We extend a warm welcome to all of our visitors and invite you into our caring family. We hope you will join us in worship, Christian education, fellowship and outreach as we seek to grow in the love and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We invite you to come and visit with us and make Emmanuel Church in Lockhart your church home.
It is our mission to obey the two great commandments of Christ, to go into the world to teach and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We pledge ourselves to reach out lovingly to each other: in our parish family, our community, and our world; giving assistance where it is needed in the name of Jesus Christ.
A HISTORY OF THE EMMANUEL EPISCOPAL SANCTUARY AND BUILDINGS
On August 20, 2006, Emmanuel Episcopal Church celebrated the 150th anniversary of the completion of its sanctuary.
The sanctuary of Emmanuel Episcopal Church is one of the more significant church buildings west of the Mississippi. Its structure is the oldest Protestant church building west of the Mississippi in use without major modifications.
In 1853, Lockhart was a tiny community on the frontier. It had dropped 'Springs" from its name when it incorporated just 5 years before. This period was one of missionary zeal, as reflected by the circuit riding preachers that evangelized the border areas. The Emmanuel congregation was organized in 1853, when the Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia sent the Rev. Joseph Wood Dunn to the Lockhart region. The church met in a school house with its first congregants. The Articles of Organization refer to the church as "Amanuels". Frontier Texans weren't good spellers. As the church membership grew, it outgrew the small school facility, and the time came to build a permanent edifice.
Money was a scarce or non-existent commodity in the 1850s. Rev. Dunn cast around for inexpensive construction methods, and he and the church members settled on a type of concrete, probably learned from local Mexican-American artisans, of mixing caliche, sand and gravel. The result is a Gothic - Spanish style structure with thick whitewashed walls some two feet thick. Four members of the church agreed to roof the building, if Rev. Dunn would get the walls and windows built. The good preacher had to personally guarantee a $600 advance, and he collected donations from as far away as Philadelphia to repay the note. The church was completed on August 22nd, 1856, and arrangements were made to procure six glazed sconces for lighting. On May 17, 1857, Bishop George W. Freeman, the last non-resident Episcopal Bishop of Texas, preached a sermon in the small sanctuary. He noted in his journal: "It is a neat building, quite church-like, and excellently adapted tone of the great purpose of a Protestant Church, the preaching of the gospel. It is the easiest church to speak in that I am acquainted with, and, in reference to the science of acousticks, is worthy of imitation."
The sanctuary's original floor was polished limestone. The altar chancel, rails, and window frames were made of local walnut. Originally, there was a belfry. Damaged by a hurricane in 1879, it had to be removed in 1880. The original bell was also damaged, and given to a church member. The replacement bell, probably from the railroad, was later hung on a cedar post.
Some interesting myths have grown up about the sanctuary. One is that it served as a stable for Union troops during the Reconstruction period. Research shows that the Union troops were actually stationed in Austin, and when sent out on patrol to Lockhart, camped at springs near the old ice house, adjacent to the Livengood Feeds property. Some cut nails found under a wooden floor laid in 1899 lent credence to this story, but apparently there is no truth in it. Another is that there was a choir loft directly above the nave. The small area, now hidden behind louvered windows, would have been too small (and hot) for any choir numbering more than 2 persons, and in all probability provided access to the (now removed) belfry. There may have been a loft in the actual sanctuary, but this is unknown. Finally, the story persists that the church support beams, made of cedar, were brought from the Indianola area by carreta. Given the abundance of cedar in the Lockhart area, this also is probably not true.
In the 1970s the church (and by that I mean the congregation) decided to embark on a major rehabilitation of the sanctuary. The original floor was uncovered and re-finished. A parish hall was created out of an old structure that had once been a garage, and the detached parish hall was made into classrooms. All buildings were then joined under one roof and stuccoed. Shortly after this, the church bell was hung in its own bell tower. The church's current appearance is the result of this labor of love.
