A Home of Their Own
The first service in the Barnheisel Building was held on Sunday, August 4th, 1918, although there was no raised altar and the acolytes kneeled on cushions on the floor. This day marked a milestone in the church’s progress, as it had started an independent life in its own space.
Two days later, carpenters began building a platform for the altar, completing it and the altar railing on Saturday, August 10th. The congregation was surprised the next morning to find the chapel ready for service and completely equipped.
Bishop Wedgwood arrived on August 14th and was met at the train station by Fr. Beckwith, Fr. Butler, and Edmund Sheehan. The next day Bishop Wedgwood celebrated the Holy Eucharist, confirmed 32 people, and ordained Edmund Sheehan to the priesthood.
Fr. Sheehan celebrated his first mass on August 22 at 7 a.m., assisted by Fr. Beckwith. Mrs. Sheehan was the entire congregation.
On September 29, forty-five people were present for the service and the church collected $12. It was one of the largest crowds up to that date. There were many new faces in the congregation, and Fr. Beckwith urged the crowd to buy Liberty Bonds. In 1917 and 1918, the United States government issued Liberty Bonds to raise money for its involvement in World War I.
The Flu Pandemic
The flu pandemic between 1918 and 1920 was caused by an unusually severe and deadly influenza virus. It killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide in just 18 months. The epidemic reached Chicago in September of 1918 and, during the next eight weeks, more than 8,500 deaths were recorded from influenza and pneumonia. Theaters, lodges, dance halls and other public places of amusement were closed for several weeks. Churches, schools, and patriotic parades were allowed to keep spirits up.
Due to this flu pandemic, the church service on Sunday, October 20, 1918, was limited to 45 minutes without a sermon. Despite these conditions, 25 people attended the service, including Llewellyn George (1876-1954), a prominent astrologer and founder of the Llewellyn Publishing Company.
Armistice Day
Victory over Germany was achieved on November 11, 1918, marking the official end of World War I. To honor the occasion Fr. Sheehan celebrated an unscheduled Eucharist in thanksgiving for peace.
Chicago Race Riot: 1919
On July 27, the drowning of an African American teenager who had crossed an invisible line at 29th Street, separating customarily segregated “white” and “black” beaches, caused race riots to erupt. White and black Chicagoans, especially in the South Side residential areas surrounding the stockyards, were engaged in seven days of shootings, arsons, and beatings that resulted in the deaths of 15 whites and 23 blacks with an additional 537 injured. The rioting ended after nearly 6,000 Illinois National Guard troops were deployed to end the violence on the night of July 30th. Conflict occurred in areas throughout the city, including the Chicago Loop.
First Clerical Synod: 1919
The first meeting of the Liberal Catholic Church’s Clerical Synod was held at the Chicago church on Monday, September 1, 1919. The Rev. Robert Walton, a Provost (leader) of the Synod, celebrated the Eucharist assisted by Fathers Beckwith, Butler, and Sheehan. The next day Fr. Walton spoke to 50 people in the church, telling them about Bishop Charles W. Leadbeater and the work of the church in Australia. On September 7th, one hundred and sixty people, who were in Chicago to attend the convention of the Theosophical Society, attended the Sunday service.
President Wilson and the League of Nations
Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, was elected in 1912 and re-elected in 1916. His second term was centered on World War I and he provided the funding and food supplies that made Allied victory in 1918 possible. Wilson went to Paris in 1919 to create the League of Nations and shape the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I. He suffered a serious stroke on October 2, 1919 and died in 1924.
The League of Nation's goals included disarmament and settling disputes between countries, but it failed to prevent further conflicts. After World War II, the United Nations Organization, which inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League, became the fulfillment of Wilson’s dream of achieving global peace through discussion and compromise.
