acts of the Apostles and has generally worked everywhere its been tried and Good Shepherd was no exception. Thanks to the efforts of the people of Good Shepherd the church has grown in numbers and in financial strength to the extent that in 1996, the Diocesan Convention of the Diocese of Oklahoma granted Good Shepherd’s petition for a return to parish status. It has also been part of Fr. Lawrence’s work here to increase Good Shepherd’s involvement in the community. For most of his tenure, the church has been involved in a Thanksgiving and Christmas food and gifts ministry and a ministry of assisting poor families with back to school needs. Recently the church has begun sponsoring events like the Relay for Life and the Heart Walk to help in the fight against Cancer and Heart Disease. However, involvement by the people of Good Shepherd in this community is not a new phenomenon. The Charity Ball was started by people in this congregation thirty-five years ago. Our members have been and continue to be involved with the mentally handicapped through organizations like SHOW and Respite and Special Olympics. The people of Good Shepherd know that they are the hands and feet of Christ in the world and they take that responsibility seriously.
In 1982 and in 1998 the people of Good Shepherd added to their collection of stained glass windows. In 1982 the Good Shepherd window at the back of the nave was given in memory of Mae and Sam Naifeh and Sam Naifeh, Jr. In 1998 seven pairs of windows in the nave were dedicated that depict the seven Sacraments of the church. Those windows were gifts in memory of and in honor of a number of people who are listed on a plaque in the church foyer.
In March of the year 2000, Fr. Lawrence became the second longest serving clergyman at Good Shepherd. As of this writing he still serves as our Rector having been at Good Shepherd more than 8 years. At present, the church is raising money for another building expansion for Sunday School classrooms, the addition of a Columbarium chapel and an extensive remodel of the Parish Hall, offices and kitchen. The work of the present building committee and Vestry reflects Good Shepherd’s vision for the future and the anticipation of another 100 years of ministry in Sapulpa.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
The editor of this history offers thanks to the following people for their contributions to this work: The Rev. Ralph Macy, Mrs. Jean Brown, Mrs. William M. (Anna Belle) Taylor, Joy Naifeh, Wesley Vinyard, Dr. Ben Hazlett, Monroe Naifeh, Mildred Taylor, Juliette Updike and to Barbara Crawford for editing assistance.
The Rev. Donald L. Lawrence, Jr.
Editor
November 4, 2001
APPENDIX:
Listing of the Vicars / Rectors of Good Shepherd (in order of their service)
Frank Richard Jones
Richard Dawson Baldwin
Benjamin Thomas Benstead
Henry Hapgood Fay
William D. Morrow
George Crocker Gibbs
Charles Harris, Jr.
Frederick DeWitte Sturgis
John Warren Day
W. Howard Mills
Charles B. Williams
Paul Reese
Edwin Appleton Morton
John Arthur Klein
William P. Barnes
Charles Martin Hill
Benjamin Franklin Williams
Ralph Edward Macy
O. Malcolm Langley
F. Grover Fulkerson
Norman B. Quigg
William W. Arbuckle
Jerry Crowley
Max B. Berry, Jr.
Jesse K. Renew
Glenn McCulloch
C. DeWitt Boyce
Donald L. Lawrence, Jr.