Recent acquisitions include the one-half acre adjacent to St. Mary's parking lot, and the old Holter Building. This building, complete with an old Coca Cola advertisement on its side, houses Kirk Tunningley's Big Dog Neon business. The old storage shed on the north side of the Holter building was recently torn down, and that open space will soon be occupied by a prayer garden.
An old newspaper caption below a picture of the exterior of the building noted its plain appearance and remarked that it could be easily missed by one passing the church. Like our bodies, it is not what is on the outside that matters, but what is inside. The interior of Emmanuel is elegantly simple and creates a Holy place filled with the spirit of all who have and will worship here.
We invite you to, "Come and see."
By Todd Blomerth and Liz McGinty
During the Blessing of the Animals service on October 3, Emmanuel Episcopal Church was presented a Saint Francis plaque by Nanci Helen Falley. Frederick Hammargren immigrated to the United States from Sweden in the early 1900s, met and married Nanci's aunt, Laura Lee Bird. Mr. Hammargren was an artist in many mediums, from oil on canvas to watercolor to sculpture. The plaque was created in the 1940's and graced his and Laura Lee's gardens in Hollywood and Santa Barbara, CA, until his death in 1965. The dog is "Shep" who was Nanci's mother's and aunt's dog when they were children. Her uncle wanted some family member in the relief and "Shep" was chosen. Nanci Falley brought it to Texas in 1980 when Laura Lee died and it has been in her garden since. She is giving the plaque to Emmanuel for our garden in memory of her Uncle Frederick, Aunt Laura Lee and her mother, Helen Bird Falley, who was a member of Emmanuel for many years until her death in 1982. For now the plaque is in the Parish Hall on the table under the bulletin board until it can be placed in Emmanuel's garden. Pictures of the plaque may be found below in Emmanuel's Garden.
From the earliest times, the Church has set apart, by blessing, eternal resting places for the faithful departed. Departed loved ones rested eternally in the hallowed grounds of church yards near where they had been baptized, married and nurtured in the faith.
Now, in keeping with this tradition, Emmanuel Church has established a columbarium and garden space in the area between our classroom building and the historic Masur/Holter/Big Dog building to the south. The 40 niches - each with space for two urns - will be set in the east garden wall directly behind a fan-cooled cedar pergola. The verde granite face plates will be simply engraved with names and dates of birth and death. The area will be lighted at all times, and visitors may come whenever they wish as often as they like.
Cremation, a long accepted practice in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, is dignified, theologically and ecologically sound, and economically sensible. A columbarium on sacred church grounds gives witness to the risen life and the deceased's place among the Communion of Saints.
The cost for a double niche is $2,000 and includes the cost of two simple, unadorned machine-fabricated metal urns, should you wish to utilize them, and the engraving costs for two interments. The cost for a single niche is $1,500, including one urn and engraving costs for one interment. Of these amounts, $200 covers costs, and the remaining $1,800 (double) or $1,300 (single) may be considered a donation for tax purposes.
The Columbarium Rules allow Interment in the Columbarium for any Communicant in Good Standing of Emmanuel Episcopal Church; the immediate family of a Communicant in Good Standing, i.e., spouse, parents, parents-in-law, grandparents, brothers, sisters, children or grandchildren by marriage, blood or adoption; and, with the approval of a majority of the Columbarium Committee, Christians without any familial affiliation to a Communicant in Good Standing or without any affiliation to Emmanuel Episcopal Church.
If you and your family have made other final interment arrangements, please consider gifts to the Columbarium and Garden Fund in memory of or to honor friends or loved ones. These donations will be used to purchase benches and other needed items and for the ongoing maintenance of the Columbarium and Garden.
We hope you will join your brothers and sisters in Christ as we step out in faith in this wonderful new venture. Contact the church office for a Niche Application, a copy of the Columbarium Rules and any other information you may need.
6:00PM - Holy Eucharist
Followed by Supper and Study
Sunday
9:30AM - Christian Education (all ages)
10:30 - Holy Eucharist
Babysitting provided
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Progress on Emmanuel's Prayer Garden
Red Mass, October 2007
Blessing of the Animals, October 2007
