St Anne’s in the Fields Anglican Church in South Madison is celebrating a milestone event in September 2024, their One Hundred and Twentieth Anniversary! To help them celebrate, we wanted to share the story of their beginnings, and of sharing fellowship, faith, and worship in our area. MHS had the opportunity to meet with parishioners Louise Wiles and Maureen O’Toole to give us more background on St. Anne’s. Louise has attended St Anne’s since 1980, when her family lived in southwest Cuyahoga County and later moved to Madison, and has served on a variety of committees, and Altar Guild. Maureen has attended since 1985, when her family was looking for a church home and found it in St. Anne’s, and has served as lector, Sunday School teacher, and is the chair of the Anniversary committee.
Nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900, the majority of those from England, Ireland, and Germany. The Church of England (Anglican Church), was the primary state church in England, and in the United States it provided a sense of familiarity to immigrants. The Anglican church in the Western Reserve fell under the auspice of the Cleveland Episcopal Diocese. A group of worshippers in Perry, largely English immigrants, petitioned the Bishop of the Cleveland Episcopal Diocese for admission to the Diocese in September 1904. The signers of the petition were:
The church mission was admitted into the Union with the Convention on December 1, 1904. They first met in private homes in Perry, a common practice for newly established congregations. Property owned by Kate West was donated to the church to build on in May 1905, southeast of the intersection of Center and Middle Ridge Roads in Perry.
The congregation eventually outgrew their church in Perry. In 1957 they broke ground at the southeast corner of Townline and Middle Ridge Roads in Madison, and moved into their new home in 1958. For the next twenty years, the church operated under a ‘Tri-Parish’ model, meaning three separate parishes were led by a single Pastor. The Pastor would give the sermon in each church every third week, and on weeks the Pastor served elsewhere, the service would be led by senior church members, and included readings of liturgical works, music, and prayer.
In 1978, Pastor Geoff Chapman became the first full-time pastor at St. Annes in twenty years. Under his leadership the congregation grew, and St. Annes became known as the voice of conservative Christianity in the Episcopal Diocese. Pastor Chapman served in Madison for seven years before moving on to another church in Virginia. In the 1991, the Reverend Steve Wood, a native of Wickliffe, joined St. Anne’s and helped position them for the future. By 1996 Wood and his family had moved on to South Carolina, and in June 2024 he was installed as the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America. Pastor Kelly Irish led the congregation of St. Annes for 27 years, beginning in 1996, and leaving in 2023.
St Anne’s remained under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese until 2008. There were theological differences between members who wished to stay with the Diocese, and those who wished to affiliate with the Anglican Church of North America. The church building, property, and contents belonged to the Episcopal Diocese, so the members who chose to align with the Anglican church left the Middle Ridge property. As in the earliest days of St Anne’s, the Anglican congregation met at several different locations until a permanent home could be found. In August 2019, St. Anne’s in the Fields found their permanent home at the former South Madison Community Church at 5441 South Madison Road in Madison township. The rector and pastor Reverend Andrew Terry joined St. Anne’s in 2023.
Throughout its history, St. Anne’s has been community focused. From their earliest days meeting at parishioner’s homes, they gave English immigrants a sense of home, and new parishioners a sense of family. Over ethe years the church family has had many good times and reminisces of fun times. To mention only a few:
When the rush of the Christmas season was over, St. Anne’s would hold a bible study or Pot Faith Supper, a gathering on a Friday or Saturday night. It was a pot luck with everyone bringing a covered dish of their choosing. Some nights would be a heavy selection of main dishes or lots of side dishes. Sometimes it would be heavy on the cakes, brownies, or pies. So needless to say, a good time was had by all and nobody went home hungry. One night just after Christmas everyone brought in their best-looking crock pot (must have been the Christmas gift that year). All the pots were lined up on the tables set aside for the food. When the time came to eat, the lids were removed to reveal the contents … each one contained sauerkraut with a variation of hot dogs, kielbasa, cubed pork, pulled pork, and so on. Turned out the main dish that night was sauerkraut!!
Another time a group of people thought they would go to the church and polish the wooden pews on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. On Sunday, came time for everyone to enter the nave and be seated for the service. Lots of people were sliding about the pews on that day!
Then there was the time a church member thought to discuss the wooden sign in the front yard. It had been in place for many years, and he felt it had seen better days and was not looking very sturdy – it could fall over at any time. He was told the vestry committee would talk about it and see where they would go with the topic. A new sign would be a large expense. The Vestry decided they would pray about it and bring it up again at the next meeting. Well, that night there was a very bad storm with high winds. When the minister came to church the following morning he found the wind had blown the sign over. God does answer your prayers!
Madison Historical Society celebrates this 120th Anniversary of St. Anne’s in the Fields, and looks forward to their next 120 years!
Submitted by Jesse Devin, Social Media Assistant Madison Historical Society
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Dianne Cross – Vice President
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Richard Collins Jr. – Advisor
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