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