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Welcome...
Welcome to the St. Paul's Church by-the-Lake website! Let us extend
our warmest greetings to you in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
This site is designed in the hopes that you will be informed about
our Church and encouraged in your relationship with God. Please
have a look around, and contact us at the phone number or email
address below. And if you've never visited us, we hope to see you
soon.
Our Mission...
St. Paul's Church by-the-Lake is a parish family established in
Rogers Park in 1882 in the Anglican tradition of the Episcopal Church.
Our worship to the Glory of God is catholic and sacramentally centered
in the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice of Jesus, commonly
called The Mass. Our mission is evangelical: to bring all persons
to the knowledge and love of God, respecting the dignity and freedom
of every human being.
About Us...
St. Paul's Church by-the-Lake is the Episcopal Church serving the
northeast side of Chicago known as Rogers Park. Founded in 1882,
we are a vibrant and caring parish family. Our home is located on
the northwest corner of Estes Ave. and Ashland Blvd. It is a quiet
residential area just three blocks from Lake Michigan. St. Paul's
is a neighborhood church seeking to meet the spiritual needs of
a diverse community.
We are a faith community of persons married and single; young and
old; rich and poor; liberal and conservative; white, Asian, Hispanic,
West Indian, African and African American. Our common goal is to
"follow Christ, worship God every Sunday in His Church, give,
work, and pray for the spread of His Kingdom."
About our Parish Theologically...
St. Paul's by-the-Lake has always been a traditional parish grounded
in the unchanging Faith of the Holy Scriptures, the Creeds, Sacraments
and Holy Tradition of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
Church. St. Paul's began fairly 'High Church' in the 1880's. Eyebrows
were raised and letters written to the Bishop when in their new
1886 church building the choirs were vested and led by a crucifer
with processional cross. By the time of the present Nave & Sanctuary
(1925) the parish was well steeped in the English Parish Communion
tradition with full Eucharistic Vestments and a church design with
the choir in the transept balcony. There were no barriers between
the nave pews and the Altar rail.
Beginning as early as the 1930's the 4th Rector, Fr. Charles
T. Hull (rector from 1927 - 1960) moved the parish significantly
towards the Morning Prayer with Boys Choir model. The choir was
brought down from the transept balcony and placed between the Sanctuary
and Nave, greatly reducing the size of the Sanctuary space.
With the rectorate of Fr. Clifford Buzzard in the 1960's
the parish began to return to the centrality of the Holy Eucharist
as the main act of worship each Sunday. The Boy's Choir did not
survive the retirement of the long time organist A.J. Strom in the
mid-1960's.
In the 1970 Fr. Daniel L. Banner became the 6th Rector and
led the parish more solidly to its present Anglo-Catholic leanings.
Fr.Banner built on Fr.Buzzard's good teachings of the prominence
of the Eucharist in Christian Worship. Fr.Banner introduced the
use of the Anglican Missal with the choir singing the minor propers
from the English Gradual. He also introduced the Daily Mass, Stations
of the Cross, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and a fuller
use of the liturgical calendar celebrating the lives of the saints.
Under his rectorate the parish's holdings of Sacred Vestments, many
of which are antiques, increased to a significant collection of
textile art.
Today the parish maintains an Anglo-Catholic approach to the Anglican
Tradition of Christianity, while also remaining a lively family-oriented
parish. The parish affiliated with the Episcopal Synod of America
in 1989 and has continued to participate in its successor organization
Forward in Faith/ North America. In 2003 we hosted the Mid-West
Festival of Faith on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, May 31. The parish witnesses to the Doctrine of Christ
as this Church has received from the Apostles through the heritage
of the Church of England. We witness in many works of charity and
outreach here in our Chicago neighborhood and around the world through
fellowship with Anglicans in such far places as the Sudan and the
Congo.
Contact Information...
Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Telephone
773-764-6514
Postal address
St. Paul's Church by-the-Lake
7100 N. Ashland Blvd. Chicago, IL 60626-2502
Electronic mail
spbylake@stpaulsbylake.org
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