APM then and now - Rector's Rambling for January 26, 2025

     Today we have our 165th Annual Parish meeting after the 10 AM Service in the Undercroft here at St. John’s.

The First Annual Parish Meeting occurred on Monday, November 21, 1859.  The chapel, having been consecrated the Thursday before, the Vestry and Wardens had to be formally re-elected, and pew rents set for the year.  

Until 1937 St. John’s, like most parishes, had a system where you rented the pew for the year, rather than the passing of a collection plate.  Once this could be established then a budget could be set by the Vestry.  At that first meeting they ran into a unique problem.  The new chapel, which sat 125 people, had an initial request to pew rental by 600 people!  The first building they hoped would serve a growing parish out in the parish for the first 5 to 10 years was already too small!  A week later the Vestry voted to begin fundraising to build the larger church building, and our grand church was completed 20 months later! 

At that first meeting Henry Porter Baldwin, who had donated the land, blueprints for the chapel and church, the former rectory, and considerable funds for the founding and building of our parish, was re-elected Senior Warden, a position he would hold for a total of 34 years until his death in 1892 (current church canons allow for a 3 year term, with at least a year off between terms).  He served as Senior Warden even while in Lansing in as the governor of Michigan, and in Washington, DC while in serving in the U.S. Senate.

We gather today in thanksgiving for another year of worship and service to God and his people.  Once again we see that the bills have been paid and we have a budget based on faith and hope that our Lord will continue to direct the parish in how we should glorify Him and serve Him as we come to know Christ and make Him known from this corner of Woodward Avenue in Detroit.