On George Street, in the heart of Brown University's campus in Providence, Rhode Island, stands a stone church with stained glass by Tiffany, Connick, and Kempe, a chancel by Henry Vaughan, and the sound of plainchant rising from its choir loft. That church is S. Stephen's, an Anglo-Catholic parish of the Episcopal Church and a fixture of Providence's religious and musical life since the nineteenth century.
A Parish Founded in 1837, Housed in an Upjohn Church Since 1862
S. Stephen's traces its beginning to 1837, when a small group of worshipers from nearby Episcopal churches gathered to form a new community for Christian prayer and service. In the 1850s the parish welcomed the members of Christ Church, an African American congregation and one of the earliest examples of integration in the American Episcopal Church. Under nineteenth-century rectors Henry Waterman and George McClellan Fiske, the parish became firmly rooted in the catholic tradition of the Episcopal Church, with a strong emphasis on the sacraments.
On Saint Matthew's Day, September 21, 1860, the cornerstone of the present church was laid on George Street. The building was completed in 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, and was designed by Richard Upjohn, one of the leading architects of the Victorian Gothic Revival. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1892 and 1893 the chancel was redesigned by Henry Vaughan, whose work includes the reredos behind the high altar and the rood screen. Over time the church has been enriched with stained glass from Tiffany Studios, Charles Connick, and Charles Kempe, and a self-guided tour brochure invites visitors to experience the building for themselves.
A Daily Rhythm of Mass and Prayer
The Mass, or Eucharist, is at the center of life at S. Stephen's. The parish keeps a daily round of prayer that is unusual for an American Episcopal church, with services on every day of the week.
On Sundays there are two principal Masses. At 8:00 a.m., Morning Prayer and a spoken Low Mass are offered in the Lady Chapel. At 10:00 a.m., the Solemn Mass is sung by the choir in the nave, with organ, incense, and the full ceremonial of the Anglo-Catholic tradition. On most Sundays, coffee hour in the Great Hall follows the Solemn Mass, and all visitors are warmly welcomed.
From Monday through Friday, Noonday Prayer and a Low Mass are offered at 12:00 noon in the Lady Chapel. On Tuesdays the day closes with Evening Prayer and a spoken Low Mass at 6:15 p.m., followed at 7:30 p.m. by a Young Adult Fellowship Dinner. Saturday begins at 9:40 a.m. with Morning Prayer, followed by Low Mass at 10:00 a.m. On the first Saturday of the month the Holy Rosary is recited at 10:30 a.m., and on the third Saturday the 10:00 a.m. Mass is a Requiem for departed parishioners. Low Mass is offered at 9:00 a.m. only on federal holidays.
Additional services fill out the church year: Evensong and Benediction on the Feast of Saint Luke in October, a Solemn Requiem Mass for Remembrance Sunday in November with the Duruflé Requiem sung by the choir, a Service of Advent Lessons and Carols late in November, a Family Mass and Pageant for Christmas Eve, and a Solemn Mass for the Feast of the Epiphany in January.
The Schola Cantorum and a 4,726-Pipe Organ
S. Stephen's is known across New England for the quality of its music. The S. Stephen's Schola Cantorum is a professional-level choral ensemble whose repertoire spans roughly a thousand years of liturgical music. Each week the choir sings the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei), the plainchant Minor Propers (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertorium, Communio), and psalms, anthems, and motets appropriate to the liturgy. The parish is one of the few in New England that maintains the fine choral and liturgical practices of the Western Catholic tradition. The choir sings from mid-September through Corpus Christi and offers numerous Services of Evensong and Benediction on Sunday evenings throughout the church year, all of which are free and open to the public.
The Organist and Choirmaster is L. Graham Schultz, a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists whose performances have been heard on BBC Radio 3's Choral Evensong, American Public Media's Pipedreams, and national broadcasts of With Heart and Voice. He holds degrees from Southern Methodist University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Interlochen Arts Academy, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the Anglican Association of Musicians.
S. Stephen's is home to a 4,726-pipe Austin organ, a three-manual, 76-rank instrument built in 1955 that incorporates pipework from the church's earlier 1917 Austin and 1893 Roosevelt organs. The instrument was given by Mrs. R. H. Ives Goddard in memory of her husband, a long-standing vestryman and church warden, and is dedicated as the Robert Hale Ives Goddard Memorial Organ.
Children, Students, and the Young Adults Group
Children are a vital part of parish life at S. Stephen's. Nursery care is provided for both the 8:00 and 10:00 Sunday Masses, with a childcare provider on site from 7:50 a.m. until 11:15 a.m. Children in second grade and older are invited to Sunday school, which meets on the second floor of the parish house at 10:00 a.m., just as the Solemn Mass begins downstairs, with the children rejoining their parents around 10:40 a.m. for Communion. Infants and children are always welcome in the pews, and a parish library off the hallway offers a quiet place for parents who need to step out with a child. Children who have been baptized are welcome to receive Holy Communion whenever their parents feel they are ready.
