Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Episcopal Church

“Mortal, can these bones live?” This question comes from one of my very favorite Old Testament passages, the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37. In this passage, which we read at the Easter Vigil, God takes the prophet Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones and has him prophecy to the bones. As they hear the word of the LORD, the bones are knit back together, covered with sinew and flesh and skin, and ultimately filled with the breath of life.

Through this image of dry bones coming back to life, God promises that the people of Israel – who were, at that time, living in captivity and exile under foreign conquerors – would one day be restored to wholeness and health. It is a powerful image, and one that bears relevance for our congregation. There have been multiple times in the long history of Gloria Dei when the congregation has been close to death, when the church has fallen into disrepair, and when bishops have been ready to close the doors. And yet, time and again, God has raised up new leaders and has provided the resources needed to rebuild.

These experiences of death have shaped our congregation, helping us to remember our dependency on God’s provision (whether through the pledges of members, the support of our surrounding community, or the generosity of generations who have gone before). So, while I don’t want to devalue the excellent work that is being done to plan and provide for a more stable future through building endowments and applying for grants, I also recognize the value of these experiences of pain, instability, and even death. They have helped us to be truly welcoming to anyone who comes through our doors, have made us more sensitive to the needs of others, and have called us to remember the stories of those who have gone before.

So, in this season of Easter, when we celebrate the power of life over death, take the time to meditate on the dry bones that rest all around our church. When we sit in the quiet church or walk through the peaceful graveyard, we are reminded that our stories do not end at the grave; these dry bones will live again, and God will be faithful to provide for the life of our community as long as we are listening for the word of the LORD.

From the Records of Gloria Dei

May 2, 1942 - George Jenks Gillingham, Jr. wed Elizabeth Morris. He 28 of 1005 S. 46th Street. She 22, daughter of John Jr. & Stella Henry Morris. Witness Charles P. Gillingham, Doris Swalm, Elizabeth F. Swalm, Harold O. Corson, & Richard Y. Moore. This was the first marriage performed after President Roosevelt proclaimed the Church a National Shrine.
May 2, 1817 - Eliza Vallee died on the 2nd but no death changes took place until the 8th.
May 27, 1816 - Catherine Burrick was killed by her husband who then killed himself.

Remarkable Occurrences

May 13, 1796 - Two men and four women came. The bride looked very young, & seemed much alarmed, she and some of the company said that her parents formerly of Burlington, were dead. The chief woman, who would give the bride away, pretended to be a sea captain’s wife, and to live in a street not very distant, said that the girl had been two years her maid. refused. N.B. They came in chairs, no doubt from the country.
May 1805 - This May deserves notice as an example of impulse without decorum:- a party came after 11 on a Saturday. night and begged very hard for the ceremony. I had a long conversation with them without opening the door. They came out of the country as they said. The bridegroom gave as a strong reason for his importunity that his love was so violent that he might suffer if restrained from bedding with her that night.
May 3, 1807 - Sun.. Two Frenchmen, came with two women, The intended bride looked decent, and had a daughter about 7 or 8 years old, being a widow or she said. The bridegroom was likely young seaman, but very groggy. On my remonstrance against this impropriety with them, she pretended that he was sober enough, and that he was going to sea tomorrow. He could not pay much, tho I conversed with him in French.

Tombstone Inscriptions

Sacred to the memory of Catharine Swanson
wife of Andrew Swanson who departed this life
May 4th 1842
aged 46 years 3 months and 20 days.
Weep not my husband nor my children dear
I am not dead but sleeping here:
And when my God shall bid me rise
I hope to join you in the skies.

Also of Mary K Fox.
eldest daughter of Peter and Abigail K Fox,
who departed his life May 4th 1863
aged 24 years 8 months and 7 days.
In sure and steadfast hope to rise,
And claim her mansion in the skies
A Christian here her flesh laid down,
The cross exchanging for a crown.

