A History of the Church of the Good Shepherd

CHAPTER FIVE: The Diocese Splits

"A new diocese in the developing and expanding up-country -- a venture in faith." --Bishop Albert Sidney Thomas

Woodrow Wilson was still president of the United States and the Rt. Rev. William Alexander Guerry bishop of the diocese when the Rev. Herbert F. Schroeter, a tall handsome man, held his first service in the Church of the Good Shepherd, February 2, 1919, beginning his six years as rector of the parish. Sixty parishioners attended Holy Communion at 11:15, while that evening at 8:30 p.m. six candidates received the laying-on-of-hands by the Rt. Rev. F. W. Reese, a visiting bishop who came for evening prayer and confirmation.

Old church records give very little information on what was happening at the Church of the Good Shepherd during the years from 1919 to 1925 except that the three Sunday services continued on the same schedule established by the Rev. Mr. Penick in 1914.

It was during the early 1920s that the diocese was again considering the feasibility of division. For about two decades this question had agitated the diocese. As Bishop Capers had said in his report to the Council of 1900: "The diocese is growing and the time is past when the bishop can visit every parish and mission once a year unless he spends his entire time in travel."

In 1909, a year after the death of Bishop Capers, a committee of five clergymen (including the Rev. A. R. Mitchell, a former rector of Good Shepherd) and six laymen had been appointed to study division in every aspect and to report to the next council. Before making their report to the Council of 1910, the committee met with Bishop Guerry to ascertain his opinion. While the bishop was in favor of dividing the diocese, a motion to that effect was lost -- clergy voting 23 to 11 in favor, churches 21 to 25 against. The bishop expressed the hope that the matter would be considered settled for some years, at least.

The question did not come up again until the Council of 1920 and then on request of the Bishop. It was then decided that a bishop coadjutor be elected as soon as possible, for division could not take place until after the General Convention of 1922. At a special council meeting in Trinity Church, Columbia, October 12, 1920, the Rev. Kirkman George Finlay, then rector of Trinity, was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of South Carolina, his work to be in the upper part of the state.

On May 17, 1922 plans for the actual division of the diocese were adopted by the 132nd council meeting in St. Phillip's Church, Charleston. General Convention meeting in Portland, Oregon, September 11,1922 approved and ratified the petition to divide and erect a new diocese in South Carolina. On October 10, 1922 the first convention of the new diocese with the name Diocese of Upper South Carolina met in Trinity Church, Columbia. The minister and deputies from the Church of the Good Shepherd were the Rev. Herbert F. Schroeter, Dr. Legrand Guerry, Mr. J. R. Roseberry, and Mr. Bryan H. Lumpkin. With assets divided and borders established the new diocese began its work with 46 white and 14 African-American churches and 24 white and 4 African-American clergy.

The year 1922 saw the Women's Auxiliary meet for the first time as a separate unit at Grace Church, Anderson to organize a new Women's Auxiliary for the Upper Diocese. The reorganization included a division of funds (after disbursements a sum of $30 was left in the united treasury to be divided), the adoption of a budget, and the development of a program of missions which included the Ramasaur School in Liberia and an Eskimo school in Alaska.

That year the Rev. Mr. Schroeter then organized a branch of the Women's Auxiliary at the Church of the Good Shepherd composed of the older women from the Ladies Guild founded in 1886 and the young group from the Guild of St. Agnes founded in 1890. These women were under the very capable leadership of Mrs. Charles Oliver Brown (Shirley Black) who had recently come into the church as the wife of C. 0. Brown whose father had been a charter member and one of the first deputies when the Church of the Good Shepherd was admitted into union with Convention of 1888. The work of the women widened in scope. Programs of mission study were inaugurated; the United Thank Offering was created. Educational institutes were formed; seminars and summer conferences held. The Women's Auxiliary became an important function of the parish and an outstanding part of the Diocese of Up- per South Carolina.

Mr. Schroeter left the Church of the Good Shepherd in early 1925 to be succeeded by the Rev. Lewis N. Taylor.