As the 1800’s came to a close, American industry began using engineers to improve performance. “Efficiency” became a universal goal, sought by churches as well as business.
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The Rt. Rev. Frederic Keator, 1902 – 1924 |
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Bishop Keator, who gave up a career as a lawyer in Chicago for the priesthood, became a leader in Tacoma, joining civic and fraternal groups and supporting the seminary. He sponsored the transition of the Fannie Paddock Memorial Hospital to Tacoma General, under independent management. Keator emphasized the importance of the church to the broader community:
First we are citizens of a commonwealth, endowed with certain rights and privileges, but also with corresponding duties and responsibilities. Our Church life is primarily a community life….–Bishop Keator, 1922
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Annual Convention at St. Luke’s Memorial Chapel in Tacoma, 1922 |
Depressions and war constrained church growth from the late 1890s until the 1940s. Communicant numbers grew slowly. In the 1890’s, St. Mark’s, Seattle, joined the Settlement House movement, and encouraged other churches to cooperate in aiding those in need. Diocesan as well as national Church leaders adopted a management model invented by corporate America. Abandoning the weak executive structure in effect since the 1780’s, the national church closed the Board of Missions and created a council to advise the Presiding Bishop, who began to function as a CEO. Thus the Episcopal Church came to resemble more closely the U.S. government, which had moved to a strong executive system with the U.S. Constitution in 1792. The new “scientific” management of the business world provided a model. The district, still directed from Tacoma and led by Bishop Keator, followed suit. The diocese, slowed by headwinds, grew slowly until 1940.
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St.Mark’s Cathedral under construction, 1930 |
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Camp Harmony, Puyallup, 1942
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In 1942, the U.S. government required Japanese in Washington State to move to internment camps. The Revs. Joseph Kitigawa and Gennosuke Shoji and Deaconess Margaret Peppers joined internees in the camp in Minidoka, Idaho, to aid the families.
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Bishops Bayne (L) and Huston |
Priests served as military chaplains in World Wars I and II. Bishop Huston (1925 – 1947) sponsored summer camps for children, and volunteers erected permanent facilities in Gold Bar and Spirit Lake. The diocese sponsored congregations among minorities, including African Americans and Japanese.
