History of Church of the Redeemer

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HISTORY of CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER (EPISCOPAL),
CAIRO

1840 -

Philander Chase, first Bishop of Illinois, toured the southern part of Illinois and appointed J.P.T. Ingraham as Lay Reader.

1841 -

"Parochial Association of Christ Church, Cairo" was organized.

1858 -

Work began on a church building. This work was destroyed by a flood of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

1862 -

The church was reorganized under name of Church of the Redeemer. Work begun on a church building in the 400 block of 14th Street.

1864 -

The church building was completed. It was consecrated by Henry John Whitehouse, second Bishop of Illinois. A Sunday School was established there as well. This is also the year that Church of the Redeemer was admitted into union with the Diocese.

Civil War -

During the Civil War, the church building was used as a hospital. Cairo was the site of a large encampment of Union soldiers under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

1885 -

George Franklin Seymour, first Bishop of Springfield, offered to buy the first Church of the Redeemer church building and property to establish a mission of the black residents of Cairo. Known as St. Michael's, it flourished for many years.

1886 -

This year marked the laying of the cornerstone of a new church building for Redeemer on the corner of Washington and Sixth Streets.

1892 -

The new building was consecrated in the presence of Bishop Seymour and his assistant bishop (or co-adjutor), Charles Reuben Hale, "Bishop of Cairo". Church of the Redeemer came to be known as "The Bishop's Church".

1897 -

First vested choir inaugurated.

1900 -

Bishop Hale dies on Christmas day. Plans for a diocese which would have consisted of a southern portion of the Diocese of Springfield and which would have had Church of the Redeemer as its cathedral, never came to fruition.

1912 -

Candee Memorial Parish Hall constucted on Sixth Street next to the church, during the 50th Jubliee Celebration of Church of the Redeemer.

1953 -

Church building gutted by fire.

1955 -

Restored church building consecrated by Charles Asa Clough, sixth Bishop of Springfield.

1988 -

Candee Memorial Parish Hall razed.

1999 -

Halliday Plaza and new Parish Hall consecrated by Peter Hess Beckwith, tenth Bishop of Springfield.

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Last updated April 9, 2008