Articles from the Old Swedes’ To=day

May 1918 - Old Swedes’ Anecdotes

My memory often reverts to many statements of my dear Aunt Isabella Cruse, as to the fact of my grandfather Captain Peter Cruse, being the first conveyor of rubber in America.
He was a captain in the old merchant man service, and traded in the West Indies and South American ports. He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, and was at first in the Swedish Navy, having run away to sea, as so often the Swedish lovers of the Great Deep were apt to do. Being Anxious to go to America, his mother, who taught him the love of the Bible, which he learned to read at her knee, urged him if he went to America, to go where her cousin, Rev. Nicholas Collin, had long since settled.
So Captain Cruse came to America, and Philadelphia. He at once attached himself to “Old Swedes’” Church, and was a devoted attendant when on land. It is said of him if his vessel was returning from a voyage, near the first of any month, he would speed his boat to the utmost so as to be on hand at church on the first Sunday of the month, as the sermon on that day was always preached in the Swedish language. He himself wrote and spoke seven languages.
In Philadelphia the Captain fell in love with Catharine Simpson, daughter of James Simpson, a builder of vessels. Her favorite brother, James Simpson, Jr., became the founder of the large shipbuilding firm of Simpson & Neil, who built the first floating dry docks in America at the foot of Christian Street wharf. Catharine was only seventeen years old and as her parents had other matrimonial ideas for her, she resisted them, and married the Swedish First Mate, afterward Captain Cruse, and later a ship-owner of quite great repute.
After one of his voyages from South American he landed in Philadelphia, some ninety years ago, with what he called “a queer cargo,” for it was composed of clumsy rubber shoes in the rough. The virgin rubber had been melted, and before hardening, the feet of the natives had been presses, after cooling, into the soft substance, and they were to have the outside rough edges pared off with knives after reaching this country.
When the vessel reached Christian Street wharf, many of the prominent shipping men of Philadelphia were invited to visit the ship, and inspect the cargo. Among these shipping men one recalls the names of Thomas Earp, John F. Ohl, the Bernadous, and many others, all of whom were enthusiastic over the then mysterious substance in the vessel’s hold, which they were told was to be converted into shoes which would resist rainy weather.
The local papers of that period made many favorable comments on the value of the cargo, and in the practical utilization of the product of the rubber tree.
In these days of motor cars, and the necessary rubber tires, what great strides have been made since Captain Cruse came up the Delaware River with his “queer cargo.” - Mary McCalla Evans

