100 Years of Local Church History
Over the course of moving St. Timothy’s to our new location, we unearthed boxes of pictures and documents that hadn’t been seen for many decades. A volunteer at church helped us piece the information together into a striking early history of the church that dates back to the 1910’s.
Nationally, during the early 20th century, prominent Episcopalians like J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford and art collector Isabella Gardner helped raise the prominence of the denomination through their preservation of history and art. With westward expansion came the opportunity to establish new congregations within the growing denomination. The Missionary District of San Joaquin was started to help plant new churches in central California. In October of 1915, Bishop Louis Childs Sanford organized a new mission in Bishop, CA. It was called St. Paul’s, and Deacon Alfred Denman was appointed vicar. Episcopal services in the Eastern Sierra were initially sporadic with meetings taking place in homes, schools or any other available space. At this time, Bishops and priests traveled as itinerant clergy, leading services throughout the Owen’s Valley and beyond.
St. Paul’s Mission in
Bishop first held services upstairs in Lutz Grocery Store at the corner of Main and
Line St. It was during this time that Fr. Crowley made his way to the Eastern Sierra and began his ministry with the Roman Catholic Church.
St. Paul’s continued to gain momentum and in the early 1920’s a guild hall, or town hall, was built at 325 W. Elm St. by Henry Banta and Son, where the church began to meet. In 1934, the guild hall was bought by St. Paul’s parishioner Dewey Albright, and was turned into the town mortuary. However, he allowed St. Paul’s to continue to hold services in the building. This meant the altar guild (those that set up for the worship service) would have to shift caskets around (sometimes occupied!), and bring in a moveable altar for Sunday services. But the fragrance of Christ proved to be stronger than the scent of death, and the group continued to expand.
By the late 1940’s, under the leadership of Fr. Paul Langpaap, St. Paul’s was ready to build their own church. The church raised tens of thousands of dollars, and got a $10,000 loan from the Diocese of San Joaquin, and leased land from the Department of Water and Power at 700 Hobson St. The area was completely rural, without other buildings around. And pumice from the Crowley Lake area was used to build the Romanesquestyle building, with congregants and DWP workers volunteering their time to help lay the pumice bricks. The building was consecrated in 1951. The congregation processed from the mortuary to the new building, and they changed the name of the church to St. Timothy’s to avoid confusion with the St. Paul’s guildhall.
St. Timothy’s has continued to worship regularly, pray for and serve the community, and overcome times of conflict and financial struggles over the past 75 years. The church is now gaining momentum with the purchase and renovation of the Our Savior Lutheran building at 162 Sneden St.
The grand opening of the new space will take place in midJune as St. Timothy’s moves into the next chapter of over 100 years of ministry in our community.
Together on the Journey, Fr. Cam Lemons and Debbie Carrico
(Father Cam Lemons serves at St. Timothy’s Anglican Church. Service is at 9 a.m. on Sunday at 700 Hobson St. in Bishop. He also serves at Trinity Memorial Anglican Church in Lone Pine. The service there is at noon at 220 N. Lakeview Road. For more information, go to StTimothysBishop.com.)