SLS 19RS-3200 ORIGINAL
2019 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 236
BY SENATOR LONG
COMMENDAT IONS. Commends St. James Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge on the
occasion of 175 years of worship.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To commend St. James Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on the occasion of its
3 one hundred seventy-five years of worship.
4 WHEREAS, in 1819, two years after the incorporation of Baton Rouge, a group of
5 local inhabitants felt the need to establish an Episcopal church in Baton Rouge and began
6 meeting in the area; and
7 WHEREAS, on March 16, 1820, they became incorporated and met from place to
8 place, including on the area that is now the State Capitol grounds, thanks to the determined
9 efforts of several individuals including Margaret "Peggy" Smith Taylor, who sought the
10 permission of her soldier husband, the Garrison Commander Colonel Zachary Taylor, to
11 grant space for a chapel at what is now known as the Pentagon Barracks; and
12 WHEREAS, on March 25, 1844, by Act 97 of the Louisiana Legislature, St. James
13 Episcopal Church was granted a charter to operate as a body and to worship under the laws
14 of the state and in communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of
15 America, subject to the Ecclesiastical government and decisions of the bishops and
16 Convention of the Diocese of Louisiana; and
17 WHEREAS, they purchased the property at the corner of Convention Street and
18 Church, now Fourth Street, in Baton Rouge, where they constructed a church consecrated
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SLS 19RS-3200 ORIGINAL
1 by Bishop Leonidas Polk, and have continued to worship there for one hundred seventy-five
2 years; and
3 WHEREAS, the men and women who are aiding in the molding of the church's
4 reputation today can look to the trials and triumphs of the church's past in order to chart its
5 future; and
6 WHEREAS, a church that has sustained itself through fires, yellow fever epidemics,
7 the Civil War and Reconstruction, national economic depression, segregation, and
8 integration, and the evolution of the surrounding world is a welcoming congregation; and
9 WHEREAS, St. James Episcopal Church has established itself to be more than a
10 community of the faithful, but a community of faith.
11 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
12 does hereby commend and recognize St. James Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge,
13 Louisiana, on the occasion of its one hundred seventy-five years of worship.
14 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
15 St. James Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Ann S. Brown.
DIGEST
SR 236 Original 2019 Regular Session Long
Commends St. James Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, LA, on the occasion of its 175
years of worship.
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