St. John’s Episcopal Church is in the midst of a Capital Campaign for improvements to the Parish House, Photo by Rev. Jim Trimble.
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
This treatise to St. John’s Episcopal Church, in Honeoye Falls, will certainly feature a healthy dose of religious devotion, such as that expressed in the church’s mission statement, “As a spirit-filled Episcopal community, St. John’s is called to glorify God through sacred worship, inclusive fellowship, and faithful service to our community and the world.”
Wonderful words indeed, and we hope to capture that spirit in this piece, but it is also our goal to go beyond that scope. In addition to that, we will offer threads of dangerous drama, like the time when the falling church bell nearly took the life of a young parishioner. And we’ll even throw in a bit of humor, like the time a church meeting had to be held in a liquor store in order to achieve the quorum necessary to constitute an official meeting. More on that later!
The church is committed to being a welcoming place for everyone. As part of their Capital Campaign for Improvements to its Parish House, St. John’s is raising funds to build a fully ADA-accessible restroom, ensuring that all members of the congregation and members of the community can participate in worship, church activities, and Village gatherings with comfort, dignity, and independence. A small committee, headed by vestry members Anna Engstrom and Yeates Conwell, will manage this task. This important improvement will better serve seniors, individuals with disabilities, families, and future generations. ( If you’re interested in donating, please visit the website https://www.stjohnshoneoyefalls.org/)
According to an announcement in the church’s newsletter and bulletins, “Our Parish House has always been more than a building—it is a place of welcome, fellowship, and care for all who enter. As we look toward the future, we are committed to ensuring that our Parish House reflects these values in both spirit and structure. We are writing to invite your support in our Capital Campaign for Parish House Improvements. This effort will be carried out in phases, with Phase 1 focused on the construction of a new ADA-accessible bathroom. This essential upgrade will ensure that every member of our community and every visitor—regardless of mobility—can fully participate in parish life with dignity and ease. Accessibility is not simply a convenience; it is a reflection of who we are called to be: a welcoming and inclusive community. The new ADA-compliant bathroom will provide safe, modern, and accessible facilities, addressing a long-standing need in our Parish House. We are asking parishioners and friends to prayerfully consider making a financial commitment to help us reach these milestones. Our goal is $50,000.”
The earliest roots of this faith in Honeoye Falls found the Episcopalians meeting in small groups known as “Church Societies” in the first brick school, which was across the street from Harry Allen Park. The year of 1840 was a landmark in that the church chose its first rector, Reverend Nathaniel Bruce, who proceeded to write a certificate of incorporation on June 29, which was subsequently accepted into the Religious Incorporations of Monroe County on July 7. The Episcopalians were officially up and running!
The land that currently constitutes St. John’s resulted from a five-step acquisition process, which began that same year. In 1840, St. John’s acquired its first parcel, the one on which the church now stands, and the second parcel, the street of Episcopal Avenue, which includes the small parking area next to the post office.
The third parcel was the result of a wonderful blessing from Sarah Antoinette Rand (granddaughter of Village founder Zebulon Norton) in 1876. That gave the church its rectory and the land on which the parish house was later built. The final two parcels were acquired in the early 1960s for the purpose of parking expansion.
The present church building features a combination of Greek Revival and Gothic Revival architecture. An official Monroe County History document states that “St. John’s has one of the finest interior structures of any building in the state,” and St. John’s 1990 historical pamphlet states that the church has “the highest rating for beauty of any structure in the Village.” The building is now on the roster of New York State Historic Sites and is also a National Historic Site.
In 1855 the church added its bell tower, with the bell itself being donated in 1872 by Hiram Sibley. This would be the same Hiram Sibley who co-founded the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1856 and lived in the Sibley family compound in the town of Mendon, hamlet of Sibleyville, on Sibleyville Rd. near Rt.15A.
It would be six years later when the bell would be raised to its current position atop the tower, and this event did not occur without incident. While being lifted, the bell was accidentally dropped and narrowly missed 10-year-old John Martin! To this day, the broken stone step at the entrance to the church bears silent witness to that near-fatal accident.
Certainly an impressive aspect of the church is its set of chimes, known as a carillon, which has been described as “the finest in the world in a church this size.” The chimes were a December 1927 gift from Merry May Ackerman Dennis, in memory of her husband. The set of chimes consists of 16 bells, ranging in weight from 60 to 1,500 pounds. The total weight of the chimes, and the structure holding them, comes in at more than 9,000 pounds. The chimes were made by Meneely/Wvelt in Watervliet, NY, and of the 750 known chime sets made by this company, only 72 sets have 16 or more bells.
The aforementioned 1990 history pamphlet was written by Helen Doran Cooney, who was the first woman to ascend to the office of church treasurer, which she did in 1942. In Cooney’s church chronicles, she shares the following story…
“One evening I was called before the regular Vestry meeting and told that in order to have a quorum, the vestry would have to meet in the liquor store. Robert Marson, the proprietor, was a vestryman. As it happened, I was seated just inside the door of a back room so that anyone entering the store first saw me and asked either for aid, or tried paying me for a purchase. It was an entertaining meeting!”
Our contact person for this current project is St. John’s member Gina Hurley (former HF Village Clerk), who spoke of how the church strives to emphasize and act upon the principles of inclusion, embracing everyone regardless of age, race, ability, or sexual orientation.
Fellow member Allene Baillargeon wrote about an incident that occurred in the 1990s when another parishioner led “A sort of town meeting in the parish house, detailing his involvement in what we now call LBGTQ+ life. His passion caught many in that audience. He had respect and affection from many that day. I wonder how many in the audience thought in a fresh and more nuanced way about our fellow humans, knowing him through our church.”
We opened this piece with the first half of the St. John’s mission statement, so we felt it would make for an appropriate finale to close with the second half, which reads… “As thus we strive to fulfill our purpose, we and those we love become empowered to rise above the forces that impede, thereby building realistic lives in Christ.”
