The building of a railroad between Nashville and Chattanooga spawned the growth of a tiny hamlet in the Cumberland foothills into a productive and industrious little town. Cowan, named for and by a pioneer family of Scotch-Irish descent, also played an important role in the founding of an Episcopal institution of higher education - The University of the South - on the adjacent Sewanee Mountain.
Progress on all fronts was temporarily stalled during the War Between the States, but soon thereafter the Cowan community and the nearby University of the South benefitted from renewed interest and remarkable investment.
One of the first student-led organizations on the Sewanee campus was St. Mark's Guild, a missionary outreach group sponsored by the local church - Otey Parish. St. Mark's Guild publicly envisioned the building of mission congregations in the greater Sewanee Mountain region to administer the Word and Sacraments to the area's rural population. In 1877, an article mentions that "three missions are in the charge of St. Mark's Guild, who intend as soon as practicable to extend their operations to Cowan, Moffat , and Lost Cove." Beyond that, there is no further mention of St. Mark's involvement in these extensions, but there is little doubt that their vision led to these and other efforts.
Cowan was scarcely mentioned again as a mission plant for the Diocese of Tennessee until 1894, 17 years later, when The Rev'd A.A. Benton, Rector of Otey Memorial Parish, wrote the following entry for the church parochial report:
It is entirely possible that the three communicants mentioned in this report were brought together through the efforts of St. Mark's Guild, but it was the Sisters of St. Mary that "laid the foundation for a future successful mission" in Cowan.
The very next year, in 1895, the handful of communicants in Cowan were recognized for the first time ever as a mission of the Diocese of Tennessee. The parochial report for that year references a Cowan mission station under the leadership of the Rev'd C.S. Bassett with six communicants. Father Philip Werlein, author of the article "Early Days: The Beginning of St. Agnes' Episcopal Church", wrote that Father Bassett "acquired a ramshackle house on a slope about two city blocks east of the present church building and was holding regular services each Sunday." However, Father Bassett left Cowan after less than a year of service and returned to his native England.
In 1896 no reports were given to the Diocese on the work being done in Cowan; however, Appendix G of the 1896 Journal still listed Cowan as a mission station. Interestingly, the listing refers to the congregation as "St. Mary's". It is unclear whether St. Mary's was the given name of the congregation at the time, or if it simply meant the Sisters of St. Mary were giving "blessed ministrations" to a small group of communicants.
There was much more Cowan-related missionary activity reported to the Diocese in 1897. In that year, Appendix H of the Journal of the Diocese of Tennessee references "St. Saviour's Mission" as an organized mission with the Reverend R.H. Starr serving as Priest-in-Charge. By this time, the congregation had grown to 11 communicants attending bi-weekly celebrations of the Holy Eucharist. The congregation also had a church school with 2 instructors and 25 scholars.
In 1898, St. Saviour's Mission received its first ever episcopal visit. In his Missionary Diary, Bishop Gailor's entry for September 22nd stated the following:
Sterling Claiborne, the appointed Lay Reader in Charge, brought dynamic and accomplishing leadership to the growing congregation at St. Saviour's Mission. The significant growth led to a significant growing pain that needed urgent attention. In 1898, Claiborne told the story about going to Cowan and finding "a very small congregation worshipping in an old, dilapidated, two-room house on the side of a hill, which threatened to fall down without a moment's notice." He went on to say that "I shall never forget the uneasiness we all felt when the building was filled with people."
Claiborne searched for a quick and inexpensive solution. In his determination, he found an abandoned chapel in a field near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. With the help of the church members and other Cowan residents, the chapel was secured, dismantled, loaded onto a train and hauled down to Cowan. The same volunteers helped unload the train and re-assemble the building on a lot donated by the Finchum family.
The Sisters of St. Agnes' Chapel in New York City volunteered to pay the waybill to the railroad. As a gesture of appreciation for the sisters' wonderful gift, the church was renamed St. Agnes' Mission. On May 3, 1899 at 3:30PM, Bishop Gailor laid the cornerstone for the newly rebuilt and re-established congregation.
Some two years after the cornerstone was laid and the building consecrated, Claiborne acquired two storage barns from a neighbor down the street and moved them over to the church property to serve as a mission school building. In 1901, a parochial school was opened.
