Mariners' Church of Detroit is a church with worship services adhering to Anglican

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

traditions located at 170 East Jefferson Avenue in Downtown Detroit,

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. It was founded in 1842 as a special mission to the maritime travelers of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

and functioned as a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan until 1992, when the

Michigan Court of Appeals The Michigan Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court of the state of Michigan. It was created by the Michigan Constitution of 1963, and commenced operations in 1965. Its opinions are reported both in an official publication of ...

ruled it was incorporated as an independent congregation. The church was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1971. The church is now part of the REC Diocese of Mid-America within the

Anglican Church in North America The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba ...

. The church grounds contain a bronze sculpture of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

wearing the apron of a

master mason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

Donald De Lue Donald Harcourt De Lue (October 5, 1897, Boston, Massachusetts – August 26, 1988, Leonardo, New Jersey) was an American sculptor, best known for his public monuments. Life and career De Lue studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and la ...

. The sculpture is a copy of the wax original created in 1959 and was installed in 1966.

History

19th century

The church was founded as a result of Julia Anderson's bequest of the lot on which her own mansion stood, at the corner of Woodbridge and Woodward streets. The completion of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

increased shipping traffic in the area, and the seamen, Anderson felt, were in need of spiritual support and care. Mariners' was established in 1842 and incorporated in the state of Michigan in 1848; the present structure was consecrated the following year. The original wood-frame church was sold to the congregation of Historic Trinity Lutheran Church for $200 when the current structure was completed. The Trinity congregation moved the building to Larned and Rivard streets. Reprinted by Mariners' Church, May 1975. Prior to the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, the church was a stop on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

which black slaves followed North to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and freedom. In 1925, the church established Mariners' Inn, a shelter that now offers rehabilitation, counseling and vocational services for homeless substance abusers.

20th century

The church was slated for demolition along with many neighboring structures in 1955 to make room for the new civic center. Trustee and ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...

'' columnist George Stark urged his readers to help save the historic building and asked for small contributions of $5 or $10 to move the limestone edifice east. The undertaking was detailed in the April 25, 1955, issue of ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' magazine. Stark's appeal raised enough money to cover moving costs with money left to add stained glass windows, a west entry and a tower and to redecorate the interior of the church. During the move, workers discovered a tunnel under the building from its days as a stop on the

. It now sits atop part of the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel. The new site for the church on Jefferson Avenue was where the Indian Council House was constructed after the 1805 fire. The house was used for meetings with local tribes and the first

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

worship services in Detroit. It later was the site of the Army Corps of Engineers Topographical Corps offices. The office was established by Col. John Anderson, husband of Julia Anderson, Mariners' benefactress.

Affiliation

In August 1990, the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan filed a lawsuit claiming jurisdiction over Mariners' Church as a parish within the Episcopal Church. Mariners' Church held that it is an independent congregation free of denominational ties, while the Episcopal Church held that it had always considered the church an Episcopal congregation. The courts ruled in favor of Mariners' Church in the initial case in 1990 and an appeal in 1992. The parish is now a part of the Anglican Church in North America within the Diocese of Mid-America (REC). The Church uses the 1662 and American 1928 editions of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

. For many years from the 1950s through the 1980s, services were broadcast on radio station

WWJ (AM) WWJ (950 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to serve Detroit, Michigan, featuring an all-news format known as "Newsradio 950 WWJ". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services Metro Detroit, is the market affiliate for CBS News R ...

Architecture

The Mariners' Church building is constructed of Lannon stone from

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, in the perpendicular gothic style of

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th cent ...

. It replaced an earlier wood structure on the same site. It measures by . The east and west walls are divided into three bays by flat buttresses and the south wall into seven. The east wall contains a large window with gothic tracery above the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

, measuring wide by high, and is flanked by a smaller window on each side. At each corner of the structure is an octagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

. The buttresses on the east wall were originally capped by small stone spires and a cross capped the peak of the gable above the chancel window. The west wall contains a diameter rose window, above which was a small bell tower. In its original location, the north and west sides of the building abutted other structures and were not visible until the 1955 move. As part of the renovations in the new location, a new bell tower was added and the north wall, which now fronts Jefferson Avenue, was reconstructed to resemble the south wall and windows added.