Second Anniversary Celebration
In commemoration of the first service on November 18, 1917, an anniversary meeting was held on November 18, 1919. A number of speakers gave short talks; people who had worked with the Church from the beginning. Dr. Beckwith, acting as a chairman, first introduced the Rev. E. W. Sheehan, who spoke of the thanks owed to Dr. Beckwith for giving all the opportunity to work in the Church. Mr. Glass followed with his talk on financial affairs. Mr. Fordyce then was introduced and he told how the Church services had helped him in spiritual growth. Mrs. Beckwith then told how Dr. Beckwith had wanted to get into the priesthood for many years, and Dr. Beckwith finished by giving an exceptionally fine talk on the purpose of The Liberal Catholic Church. The Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament concluded the meeting.
Another Move: 1920
At the January 18, 1920 church meeting, the vestry discussed moving the church quarters yet again. The owners of the Barnheisel Building wanted to rent the church’s space for business purposes and charge triple the rent. On February 25, a lease for new quarters at the Athenaeum Building, 59 East Van Buren St., was signed.
On April 16th, Fathers Beckwith and Sheehan each received a copy of “The Science of the Sacraments”, a new book by Bishop Charles W. Leadbeater. The books were a gift from Bishop Cooper. Also on this day, an auction was held in the evening at the church in an effort to raise money to cover moving expenses. The final physical move was accomplished on Tuesday, April 25.
A group in Minneapolis invited Fr. Beckwith to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. In his absence, Fr. Sheehan celebrated the church’s first Eucharist in the new quarters on Sunday, May 2, 1920. The new chapel was not fully furnished till May 23, when the altar was erected and the floor of the room was cleaned and carpeted.
On a bitter cold Christmas Eve, seventy-five people attended the first solemn high Eucharist ever held in Chicago. A musical program started at 10 p.m., followed by the midnight service celebrated by three priests: Fathers Beckwith, Butler and Sheehan.
The Chicago Loop
The Loop is the popular name for the Chicago business district located south of the main stem of the Chicago River. The name apparently derives from the place where the strands powering cable cars turned around on a pulley in the center of the city. A ring of elevated rail tracks for rapid transit, completed in 1897, linked downtown with surrounding neighborhoods. State Street's horsecars were replaced by cable cars in 1882, and these in turn yielded to electric trolleys in 1906. Gasoline buses joined the trolleys in 1927 and construction began on the State Street Subway in 1938.
Prohibition
In 1920, the selling, manufacturing, or transporting of alcohol were prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment. Those supporting the amendment believed Prohibition would reduce or even eliminate many social problems, particularly drunkenness, crime, mental illness, and poverty.
As people continued to produce and drink alcohol, a massive industry under the control of organized crime rose up. Chicago achieved international notoriety as gangsters battled each other and the law during the 1920’s. Prohibition was repealed with ratification of the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933.
The 19th Amendment: Women’s Right to Vote
The19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing all American women the right to vote, was ratified August 26, 1920. The fight for women's suffrage was over, ending a struggle that had begun in the mid-19th century. Militant suffragists had used tactics such as parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. Opponents had heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused them.
The 1920s was the decade in which women first liberated themselves from constricting fashions and began to wear comfortable clothes (such as short skirts or pants). Men also abandoned overly formal clothes and began to wear sport clothes for the first time. The suits which men still wear today are still based, for the most part, on those which were worn by men in the late 1920s.
Bishop Irving Cooper, Regionary for the United States
Fr. Beckwith received information that The Rt. Rev. Irving S. Cooper, who served as the United States first Regionary Bishop from 1919 through 1935, would arrive in America on November 11, 1920. The Rt. Rev. Cooper would go on to establish the Church’s Pro-Cathedral in Los Angeles in 1922 and wrote the book Ceremonies of the Liberal Catholic Rite.
Bishop Cooper made his first visit to the Chicago church on February 5, 1921. On Sunday, February 6, he celebrated the Eucharist with 100 people present and 75 receiving Holy Communion. From Sunday, February 6 through the 13th, Bishop Cooper lectured, baptized newcomers, administered confirmations, gave Holy orders and performed Solemn Benedictions in the evenings.