Easter 1922

Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church at Wicaco,
Southwark, Philadelphia
“At a special Court held by the Governor at New Castle in Delaware River the 13th and 14th days of May 1675, it was ordered, that the Church, or place of worship in this Town and the affairs thereunto belonging be regulated by the Court here, in as orderly and decent a manner as may be,
“That the place of meeting at Craine Hoeck do continue as heretofore-that the Church at Tinnecum Island do serve for Uppland and parts adjacent.
“And whereas there is no Church or place of worship higher up the River that the said Island, for the greater ease and convenience of the inhabitants there. It’s ordered, that the Magistrates of Uppland do cause a Church or place of meeting for that purpose to be built at the Wickegkoo, the which to be for the inhabitants of Passayunk and so upwards. The said Court being empowered to raise a Tax for its building, and to agree upon a Competent Maintenance for their minister: of all which they are to give an account to the next General Court, and they to the Governor for his approbation.” Signed E. Andross.”
The Churches at Craine Hoeck, Tinnecum, and Wicocoa were Swedes’ Churches, and sufficiently point out the location of the Swedes.`
The place name Wicaco was an Indian village, called on Lindstrom’s Map Wichgua Coingh, and consisted of a tract of land of about 800 acres, fronting on the Delaware River, and commencing at Moyamensingkill, afterwards known as Hollander’s Creek, extending up the Delaware in breadth 400 rods, in length into the woods 600 rods. It extended up, it is believed, beyond the present line of South Street, and westward as far as Seventeenth or Eighteenth Street, about Long Lane near South Street, and thence in a diagonal line to Hollander’s Creek (now Oregon Street). Wicaco is an abbreviation of Wichocomoca, “a dwelling place”, from Wichgua, “a house”.
Wicaco continued until, on May 14, 1762, an Act was passed by the General Assembly to create a Municipality in the Southern Suburbs to be called the district of Southwark. The bounds commenced on Cedar Street (now South Street) at the Delaware River, and proceeded thence west to Passyunk Road; along the latter to Moyamensing Road; thence by Keeler’s Lane to Greenwich Road, thence to the Delaware River, and along the several courses of the same to the place of beginning. Southwark, sometimes but improperly called the Southern Liberties, was the oldest district in the County of Philadelphia.
The events of the Revolution were held to supersede this Charter in the Same manner as the City Charter was supposed to be nullified on September 29, 1787. The General Assembly passed an Act to appoint Commissioners to lay out the district of Southwark, marking out the courses of the principal streets, not only in that district, but also in Moyamensing and Passyunk. This was preparatory to the passage of an Act of April 18, 1794, which erected a full Corporation under the title of “The Commissioners and Inhabitants of the District of Southwark.” They laid out a large number of streets, and most of their plans were confirmed by the Supreme Executive Council in 1790, and so remained as Southwark until 1854 when it became a part of the City of Philadelphia.
The order of the Court, promulgated by Governor Andross, does not appear to have been complied with as to the erection of a new building, as to a Church, or place of Meeting, not is there anything to show that a Tax was levied for the purpose. The Congregation was therefore compelled to make other arrangements, so in 1677, they took an old log blockhouse, built in 1669, as a place of refuge from marauding Indians and a defense against the unfriendly Dutch, and fitted it up. It had “loop holes for defense”, and was a very plain structure, so neglected and weather-worn that in 1679 it was necessary “for Upland Court to order that the members of the Congregation at Wicaco Church be required to contribute their share to the expenses of repairs.” The Congregation brought fire-arms with them to Church, ostensibly to shoot wild game that they might meet on the road. Even after the Congregation took possession the old house was sometimes used as a refuge. Tradition preserves the story that “some evil-disposed Indians from Jersey meditated an attack upon the Settlement while the men were away. It so happened that the women were engaged in making soap, which they forthwith took, scalding hot, to the block-house and not knowing what their fate might be if captured, they also took fuel to keep it hot. With their Conches an alarm was sounded, and when the Indians began to undermine the building, the scalding soap was poured down and thus they were kept at bay till the men came and drove off the savage assailants.”
On Trinity Sunday, 1677, the Rev. Jacobus Fabricius, a clergyman of the Low Dutch Church, who had accepted a call to the Church, preached his first sermon in the Block House and preached in the Dutch language. He continued to conduct divine services for fourteen years, nine of which he was entirely blind. He resided above Wicaco, in the place now known as Kensington, and by the aid of a canoe came down the river to Wicaco and Tinnicum, as services were held at these places alternately. He died in the year 1692.
The members of the Parish in Wicaco lived partly in the City of Philadelphia, and partly in various surrounding districts: Wicaco, Moyamensing, Passyunk, Kensess, Bond’s Island, Pennypack, Kalkanbrook, Amasland, Matzong in Chester County, Nitshamene in Philadelphia County, and Manathanim in Berks County (and now in 1922 the members of the Parish come from the northern portion to the southern portion and from the Eastern to the Western portions of Philadelphia County, from Bucks County, Montgomery County, Delaware County, in Pennsylvania and from Camden County, Gloucester County and Burlington County in New Jersey.)
When the Rev. Andrew Rudman arrived at Wicaco in 1697, all the Swedish people dwelling in places named above, as well as those who dwelt on the other side of the Delaware River, in New Jersey, who lived and had their houses from Raccoon’s Hill (where Swedesboro now stands), and thence up along the river, and the congregation at Tinnicum, united themselves into one Parish, and as the Churches at both Wicaco and Tinnicum were in a very ruinous condition, they insisted that a new Mother Church should be built.
The congregation had bought a tract of land at Passyunk, really at what is now “Point Breeze”, exactly where the lower road to Penrose Ferry strikes the Schuylkill, and later bought an adjoining tract, which was occupied by the Rev. Mr. Rudman and some of his successors. The dwelling (or Glebe House) was burned down in 1717 and immediately rebuilt, and now is still standing. If the city streets were cut through it would be at 30th and Geary Streets. It was abandoned as a parsonage about 1727.
After the glebe-land was bought the Swedes near the Schuylkill and at Kingsessing desired that the Church should be at Passyunk, while the Swansons and others, living at Shackamaxon and above, wanted it built on the site of the old block-house church at Wicaco.
That the Church and Congregation would increase the value of their property by its proximity to the City of Philadelphia, and the difficulty experienced by the lower settlers in coming over the Schuylkill should be relieved by a flatboat, which the congregation should maintain at its own expense, and to which the Church Wardens should keep the key.
A meeting was called the 16th of May, 1698, at which a tedious discussion took place. At length it was proposed to have it settled by lot. “Having by prayer and singing invoked the blessing of God on the undertaking two pieces of paper were prepared, on one of which was written Wicaco, and on the other Passyunk. These were shaken in a hat and thrown upon the ground, when, upon taking one up and opening it, the name of Wicaco appeared. Dissension at once ceased, and all joined in a cheerful hymn of praise.

A Word from the Rector

Gravestone and Historic Marker Cleaning

Jazz & Joe

Pennsylvania Before Penn

Lunch Packing

Annual Meeting

10 minutes of prayer on Zoom

Updates on Paul Fejko

Musical Meditation

Memorial Dei Picnic

Native Gardening Group

Missions Committee

325th Anniversary Celebration!

IVA Presents “Scandinavian Folk and Art Songs”

Upcoming Organ Maintenance

History Committee

Sunday Eucharist

May Lectionary

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