St. Matthew's Episcopal Church

Mission work of the Protestant Episcopal Church among Blacks in Detroit began in September 1846 when the Reverend William M. Monroe, first pastor of Second Baptist Church, left and, with abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor William Lambert, organized St. Matthews Mission. In 1851 a new church building was completed at Congress and St. Antoine, but because of indebtedness and the effects of the fugitive enslavement law it was never consecrated. In 1859 the parish temporarily closed, the property was sold, and the money was placed in trust while Sunday School continued to serve the community. Twenty-one years later the mission was reorganized and a lot was purchased at St. Antoine and Elizabeth. In 1893 a new sanctuary was erected and a pipe organ installed. On October 1, 1906, St. Matthews Mission became an independent parish. During the next fifteen years, pew rents were abolished, plans were made for a needed parish house, and a lot south of the church was purchased for that purpose. The Detroit Branch of the NAACP was organized in the basement of St. Matthews Episcopal Church. In 1921 a new rector initiated plans for the parish house, which was completed in 1927. The new parish house became a center for young people's educational and recreational activities, St. Matthews School of Music was established, and the church provided a place for African American concert artists to perform. In 1944 the balance on the parish house was paid off, and thirteen years later stained glass windows replaced the windows of the nave. During the 1960's the church took part in the Civil Rights struggle in Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, and Selma, Alabama. In 1971 St. Matthews and St. Josephs, established in 1883, merged to better serve the Detroit community. A memorial committee decided what could be removed from St. Matthews and what to preserve of St. Josephs. The parish altar was made freestanding so the celebrant would face the people, a radical departure from tradition, and the parish was also one of the first to admit women as chalice ministers and girls as acolytes. St. Matthews was the third oldest Black congregation in Detroit, the mother church of several other Detroit parishes, a terminus of the Underground Railroad in its early years, and later a center of political and social activity that played an active role in the community for more than 150 years.

Detroit, Michigan · United States