Interiors

The ground floor which currently holds church offices and meeting rooms originally housed commercial tenants to provide income. The first tenants were the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

and bank and later occupants include a grocery, barber and laundry. Prior to its relocation, the main entrance to the church was also on the ground floor under the vestibule.

Sanctuary

The sanctuary is by with an organ gallery at the rear. The ceiling is wood with exposed beams artificially grained to resemble oak. The walls are covered by a fabric-backed vinyl. The 1849 pipe organ was installed by the Garret House Organ Company of Buffalo. This was replaced in 1966 by an organ given by architect Ralph Calder in memory of his wife, Helen. In 2007, D. F. Pilzecker & Company installed an organ with 78 ranks of pipes to replace the 1966 instrument. The

stained glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

s were created by the J&R Lamb Studios of New York City in 1955. The rose window on the west facade was a gift of the Browning family, in memory of their mother Bertie Ann Browning. Replicating a ship's compass, the window is an appropriate tribute inasmuch as the Browning family was associated with shipping on the Great Lakes through the Browning Steamship Co. and owned the Bob-Lo Boats and Bob-Lo Island. The windows on the side walls contain scenes from the history of Detroit and the Bible.

1971 renovations

In 1971, a second phase of renovations expanded the

Chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

area; restored and refinished the

Altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

, Reredos, pews and floor; upgraded lighting, sound and electrical systems; covered sanctuary walls with vinyl; replaced the wooden tracery of the rose window with stone; installed an air conditioning system; and painted exterior woodwork.

Commemorating those lost at sea

Mariners Church, Great Lakes sailors, Detroit

Established to serve mariners, the church holds a Blessing of the Fleet every March for those going to sea, and a Great Lakes Memorial Service every November for those who have lost their lives at sea. The church's bell tolled 29 times in November 1975 to mourn the loss of the freighter '' Edmund Fitzgerald''; once for each of her 29 crew members. The church continued to hold an annual memorial, reading the names of the crewmen and ringing the church bell until 2006. The church is mentioned in

Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960 ...

's song " The Wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''", which goes: "In a musty old hall in Detroit, they prayed in the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral. The church bell chimed 'til it rang 29 times for each man on the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''." In 1985, Lightfoot performed the ballad at the tenth memorial service for the Edmund Fitzgerald. After viewing the sanctuary, Lightfoot proclaimed to the congregation that he wrote the song under a false impression and would in future performances refer to the church as a "...rustic old hall..." On November 12, 2006, two days after the 31st anniversary of the sinking of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald,'' the church broadened its memorial ceremony to include the more than 1,000 lives lost on the Great Lakes. In 2006, the bell at Mariners' Church tolled eight times, not the usual 29: five times for the five

, a sixth time for the St. Clair and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

rivers, a seventh for the St. Lawrence Seaway, and an eighth time for military personnel who died.

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
s

* Horace Hills 1849–? * Rufus Murray 1856–? * Alfred Lee Brewer 1859–? * A. M. Lewis 1865–? * E. W. Flower 1872–? * William Charles 1877–? * Paul Ziegler 1855–1915 * Hubert W. Wells 1915–1917 * Harry C. Robinson 1917–1921 * John H. Lever 1921–1925 * Harry I. Pearson 1925–1929 * George Backhurst 1929–1942 * David R. Covell 1942–1946 * G. Paul Musselman 1946–1953 * Elmer B. Usher 1956–1964 * Richard W. Ingalls, Sr. 1965–2006 * Richard W. Ingalls, Jr. 2006–2012 * William Fleming 2013–2018 * Jeff Hubbard 2018–Present From 1925 to 1957, Mariners' Church did not have regular services; instead, the Rector served as Superintendent of Mariners' Inn.

References

External links

Mariners Church of Detroit websiteLost Laker Lamented: They still ring the bell at Detroit's Mariners Church
{{Religious Structures of Woodward Ave. TR Churches in Detroit Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Wayne County, Michigan Churches completed in 1849 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Religious organizations established in 1842 Reformed Episcopal church buildings Churches on the Underground Railroad Gothic Revival church buildings in Michigan 1842 establishments in Michigan Relocated buildings and structures in Michigan Former Episcopal church buildings in the United States