St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Waco may not have bats in its belfry, but it did have pigeons living there for many years. The birds kept company with the 1,027-pound church bell donated by the Sunday School children for Advent 1875.

The venerable institution, the oldest congregation in the city still meeting in its first permanent church location, has provided a spiritual and physical roosting space for creatures great and small.

According to a recently published collection of words and images lauding its creation, “St. Paul’s Episcopal Church: A History in Photographs,” the parish was formed less than 40 years after denominational leaders made a foray into Revolutionary-era Texas, in Matagorda.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, circa 1900, when the Rev. Frank Page was rector (pastor) of the parish. Note in the lower right corner of the photo the handy hitching post for horses or carriage teams.
Texas Collection, Baylor University

Bishop Alexander Gregg of the Diocese of Texas licensed lay readers in Waco to lead services. But it wasn’t until a missionary priest, the Rev. Silas Dean Davenport, arrived that services were regularly conducted.

Episcopalians in Waco from 1863-68 met in private homes or the rented Odd Fellows Hall. The fledgling congregation raised $1,800 for a building fund, which equals more than $31,000 today. But members had invested in Confederate bonds, and they lost their nest egg in 1865.

After forming a parish formally in 1868, the church body built a wooden sanctuary at the corner of Fourth Street and Webster Avenue, where services took place for the next decade while they saved money for a building at Fifth Street and Columbus Avenue.

Glass still stands

On Aug. 15, 1878, the cornerstone was laid, and services started taking place on June 15, 1879. Still beautifying the sanctuary are the church’s original stained-glass windows: three altar windows; four windows in the nave featuring the writers of the Gospels; and the Rose Window above them, which depicts numerous symbols of Christianity.

The heavenly panes were all manufactured in Queen Victoria’s England and were intended to evoke the windows of All Saints Church in York, which was built around 1440.

The altar windows, for example, cost $300 in 1879 — almost $7,000 today — and depict John, “Apostle of Love,” holding a chalice; Jesus as The Good Shepherd, cradling a lamb in his arms and being sanctified by the descending Holy Spirit; and Paul, “Apostle to the Gentiles,” armed with the sword of spirit.

The nave windows have been protected from the elements since the nave was enclosed in the late 1980s.

Randall Shormann, author of “St. Paul’s Episcopal Church: A History in Photographs,” will present a free public program on the church, its rich history and art treasures at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Red Men Museum and Library, 4521 Speight Ave. in Waco.

For more information, call 756-1221.

tjryan@wacotrib.com

757-5746