WINONA - Sweet are the Sunday mornings spent worshipping inside the glorious old brick church at the corner of Summit and Fairgrounds streets, says former state legislator Billy Lancaster, who was one of the people responsible for its salvation.
Resurrected, the church has an altered identity - not strictly Episcopal, which had been its spiritual and physical ownership since it was built in 1909, but a blend of all recognized Christian religions.
Entering the past decade, the Episcopalian congregation of Immanuel had dwindled to a handful. Services were ended, and most of these faithful instead began attending All Saints Episcopal Church in Grenada. Ironically, the Winona congregation had begun in the early 1870s as a mission of the Grenada parish.
There were those who had watched the closing of Immanuel and who could see the coming decline of one of their town's most lovely structures. Or would it eventually be razed, sacrificed for some commercial enterprise because of its strategic site on the main approach to the downtown business district?
Lancaster says Winona businessman Bill Graves started the drive to save the building.
"We fought some battles to save the little church, so it wouldn't transfer to a commercial zone," Graves said. "It was a community effort. People volunteer to keep it up and cut grass. We have done some structural work and painted inside; installed suspended ceiling fans, restored the organ. There are weddings, and as we approach Christmas, we have the Lessons and Carols service, featuring an Episcopal priest and other ministers. People do baptisms there; Easter sunrise services have been held there several times. It's a gorgeous sanctuary."
Ministers from different denominations rotate leading worship services every second Sunday of the month, starting at 9 a.m. and lasting 30 minutes. Organists donate their work, and so do many others, going on to services with their regular congregations.
"Billy Lancaster and I did most of the early ground work. The late Milton Peden, who was a retired Methodist minister, was very active. How this thing got underway was when we sent out a letter to the community Feb. 20, 1992, saying that some of us want to perpetuate the Episcopal Church and announcing a meeting at Immanuel at 4 p.m. March 1. We stressed this would be above and beyond any current church affiliations," Graves said.
Those who wanted to save the old building in an ecumenical spirit formed an organization called "Friends of Immanuel," for which there is no membership fee.
Funds were raised through gifts and through passing the collection plate on meeting Sundays. There was cooperation from the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, whose bishop, Chip Marble, is a college chum of Graves.
Nona Tillman, who serves as secretary of the administrative board of Friends of Immanuel, grew up going to Immanuel, leaving it in 1952 when she went off to college. She married a Methodist minister, Harmon E. Tillman Jr., in her home church in 1954. Then, she joined the Methodist church.
In June 1992, after the drive had already begun, she and her husband returned to Winona to live in retirement.
She has very positive memories of the Episcopal congregation among whom she developed in her Christian faith, she said. "Adults were dedicated to the children and taught us well. They had an ownership of us that was very supportive. It is my dream one day for another Episcopal congregation to come to Winona," she said.
The fee for weddings, she said, is $150, and this includes cleanup and utilities. There's a sheet of rules. The minister performing the ceremony must be with a recognized Christian denomination.
This year's Lessons and Carols will begin at 7 p.m. Dec. 5.
So far, Immanuel Church is not a regular feature of any historic tour, but private tours can be arranged by calling Tillman at 283-5081 or Lancaster at 283-3336.
The "second Sunday" morning worship schedule is changed to the third Sunday in May and when there's a conflict with Easter.
Until the diocese decided to sell the property in the summer of 1997, Tillman said, the Friends were content to simply use the building and conduct the monthly services. This arrangement with the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi called for the Friends to pay insurance costs, as well as for maintenance and utilities.
Once the offer was extended, however, the asking price - $54,000 - was raised fast, Lancaster said. That was $1,000 off for plumbing work it was going to take.
A corporation was formed, and shareholders paid $500 per share, Graves said.
Lancaster said, "So many have said, 'Why did we let them tear down the old courthouse?' Maybe this thinking cemented the drive to save Immanuel."
"It's already been designated a Mississippi Landmark, and we are in the process of applying to get it on the National Register of Historic Places," he said.
Improvements to this historic gem have been steadily made. In addition to the ones noted by Graves, Lancaster says, "We changed the sidewalk, moved it out to the street and put in drainage so water would not get under the church."
He continued, "We also installed some heaters, one near the organ and one in the bell tower. We painted outside and repaired some on the slate roof. Jerry Blakely has been working on weatherproofing the mortar. We'll redo the gutters. One of the miniature turrets surrounding the base of the steeple on the belfry was rebuilt, the other three repaired by Jerry's brother, Bernard. (Bernard Blakely lives in Delta, La.) We got a little ahead and repaired a leak in the belfry. We put up fluorescent lights, which burn from sundown to sunup," he said.
"I was raised a Baptist in Duck Hill. I probably would have bought Immanuel for an antique shop for my daughter (Missy Mullen) … but I'm proud there are people in Winona who had an interest in the heritage of the town," Lancaster said.
He is chairman of trustees for Immanuel and is usually the one to open the church on worship Sundays and ring the cast iron bell. He shows up at 8:30 a.m. to get things ready. "I like to sit there in the quiet. It's so soothing to see those rays come through those stained glass windows. I love it. I'd never been inside it until Bill Graves brought this up, but I love old buildings, made and tended by master craftsmen. My daughter, Lynn Coleman, who lives in Florence, Ala., is an Episcopalian, and the inside design is the same type as at Immanuel, with exposed beams and the organ. I have a copy of the windows at Immanuel and what they represent," Lancaster said.
An expert who appraised the windows said he would not replace them
for "under $150,000," Lancaster said.
Annie Gould, 85, joined her late husband's church after they returned to Winona in the summer of 1950. In a nutshell, Gould said of the new status of the beautiful Immanuel: "I'm the only member that's left here. The Bishop closed the church and then sold it." She joined Friends of Immanuel, also, and continued to worship at Immanuel as long as her health permitted after it shed its wholly Episcopal status.
She recalls asking Graves' advice when she got a letter from someplace else seeking financial support for a project. Graves told her, she said, "Tell them, 'plow your own garden.'" She uses the phrase to handle similar requests, adding a turn of her own: "my mule's run away," she said. Her late spouse, Arthur Oscar Gould, died in 1979, but his blood ran deep with the Episcopal congregation in Winona.
Mr. and Mrs. James C. Purnell had the brick structure built, she recalls, using the best workmen from his plantation in the Delta. Among the workers were Gould's father and both of his grandfathers. Prior to this, the Episcopalians worshipped in a wood frame church on the other side of Summit Street and to the east, near the Winona Times building.
Yet another stage of life exists for Immanuel these days. There's care and love and promise of the future.
The first hymn of the Aug. 13 ecumenical service was strikingly appropriate: "Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound."
Sweet, indeed, on a Sunday morning that was quickly heating up. The stained glass windows on the east and west sides were tipped up and secured by ropes to welcome fresh air and the occasional breeze, much as was probably the case during the first years of Immanuel's life.
