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Saint Gregory's Church |
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History The fellowship of St. Gregory's came into being in 1949 when Mr. George Hard sought healing ministry for his mother, Fanny, a Woodstock native who was too ill to travel. Mr. Hard appealed to Father Herald Swezy, the rector of the Church of the Ascension in West Park (just below Rhinebeck on the east side of the Hudson), and Father Swezy agreed to visit with Fanny and a handful of other worshipers every other Sunday at four in the afternoon. 
Less than a year later, in response to the spiritual thirst of his growing
congregation in Woodstock (home services had swelled to as many as
forty-five people!) Father Swezy offered a Eucharistic service once a
month at the American Legion Hall in town. the following year,
Frederica Milne, one of the early congregants, volunteered her guest
house, a converted corn crib, for regular Sunday services. "We met
there summer and winter," Helen Jackson, a long-time parishioner
reflected. "Frederica had a big pot-bellied stove. If you
sat up near the stove, you roasted. But if you sat in the back,
well... you were chilly?" In the summer of 1954, with Father Swezy working both sides of the Hudson every Sunday, and attendance at The Corn Crib growing, the Diocese of New York decreed that the chapel on Mrs. Milne’s property was no longer big enough for regular services, and that a new location would have to be found. A formal application for mission status was submitted that fall and approved the following spring, at which time Alice Wardwell, another devoted member of the early congregation, donated four-acres of land directly across the road from the small chapel with the big pot-bellied stove. In the fall of 1955, ground-breaking ceremonies were conducted and construction of the present Church of St. Gregory’s was begun.
“The architect for the Diocese was named
William Van Benschoten,” Helen Jackson recalled. “He was a member of
the Church of the Ascension in West Park. Father Swezy and he were very
closely connected—you know, good friends and both down-to-earth. And
Van—they called him Van—would call my Pop and they’d have long
discussions about the church… The Ladies Guild (as they called
themselves) didn’t want a box church with a steeple on it. They were
very powerful and firm. In fact, Allie Wardwell was really… she was…
Well, she’d given the property, so why shouldn’t she be? She stood up
against the men of the Diocese!” Many local artists
had contributed work to furnish the tiny chapel on Frederica Milne’s
property (the altar and altar rail were created by Richard Eschmann, the
pews by Clark Neher) and much of that work was transferred to the new
church upon its completion in 1957. The weathervane—an angel with a
horn— and the remarkable abstract cross that hangs above the altar (both
works of Eduardo Chavez) are tangible examples of the creative, hands-on
ethos that has informed the spirit of St. Gregory’s Church from its
inception. |
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