The parish has long drawn students from surrounding colleges and universities. The Young Adults group welcomes university students and adults in their twenties and thirties for prayer, worship, and shared meals, and includes students from Brown, RISD, Providence College, Johnson & Wales, and other Providence-area schools. The group gathers on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. for Evening Prayer and a spoken Mass in the Lady Chapel, with dinner and conversation following at 7:15 p.m.
The Epiphany Soup Kitchen
Every Saturday afternoon, the parish's Great Hall becomes a free restaurant. The Epiphany Soup Kitchen, a non-profit organization based at S. Stephen's, has been serving a hot meal to those in need every Saturday for over forty years. It takes its name from the Church of the Epiphany, where it was originally housed, and moved to S. Stephen's in October 2009. Guests are welcome from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. for a sit-down meal, and gently used clothing and new travel toiletries are also offered when supplies allow.
Volunteers, including teenagers from age twelve, are the backbone of the operation. Two-hour shifts run from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and from 3:20 to 5:30 p.m., and no experience is needed. Volunteers chop vegetables, plate desserts, serve the meal, wash dishes, and clean up. The building is not currently wheelchair accessible because there is no working elevator, though chairlifts are available on the stairs.
Four Devotional Societies
As part of its Anglo-Catholic heritage, S. Stephen's maintains four historic Anglican devotional societies. The Society of Mary, Our Lady of Providence Ward, is an international Anglican society devoted to the honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and meets on the first Saturday of each month for Morning Prayer, Mass, the rosary, and a communal breakfast. The Guild of All Souls, S. Stephen Proto-Martyr Branch, keeps a special remembrance of the departed, including a parish Requiem Mass on the third Saturday of every month. The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Nativity Ward, dates back to the time of Father Fiske in the late 1880s and is one of the oldest wards of the confraternity in the country; the parish offers monthly Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction, usually on the second Saturday of the month. The Society of King Charles the Martyr maintains the parish's chapter of SKCM, which commemorates the Anglican martyr King Charles I.
What S. Stephen's Believes
S. Stephen's is a parish of the Episcopal Church, which belongs to the Anglican Communion, the worldwide fellowship of churches in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Members of the parish worship one God revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, and uphold the ancient Creeds of the early Church as sufficient statements of faith. They understand themselves as standing in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, and they emphasize the Eucharist as the central act of Christian worship, honoring the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament through gestures such as genuflecting, the sign of the cross, and the use of incense and candles.
The parish welcomes all people of any faith or of no faith to its services, although the Sacrament itself is offered to baptized Christians. Weddings follow the rite from the Book of Common Prayer or the 2015 rite authorized by General Convention that is inclusive of same-sex couples, and premarital counseling is required. Baptisms may be administered at any stage of life from infancy to old age. Funerals may be held in the main church or the Lady Chapel, with choir and organ or simply at the graveside.
A Rector Search and a Stable Clergy Team
S. Stephen's is currently in a season of transition. The parish is searching for its twentieth rector, a process led by the wardens and a series of committees, with the support of the Rev'd Canon Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew from the Diocese of Rhode Island. In the meantime, the parish is led by the Rev'd Mtr. Veronica Tierney as Priest-in-Charge. Mother Veronica was ordained deacon in 2007 and priest in 2008 in the Diocese of Los Angeles, holds a PhD in Early Christian Theology from Boston College, and has served as Assistant Chaplain at St. George's School in Middletown, as Priest-in-Charge at Christ Church, Lincoln, and at Saints Matthew and Mark, Barrington. She is assisted by the Rev'd Fr. Bill Locke and the Rev'd Fr. Michael Pearson, both retired priests who supply at the parish, and by L. Graham Schultz as Organist and Choirmaster.
Visiting S. Stephen's
The church is open during the day for prayer, and visitors are always welcome at any service. Free street parking is widely available on Sunday mornings; on weekdays and Saturdays, many nearby streets are reserved for Brown University permit holders during morning hours, and standard city parking rules apply after noon. Brown University's garage at Power and Brook Streets is three blocks away, and two accessible parking spaces are located directly across from the church entrance. Visitors and parishioners may also use the driveway between the church and the Guild House.
The Great Hall, the Lady Chapel, and the nave are available for suitable concerts, lectures, receptions, weddings, and funerals; the Great Hall accommodates up to 120 guests and is equipped with a stage, gallery lighting, a state-of-the-art AV system, and a restaurant-grade kitchen. For those who wish to give to the work of the parish, giving and pledge forms are available online through Realm.