Stirling Claiborne was ordained into the priesthood following his successful work to establish and build St. Agnes' Mission. Under his continuing leadership the congregation maintained strong and steady participation as well as an active parochial school program that lasted until 1918. In 1920, Father Claiborne accepted the rectory position at Otey Parish in Sewanee and soon thereafter was appointed to oversee the Archdeanery of East Tennessee. Though Father Claiborne was still in a supervisory role at St. Agnes', his multitude of responsibilities left him with little time to contribute to the congregation. During these years St. Agnes' lost some of its momentum and did not experience any significant growth.
In 1941, the Rev'd Dargan Butt was appointed as priest-in-charge at St. Agnes' and membership made a slight upsurge. Unfortunately, his tenure was very short and was followed by an epic and rapid turnover in leadership. From 1941 until 1955, St. Agnes' had five different priests without a single one serving more than three years at a time. By 1955 the congregation had dwindled to about 35 baptized members.
Late in the Year 1955 a dynamic team of seminarians, Mr. Jim George and Mr. Harry Allen, came to St. Agnes' and sparked the most dramatic growth ever in the history of the congregation. In a very short timeframe the church school grew to more than 70 scholars representing all age groups. Worship participation was so large that two services were held on Sundays just to accommodate the crowd.
The unprecedented growth of the congregation prompted Mr. Robert Stuart Sloan, one of the most prominent and well known members of St. Agnes', to petition the Diocese of Tennessee to upgrade the status of the congregation. With the help of a fellow church member, Mr. Melvin Hansen, the Convention of the Diocese of Tennessee voted to upgrade St. Agnes' from a mission station to a three point mission. St. Agnes' was formally reorganized and elected its own mission council for the first time ever.
"If only the two energetic lay leaders could have remained at St. Agnes', the church could have continued to flourish and grow," wrote Father Werlein in his essay. Sadly, Mr. George and Mr. Allen moved away from the area after completing their coursework at Sewanee seminary in 1959.
In 1960, The Rev'd Ben Binkley was assigned to St. Agnes'. Though Rev'd Binkley was a dedicated priest with nearly six years of faithful service, nothing could have prepared him for the cultural uproar of the 1960's that took a terrible toll on the church and on the wider community. The ideological polarization of the decade caused the membership at St. Agnes' to evaporate almost as quickly as it had grown in the previous decade. By 1966 St. Agnes' was down to only a handful of members and the Sunday school eventually closed.
The Rev'd Phillip Werlein, a retired priest from the Diocese of Louisiana, came to St. Agnes' in 1966 and helped pick up some of the broken pieces. In 1970 the church campus received capital improvements for the first time since the construction of the two buildings. Both the parish hall and the nave received modern conveniences, adequate heating and air conditioning, and improved lighting. A modern kitchen was also added to the parish hall.
Soon after the remodeling, St. Agnes' experienced renewed growth and expanded participation for the first time in over a decade. Under Father Werlein's leadership, a children's choir was formed along with an adult gospel song group. The church school soon re-opened with classes for all ages.
Father Werlein retired as priest-in-charge in May of 1978 after more than 12 years of remarkable service. Though he left St. Agnes' in far better shape than he found it, the church was ill-prepared prepared for a dramatic economic downturn that devastated the entire Cowan community. Cowan's two largest industries - Genesco Shoe Factory and Marquette Cement Company - began orderly shutdowns that forced many younger, working families to move away. Several Cowan businesses closed as their customer base evaporated. When the 1980's came around, St. Agnes' was not the only church in town to fall on hard times.
Besides the expected loss of young working families, at least three of the congregation's most dedicated and long-term members passed away in a very short time span.
The "Decade of Decadence" was a time of economic growth and prosperity for most of the country, but the little town of Cowan was left behind in severe economic decline. As families continually moved away from Cowan, St. Agnes' continually lost members. As activity in the church diminished from the smaller membership base, the few remaining families left in search of other pews. The church school closed, once again, and the children's choir disbanded.
For a very brief time in the 1980's, St. Agnes' experienced an upswing in worship attendance. This was due to the fact that St. Agnes' was the only Episcopal Church in Franklin County that still used the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Other congregations had already switched to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and thus several church-goers made the drive to Cowan on Sundays. In 1983, a more progressive team of priests unilaterally switched St. Agnes' to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and the Rite II service. Immediately thereafter the large turnout on Sundays disappeared completely.
