Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 17, 1991 TAG: 9103170024
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
But one famous phrase uttered there echoes louder, sunk as it is into the worn pine floorboards and the frame of American history. Indeed, the small, wood-frame church may owe its long life to that snippet of secular oratory.
As colonial and British troops massed, men later called America's founding fathers gathered at the church to debate a war against the crown. Some favored delay, others conciliation, others battle.
"I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death," shouted a young firebrand named Patrick Henry in March 1775. A month later the colonies were at war.
"If we hadn't had Patrick Henry's speech, the church probably would have disappeared," after the Revolutionary War, said Neill Goff, a longtime member of the Episcopal church and chief of its lay staff.
Many Episcopal churches dissolved after the war, because as the successor to the official British church they had little following. St. John's also escaped damage during the Civil War, when much of Richmond was sacked and burned.
It is the oldest church in the city and among the oldest in the country. The congregation was formed in 1611, four years after the first English colonists set foot at Jamestown, and the present building was erected in 1741.
The Rev. Thomas H. Markley said 30,000 tourists visit St. John's each year and many are surprised to find it is an active Episcopal church.
"They think it's a museum," he said.
In fact, the church holds regular services and has nearly doubled its membership in 10 years under Markley's leadership.
A paid staff leads daily tours, pointing out the approximate spot where Henry stood.
Soaring stained glass windows and ornate chandeliers added in the 19th century dwarf the original, humble sanctuary. It was just 25 feet wide, with high, narrow wooden pews.
Henry and the other delegates to the Second Virginia Convention came to Richmond to escape the British colonial governor in Williamsburg. They met in the church because it was the biggest place in town.
"That speech was political but it came right out of religious theology," Markley said. "It says right there in John 8:32, `then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.' Henry was really just expanding on that."
Henry gave a lengthy exhortation to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others huddled in the drafty church, but little save the famous line survives.
A series of historical lectures and re-enactments mark the church's 250th year. And each year on a March Sunday a costumed and wigged actor argues Henry's case.
St. John's is the crowning landmark in Church Hill, a neighborhood where tenements abut meticulously restored 19th century mansions.
City Council last year rejected a plan to designate part of the neighborhood a historic district after months of sparring between black and white neighborhood activists.
St. John's took no position on the fight, although about 30 percent of its membership lives in the area.
"We were not involved in that as the church. I supported it [the district] passively. Our house is right in the middle of it," Markley said.
Gov. Douglas Wilder grew up on Church Hill and his law office stands a block from the church. The nation's first elected black governor, Wilder also took no stand.
Many blacks who moved to Church Hill after World War II argued the designation was an attempt by white interlopers to push blacks from their homes. And many young white families snapping up old homes at bargain prices said they wanted to shield the neighborhood from development.
by CNB