A History of the Church of the Good Shepherd

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Expanding Years

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel..." --Benedictus (The Song of Simeon)

Dwight David Eisenhower was beginning his second term as President of the United States, J. Clarence Dreher, Jr. was mayor of Columbia and a new Episcopal parish, St. Michaels and All Angels, was being organized in the eastern section of the city when the Rev. William Lawrence Gatling, Jr. began his rectorship, January 1, 1957, at the Church of the Good Shepherd. The Rev. Mr. Gatling, a native of Gastonia, North Carolina, was graduated from Duke University in 1932 and was a successful business man having been associated with Dun and Bradstreet for many years before entering the ministry. He received his divinity degree from the Theological Seminary at Virginia and came to Good Shepherd from Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Sulphur, Louisiana.

William L. Gatling, Jr. (Father G. as he was affectionately known to his congregation) was a forcefully dynamic man. He was a teacher of distinguished ability, developing a large adult Sunday School class known as "The Gatling Hour." There were wonderful teaching occasions when the study of St. Paul's journeys or his Epistles -- to the Romans, Hebrews, Corinthians -- filled the parish house with parishioners eager to learn more about the scriptures. Inquirers classes on Sunday nights, in the spring and fall, held the group's attention as the rector taught church history, sacraments, prayerbook -- things necessary for a refresher course for members, instruction for those desiring confirmation or as a source of information for those wanting to know more about the Episcopal Church.

His Good Friday meditations mesmerized the congregation until at three o'clock when the Sanctus Bell tolled thirty-three times, they were part of the faithful who waited at the foot of the cross. He taught his people to work hard at their faith -- "What think ye of Christ, whose son is he?" was a favorite expression when doubt entered. He taught the bounden duty as stated in the prayer book: 'My bounden duty is to follow Christ, to worship God in his church every Sunday and to work, pray, and give for the spread of his kingdom." And he saw that his people followed it.

Soon after his arrival the Rev. Mr. Gatling formed an Altar Guild whose duties were the care of communion vessels, altar linens, vestments, silver and brass-responsibilities that heretofore had been part of the work of the Daughters of the King. He reorganized that organization making it one of prayer, service and evangelism.

In August, 1958, while the rector was away on vacation the men of the church voluntarily scrubbed, built, and painted a chapel which they designed and furnished. They found extra hours here and there, at night, on weekends, and during vacations to fashion St. Mary's Chapel in the church school building erected several years earlier next east of the church. The men dug up abandoned pews from the basement, fashioned an altar from doors using a paneled door for the front and flushed one for the top. St. Mary's Chapel became a small, quiet place, seating about twenty-five worshippers. A sign just outside the door read "Enter to Pray."

At that same time the men moved the rector's and secretary's offices into the administration building (a name by which it would hereafter be called) . That fall the men started building classrooms in the undercroft of the church. They also installed a new heating and air-conditioning system.

That same summer of 1958 when the rector returned from vacation, seventeen men of the church presented a petition requesting that they be trained as lay readers in order that the morning and evening offices be read daily. Beginning in September of that year these layreaders faithfully read the daily offices six days a week in the chapel.

In February 1959, The Rev. Randall P. Mendelsohn, one of the Episcopal Church missionaries to Alaska visited the Church of the Good Shepherd. The following May the parish was invited by the overseas Department of National Council to adopt Father Mendelsohn and his family. Father Mendelsohn was regarded as a member of the Good Shepherd staff and his name appeared on the parish "Messenger," the weekly bulletin of the Church. While the Church of the Good Shepherd was able to give little in the way of material help, Father Mendelsohn and his family were remembered daily at the parish altar. By 1960, the parish had become so large as to require the services of two fulltime priests. With the arrival of the first curate, the Rev. Reginald Mallatt, II on July 1, 1960, daily celebrations of Holy Communion were held in St. Mary's Chapel with the layreaders serving at the altar. The Rev. Mr. Mallatt, son of the Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana served the parish two years before returning to his father's diocese. He was succeeded by the Rev. David L. Watkins who came to Good Shepherd from Ripley, West Virginia where he was Vicar of St. John's Episcopal Church and Chaplain of Spenser State Hospital. Father Watkins, recognized for his ability to preach from the pulpit, left the Church of the Good Shepherd after four years to become Chaplain at the Episcopal Center on the campus at the University of South Carolina.