As the decade wore on, St. Agnes' got smaller and smaller with worship attendance in the single digits. By 1988 there was hardly anyone left to keep the congregation going. A series of Sunday's went by with no services held and rumor had it that St. Agnes' had closed its doors forever.
It so happened that a long-time and well-known Cowan resident, Frank Sanders, was completing a course of study at Sewanee seminary. Mr. Sanders was ordained into the diaconate and assumed the position of Deacon-in-Charge at St. Agnes'. Bishop Reynolds, at the time, intended to close St. Agnes', but Father Sanders personally intervened to stop that from happening.
Under Father Sanders, new life was manifesting at St. Agnes' in small but effective ways. Services were once again being held every Sunday. New outreach initiatives were developed including a community soup kitchen and a monthly gift collection for Good Samaritan Ministries. Fr. Sanders also purchased new signage for the church to gently inform the greater community that St. Agnes' was alive and well despite rumors of its closure.
The Rev'd Frank Sanders was reappointed to serve other small congregations in the greater Sewanee Mountain area, but he left St. Agnes' in much better shape. Ordinarily it would have been difficult to replace Fr. Sanders considering the small membership and small budget at St. Agnes', but St. Mary's Conference Center in Sewanee had just hired a newly ordained priest who was looking for a church to serve.
The Rev'd Anne Cudd generously accepted a position as Priest-in-Charge at St. Agnes'. Under her leadership the congregation recovered a portion of what was lost during the previous decade. There were some baptisms and confirmations in the 90's decade, quite unlike the previous decade. A few older members passed away, but there were also some new faces on Sunday mornings.
The Rev'd Anne Cudd left St. Agnes' in 1999 so that she could be closer to her children and grandchildren in Idaho. At about the same time several other priests serving small churches in the Sewanee Mountain area had moved away as well. It proved extremely difficult to replace the Rev'd Cudd and the sister congregations found it equally difficult to replace their priests.
A dearth of priests willing and able to serve small, rural congregations was a very real problem, but a new idea emerged to prevent this problem from becoming another crisis. The Center for Ministry in Small Churches at Sewanee's School of Theology put together a regional ministry plan to help St. Agnes' and others like it receive sacramental and pastoral leadership at a very reasonable cost.
The plan was effective for maintaining St. Agnes' in its current state, but was ill effective for helping the congregation grow at any rate. This was partly attributed to the team of ministers being spread entirely too thin and thus not able to develop meaningful relationships with the people in the pews.
In 2002, the Diocese of Tennessee agreed to develop and sponsor another regional ministry model that would remedy some of the concerns from the previous arrangement. This regional ministry emerged as STEM-Southeastern Tennessee Episcopal Ministry and St. Agnes' was the first congregation to sign on as a charter member.
Although STEM was a very good idea, the program failed to deliver on promises made due to so many factors beyond the control of its leadership. The 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church was a major contributor. The fallout that resulted from the convention accepting a homosexual as Bishop of New Hampshire took a terrible toll on St. Agnes' and the other congregations of STEM.
The remaining parishioners at St. Agnes' refused to go along with the negativity of the Episcopal Church. After several months of prayer and discussion, the lay leadership made sweeping changes.
In light of the errors made at the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, the Mission Council passed a motion that St. Agnes' would no longer send fair share or discretionary monies to the Episcopal Church. In 2005, the congregation switched over to the Rite I Holy Eucharist, a service that replicates the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. In 2006 the congregation affiliated with the American Anglican Council, a fellowship of concerned Episcopal churches commited to biblical authority and Christian orthodoxy.
In 2006 the congregation officially withdrew from STEM and returned to a more traditional ministry. In January 2007, the Rev'd John Janeway assumed a part-time position as Priest and Curate.
Though still a small congregation and despite some incredible challenges, St. Agnes' is moving through the early part of the 21st Century with meaningful growth and a renewed passion for gospel ministry.
A Sunday school for children was re-introduced in 2004 followed by a Sunday school for adults in 2006. The church budget was revised so that 10% of the church's income goes to missionary relief efforts outside the congregation. Outreach initiatives are gradually expanding and worship attendance has increased modestly.
The Cowan community is experiencing a rebirth thanks to an enormous downtown restoration, new businesses opening, and ongoing efforts to improve the neighborhoods and move new residents into town. With this kind of momentum, St. Agnes' is positioned and ready for additional growth in the coming years.
"Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3: 20, 21
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