Emmanuel Episcopal Church is an historic Episcopal parish founded in 1835 in

Manville, Rhode Island Manville is a village in the town of Lincoln in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. It is located at latitude 41.9616° North, longitude 71.4744° West. It has been assigned the ZIP Code 02838. It is a mill village that lies along the ...

, but now located in nearby

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

History

From a Textile Village to the Church on the Hill

The

Blackstone River The Blackstone River is a river in the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It flows approximately 48 mi (80 km) and drains a watershed of approximately 540 sq. mi (1,400 km2). Its long history of industrial use has left ...

powered the machinery of those textile mills that brought the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

to America. One such mill owned by Samuel Mann (or Man), who gave his name to the village of Manville in which his mill was located. Here, as in the other new mill villages that spread upriver from

Samuel Slater Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the ...

’s original mill in Pawtucket, itinerant revivalists rather than settled churches provided only sporadic religious services for the workers in these early factories. Mann, himself a Quaker, found these “enthusiasts” distasteful and sought to replace them with a “sober religion.” He was clearly concerned not only for the souls of his workers but also for the discipline of his workforce when he wrote in 1835 to the Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island to request a missionary. He offered to provide for the missionary lodging in a mill house, two new suits of clothes a year, and a salary of $300, to be collected at the mill's pay window at the rate of $6 a week. He also promised ongoing financial support for the building and maintaining of a church. The bishop sent the Rev. Ephraim Munroe to answer the call. If some of these early operatives had emigrated from England, they had not been Anglicans there any more than their Yankee counterparts had been Episcopalians here. Munroe found his congregation largely unfamiliar with the

Prayer Book A prayer book is a book containing prayers and perhaps devotional readings, for private or communal use, or in some cases, outlining the liturgy of religious services. Books containing mainly orders of religious services, or readings for them are ...

and uncertain how to use it. He could be sure, however, of a captive audience for his Sunday afternoon service because Mr. Mann himself attended and noted any absentees, who would next day be summoned to explain their whereabouts. On Sunday mornings teachers instructed the children in reading and writing using the Bible and available primers; the only schooling these children would get, for they too labored in the mill along with their parents. Munroe claimed success in getting increasing numbers of the congregation to use the Prayer Book and participate in the services though the numbers of actual communicants remained very small. From that hopeful beginning Emmanuel Church carried on, experiencing periods of gratifying growth as well as dispiriting declines, which often coincided with a rather rapid turnover of rectors or a period when the pulpit was vacant. It survived the vicissitudes of 19th-century economic depressions, the Civil War, and a large influx of Roman Catholic French Canadians in the 1880s. It had always through this long period depended on the mill owners’ continuing financial support. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

of 1929, however, bankrupted the Manville-Jenckes Mill, leaving the church to struggle through a very difficult time. It nevertheless celebrated its centennial in 1935 in the presence of the Right Rev. DeWolf Perry, who was not only Bishop of Rhode Island but also the Presiding Bishop of the

American Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...

. After World War II, however, the downhill trajectory resumed and membership sank to new lows.

Moving across the River

:Meanwhile, across the Blackstone River in Cumberland Hill was an area experiencing rapid growth and was deemed an appropriate site for a new mission. To this Church of the Incarnation came the Rev. Walter Lyons, who conducted the first service of the new mission on July 20, 1958, at Cumberland Hill Elementary School. Less than a year later he could present to Bishop Higgins a group of 25 to be confirmed and received into the church, even providing for the women and girls in the group the white veils deemed appropriate for the ceremony. :The mission was at that point without a church while the church in Manville had received in 1958, for the first time in 23 years, an extensive redecoration. The two churches decided to merge as the Church of Emmanuel and the Incarnation, but, to avoid the expense of obtaining a new state charter, agreed subsequently to operate under Emmanuel’s existing charter of 1836 and to use its name. The first service of the joint congregations was held at Cumberland Hill School on 7 July 1959 but they now also could use the renovated church in Manville. The new church was thus able to celebrate as “Emmanuel” its 125th anniversary in 1960.

Building a New Church

:At this point the

Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the state of Rhode Island. It is one of seven New England dioceses that make up Province 1. The former Episcopal seat of the ...

intervened with the purchase of the present site on Nate Whipple Highway and a substantial contribution toward the cost of a new church. Records found at the

Town Hall indicate that the land was purchased for $1 from the heir, Ruth Cook, of the estate of Handel Cook. Work was begun on August 28, 1960, and on March 1, 1961, the new edifice was formally dedicated. :With the completion of a parish house adjoining the church, the Sunday school could meet on the premises rather than having to transport to the children to the local school for classes. Understandably the Manville parishioners were reluctant to leave their newly remodeled church but the new location was clearly more convenient for most parishioners. Both a stained glass window from Manville and the baptismal font were eventually incorporated into the new Emmanuel Church to retain continuity with that period of the church’s past. Thus established, the church continued to grow and prosper.

References

* Emmanuel Episcopal Church Profile published in 2004 by Emmanuel Episcopal Church of Cumberland, Rhode Island

External links