ST. PETER'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
1950 TRUMBULL
DETROIT, MICHIGAN 48216
(313-496-0938)

Perhaps it didn't begin just once. The cornerstone on the present edifice marks several dates, each a new beginning for St. Peter's. It's official beginning, its 'founding; was in 1858, and thus it can claim to be the fourth Episcopal parish organized in Detroit.

The Diocesan Journal on the other hand, presents 1945 as the year St. Peter's was 'reorganized' as a parish. This reflects the fact that St. Peter's as a parish had fallen on hard times during the Depression years and had reverted to missionary status.

It was during the Depression that St. Peter's started construction on a new sanctuary building; the old one had been condemned as structurally unsafe. The money ran out, and the new building remained incomplete and boarded up. In 1941, an anonymous friend outside the congregation stepped in with money sufficient enough t finish the building--sufficient, that is, to permit worship in the building without actually finishing the inside completely (as it remains to this day) Complete or not, 'getting the building back' allowed St. Peter's to regain it's parish status in 1945.

Let us say then that the 'hard times' of the Depression era marked the watershed in the long, winding history of St.Peter's. From that time on, the parish has been bobbing up and down, disappearing from view for a time, then reviving under new leadership, new arrangements: in short, a typical inner-city parish struggling for breath on one of the most active corners of the city, Michigan and Trumbull.What of the years prior to the Depression? It's founding in 1858 and thereafter were troubled years as well. It built a house of worship that burned down almost immediately, and then rebuilt to a new one in 1860, but fell short of financing it. Except for the timely support of other parishes in the diocese, it would have 'gone under.' From that time on, St. Peter's enjoyed a more settled parish life as a congregation of Irish Anglicans (fiercely 'orange') in the old Irish neighborhood called 'Corktown.'

In 1875, the congregation began to boil over in the controversies sparked by the so-called 'Catholic Revival' in the Anglican Communion and the high-churchmanship of the Rector. At least two new churches emerged out of this controversy: a 'high' St. George's (now defunct) and a 'low' Trinity Church.

Peace was restored under the long pastorate of the next Rector, the Reverend C. L. Arnold. It could be said to have flourished during this period, so that by 1893 the seating capacity had to be increased. By 1898 the communicant list had doubled to 530. Until the building was condemned in 1920, the parish remained relatively untroubled.

After St. Peter's reorganized once again as a parish in 1945, no longer affluent, it took on the style of an 'embattled survivor in the sea of urban change. In 1948, under the late Reverend Austin Ecker, then a chaplain of the juvenile court, St. Peter's Home for Boys was established. Thus began a long tradition of using the parish house for various hospitality ministries: a half-way house for prisoners, a temporary shelter for the homeless (COTS) and a shelter for Central American Refugees on their way to Canada. The church undercroft is used as a soup kitchen (Manna Meals) five days a week and serves several hundred people eachday. ..........to be continued....

Hospitality marks ministry of St. Peter's, Detroit, as long time priest retires.

The Record

PDF version of this article

April, 2002
reprinted with permission

by Keely Kaleski
Special writer

You're always welcome at St. Peter Episcopal Church in Detroit. It's an oasis in an urban wilderness, a healing, comforting place that embraces
everyone, rich and poor.

When John Meyer came to St. Peter's in 1980, he recalls being uncomfortable with the surrounding street community. But the longtime priest-in-charge
began to realize that unlike most people who face death only once, death stalks people who live on the street. It's an everyday presence in their
lives.

Death was also stalking the church, which was made up of people, many of them elderly, who lived outside of Detroit. Meyer wanted to raise up the
parish and make it something more indigenous to the city and neighborhood. He invited new people to come sit at the table in the midst of the
wilderness.

"You can say a church set in poverty should help the poor, but we chose another tact. We want to be friends with the poor and include street people
in congregational life as much as possible," explained Meyer, who is retiring on April 7. "If I were to boast of St. Peter's, I would boast of
its broken-ness, its faithfulness, its prayers, and songs that are a hidden source of energy"

Hospitality is the theme that binds this faith community. It marks the history of the Detroit church that sits on the corner of Michigan and
Trumbull and it is practiced every day at St. Peter¹s in a variety of ways. "Hospitality is one word that sums up St. Peter¹s better than anything
else," said David Lillvis, a priest who joined the staff in 1992, but has been a part of parish life since 1983.

"Historically, we've been a hospitable place. St. Peter's Home for Boys was founded in our parish house in the 1940s. They moved to a building on Joy
Road next to St. Martha's, Detroit. It's still in existence today and is an excellent institution for troubled young men."

When the boys moved out, St. Peter's opened its parish house to an experimental halfway house to help parolees.

In 1982, with help from the Capuchins, Meyer opened the doors to the homeless and gave the Coalition on Temporary Shelter its first home in the
parish house.

"We kept 40 people a night for three years," said Meyer. "When they moved out, Central American refugees moved in." Initially named the Detroit
Windsor Refugee Coalition and now Freedom House, the ministry continues at St. Anne's Church near the Ambassador Bridge.

After the refugees moved out, at-risk women moved in. Alternatives for Girls began at St. Peter's in 1988 and offers young women an alternative to street
life and a gateway to independent living. The successful AFG program recently received a $5 million grant and is scheduled to move into its own
building this fall.

Hospitality also marks the small but vital worshipping community of St. Peter's."Often on a Sunday morning we are small enough in numbers to sit together in
the choir pews close to the altar," Meyer said. "I see mothers with sons in prison, faces weathered by struggle or age. There are Jamaicans, southern
whites, African Americans, and middle class whites."

It may be more than a convenience that most Sunday morning services are held in the choir loft. Music plays a big role in the liturgy. Lillvis plays
banjo during the Sunday Eucharist, together with John's wife Kathleen on cello, their son Carl on violin, and longtime parishioner Ruth Hart on
flute.

"We've had people at services who couldn't read well or at all and so we try to do the liturgy in a way that can engage people who are illiterate," said
Lillvis. "That's one of the reasons we put a lot of emphasis on music." During the Sanctus and Memorial Acclamation of the Eucharistic Prayer,
worshipers are encouraged to ring bells. This provides another opportunity for all to participate.

"John is an incredibly welcoming guy," Lillvis added. "We're very informal and try to be street-friendly when people come in. We've tried to be as
inclusive as we can be and embrace what's around us""[One] Sunday some guy walked in during the service," recounted longtime
parishioner David Cooper, who frequently brings the main dish for lunch that is served after church. "He sat through the service and ate with us
afterward. He was homeless and none of the shelters would let him in. We spent an hour calling around to find a place for him."

St. Peter's is a light in the darkness, a place where no one is a stranger for long. Signs of renewed life and spirit are everywhere in this place
where death is an every-day presence. Property values are rising in this historic Corktown neighborhood and many small businesses stayed when the
Detroit Tigers left. Hope shines eternal at St. Peter's. The table is always set, and you're welcome to share whatever they have.

Information about the Whitefriars stained glass in St. Peter's can be found on page 109, in "Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit" by Nola Huse Tutag with Lucy Hamilton. Available through the Wayne State University Press.
http://wsupress.wayne.edu/glb/art/tutagdsgd.htm.