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"St. Luke's is the only Episcopal Church in Newberry
County. It was organized in 1846.
The gothic building ws built in 1855 and
was consecrated in August of that
year by the Right Reverend Thomas F.
Davis, Bishop of South
Carolina.
The building was vandalized during
the Civil War and for many years
was on the verge of being closed. Captain
N. B. Mazyck, a gallant
Confederate officer who was railroad station agent
at Newberry, and a handful of the
faithful preserved the
church.
Later, Major J. F.
J. Caldwell, Dr. C. D. Weeks, and Prof.
Wilmer Gaver of the Newberry
College faculty kept the tiny congregation
together.
After World War
II there was a renaissance brought about
largely through the efforts of
Andrew Pickens Salley and T. E. Davis. The
church acquired a rectory, a
parish house, and a resident vicar, the Rev.
Edwin B. Clippard, who was
ordained to the priesthood in the church in
1952.
The 1950's and 60's
were happy years for St. Luke's. The
congregation grew, worked
together, and advanced the work of the Church
Triumphant. One son, R. Houseal
Norris, was ordained a priest. Vicar
during the 1970's was the Rev.
Frederick C. Byrd, now Archdeacon of the
Diocese of Upper South
Carolina.
The church was demolished by the
tornado of
1984.
Fortunately, through the generosity of other churches
in Newberry, citizens of the town,
and benefactors from South Carolina and
elsewhere, it has been rebuilt in
the gothic style of the former
building.
Soon after the
church was destroyed, the Rev. George
Vought was sent to St. Luke's for
a year. Chaplain of the Brooks School in
Massachusetts, he took a
sabbatical to serve the church. He did an
outstanding job of reuniting the
various factions in the congregation and
in completing the church edifice.
When he died suddenly in February 1986,
the entire town mourned. His
influence is still felt among
Episcopalians.
After Mr.
Vought's death there was no resident vicar
until the Rev. John A. Brown, Jr.,
came in the fall of 1986. He continued
the good work and it was generally
regretted that he resigned in 1986 to
enter the counseling field in
Columbia. Rev. Dr. Jerry Van Drew came to
St. Luke's in 1990" (source:
History of Newberry County, Vol II by Thomas
H. Pope).
See also a brief
history
and sketch of this church by
Hazel Crowson
Sellers.
The Episcopal Churchwomen - the
1966 directory of the Womens
Guild |
