Be opened - Rector's Rambling for August 23, 2026

     
This morning we hear of the healing of the man who was deaf, and had an impediment of speech.  Jesus performs the healing with the command Ephphatha, which means “be opened”.

This reading, and that phrase, holds a special place in the heart of St. John’s.  For over 100 years St. John’s was the host of the Ephphatha Episcopal Mission of Detroit.

According an article in the February 1919 edition of the magazine “The Silent Worker: a magazine for the deaf by the deaf”, the mission to the deaf at St. John’s began in 1877.  Originally meeting at Grace Church on Jefferson (now closed), by summer of 1877 the mission moved to St. John’s, and continued her ministry here until the 1970s.

In the 1920s St. John’s had seven Sunday Services, two of which were held in sign language.  At 11:00 AM, while the rest of the congregation worshipped in the main sanctuary, the Ephphatha Mission worshiped in the chapel.  In the afternoon there was also a 3:00 PM Evening Prayer service.  Many of the staff and members were graduates of the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint, which continues to this day.

By the 1970s the mission congregation’s size had dwindled, and those few remaining members attended the larger congregational service with a sign language interpreter.  In 2001 the last remaining member of the Ephphatha congregation, Elizabeth Prescott Weber Walker, died.  She had been wife and granddaughter of two of St. John’s Senior Wardens.

Recently we discovered that the Roman Catholic ministry to the deaf community, also called the Ephphatha Mission, was located at St. Joseph’s on Gratiot, located on the other side of I-375 from St. John’s, near Eastern Market.  They too were served by staff and graduates of the Michigan School for the Deaf.

At this time the Roman Archdiocese has Amcrican Sign Language Masses in Redford, Eastpointe, and Roseville. Two non-denominational and an Assemblies of God Church have services in Detroit.