October 28, 2018: The historic bell at St. Agnes' Church in Cowan, Tennessee was installed on a newly constructed tower in 1978. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the project, Bishop Bauerschmidt from the Diocese of Tennessee blessed the tower and named the bell in memory of Robert Stuart Sloan. Mr. Sloan was our church treasurer for over 50 years; however, the bell tower project was his proudest contribution to his beloved home church. The congregation also recognized the late Clifton Rigsby, Jr., owner of Rigsby Wrecker Service, who handled the bell installation. The hand bell you hear in the background at the end of the video is being rung by his son Cliff. The congregation gave the hand bell as a gift to Cliff in memory of his dad.
Processional Hymn #436: Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates; behold the King of glory waits! The King of kings in drawing near; the Savior of the world is here.
For most churches, the Sunday after Easter is the least attended service of the entire year. This year at St. Agnes ' we fought back! On April 23rd we had good attendance and a special Easter prelude by our youth ensemble! Christ the Lord is risen today! Alleluia!
The youth ensemble at St. Agnes' played a musical prelude for the Bishop's Visitation on October 30th, 2016. The Bishop of Tennessee, The Rt. Rev'd John C. Bauerschmidt, visits all 48 congregations in the Diocese of Tennessee each year.
On Whitsunday 2016, some of our young parishioners at St. Agnes' teamed up with the organist and put together a fanfare prelude. Whitsunday, also known as the Day of Pentecost, is a time for the church to recall the coming of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. You'll notice that the priest is wearing a red stole and most of the congregation is wearing red. It's an old English custom to wear something red to church on Whitsunday. Red symbolizes the "tongues as of fire" mentioned in the Book of Acts.
St. Agnes' is one of 48 congregations that form the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee. This is a video of the Opening Procession at the Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee gathered on February 6, 2016 at St. George's Church in Nashville. You will see the St, George's choir followed by the banners of the 48 congregations in the diocese, and then the order of priests, the order of deacons, and finally the Bishop of Tennessee - the Right Reverend John C Bauerschmidt.
St. Agnes' Church recalls The Nativity of Our Lord every year on December 24th at 4:00 p.m. This video shows the opening music from our service in 2015. Dr. Robbe Delcamp, the University Choirmaster, was our organist and his wife, Susan Rupert-Delcamp, provided her beautiful singing voice.
Every Christmas the congregation at St. Agnes' takes time to remember a legendary priest who was also a WWI Army veteran and a Rhodes Scholar. The Rev'd Philip Prentiss Werlein was larger-than-life and fondly remembered by the people of Cowan.