Next came the Rev. Robert L. Matheus to serve the Church of the Good Shepherd as curate. He and his pretty wife, Charlotte, together with their three sons (one of which is today a priest of the church) were the first to occupy the "little rectory" at 1802 Romain Drive. Father Matheus left the Church of the Good Shepherd in June 1969, to become rector of St. Matthews parish in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, a position he holds today. He was followed by the Rev. William D. Ladkau who served until 1971 when he left to accept the rectorship of the Episcopal Church in Greer, South Carolina (The Columbia Church of the Good Shepherd's namesake). Next came the Rev. Barry Deal who was discharged after a stay of only five months for misconduct which ultimately resulted in his being deposed.

During the period between June, 1972 and July 1974, the Church of the Good Shepherd was without the services of a curate. The Rev. Dennis L. Smith, Episcopal Chaplain at the University of South Carolina, and the Rev. Bruce Williamson, a retired priest and native of the Bahamas, assisted in the Sunday services. In July 1974 the Rev. Donald D. Lopes came to fill the vacancy of curate.

The Church of the Good Shepherd was expanding physically as well as spiritually. The beautiful sanctuary was small, the chancel crowded. In the early 1960s the sanctuary was enlarged, moving the altar rail forward into the chancel. Additional marble was secured for the floor, the brass supports to the altar rail refinished, and a new altar rail installed. The organ and the choir stalls were removed and placed in the east transcept; wide steps with brass handrails led from the nave of the church to the chancel. Sanctuary and chancel furniture along with the pews from the nave was refurbished.

On May 7, 1963 the forty-first Diocesan Convention met at the Church of the Good Shepherd. The first item of business was the election of a bishop to succeed the late C. Alfred Cole, third Bishop of the Diocese who had died April 11th. The Rev. John Adams Pinckney, Archdeacon of the Diocese, was elected fourth Bishop. Nine years later in July, 1972, a special convention was called, meeting at the Church of the Good Shepherd to elect a successor to the Rt. Rev. John A. Pinckney who desired retirement on December 31, 1972. The Rev. George Moyer Alexander was elected fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina on the fifth ballot. The election of a bishop is always a momentous occasion, but few parishes are privileged to be host to a convention charged with such responsibility. The Church of the Good Shepherd is fortunate to have hosted two such conventions.

Hanging from a beam directly above the chancel steps is a crucifix, a gift of the Thomas H. Allen, Jr. family, with a seven-and-a-half-foot cross made from natural cherry and four foot corpus carved from linden wood. This work of art installed in late 1964 was sculptured by Mr. George S. Saussy, a devout Episcopalian and former resident of Columbia who retired to Highlands, North Carolina.

In the twenty years of the Rev. Mr. Gatling's rectorship, the Church of the Good Shepherd hosted conventions, conferences, and quiet days. A vestryman and layreader, Thom H. Billingham, became editor of The Piedmont Churchman and several young men of the parish became candidates for Holy Orders. A former parishioner, Carl Gladden, Brother Christopher of the Order of the Holy Cross, returned for a visit and Father Lee Stevens, an Episcopal monk from the Order of the Holy Cross, came for a teaching mission. The St. Peter's Episcopal Boys' Choir from Peekskill, New York sang for Evensong March 16, 1958 during their tenth annual tour of Eastern states. The rector served as president of the Standing Committee, trustee of Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, vice president/director of Episcopal Housing Corporation, member of Examining Chaplains, trustee of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina. He was also chairman of the Department of Missions, served on Liturgical Commissions and on the Commission on Ministry.

William Lawrence Gatling, Jr. served the Church of the Good Shepherd when prayer book revisions were the order of the day, when liberal trends in the Episcopal Church abounded, and when the General Convention of 1976 approved the ordination of women. It was during this time that the Rev. Mr. Gatling became strong in his opposition to the general liberal trends and expressed his concern to the congregation that the Episcopal Church was drifting away from its Catholic heritage. That there was a crisis at the Church of the Good Shepherd could not be doubted.