The following information comes from the church's history page (
visit link)
St. Paul's was founded on Easter Day in 1844, nearly seventy years after the first Episcopal missionary came to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The Rev. Dr. Nicholas Hamner Cobbs, who was then Rector of St. Paul's Church in Cincinnati, helped "the Church-minded people in Newport" to organize their new congregation and the vestry considered him to be St. Paul's founder. Six months later Rev. Cobbs was elected Bishop of Alabama. In the autumn of that year the vestry bought a small brick church building on Court Place for $500.
In 1845 St. Paul's was admitted into union with the Diocese of Kentucky--two years after nearby Trinity Church in Covington. The two cities are neighbors, separated by the Licking River. Until 1849 the two congregations often shared a rector; however--as St. Paul's chroniclers are careful to point out--"its beginnings were independent of the Covington group and different in procedure."
St. Paul's grew steadily. By the eve of the Civil War, the brick church was enlarged, with a new tower and organ. Father Jeffries counted eighty-two communicants, and reported "the parish was free of debt in spite of a tornado in May that had blown off the gable."
Unlike other denominations, the Episcopal Church in Kentucky did not split during the war. St Paul's prospered and grew to a hundred by 1865. Eventually they needed a larger building. A later historian wrote, "By 1870...the political prejudices and antipathies engendered by that terrible catastrophe were largely removed; and Federalist and Confederates together knelt in brotherly love and good-will at the same altar."
In June, 1871 the cornerstone of the present St. Paul's was laid on the site of the old brick church. On a Sunday in August 1873, the bell in the tower first summoned parishioners to Morning Prayer.
The cost of construction rose from $19,452 to over $33,000; the church was consecrated in 1888. Although the congregation continued to grow (by 1894 it was the largest parish in the Diocese), the vestry struggled with debt well into the twentieth century. The church and its people have weathered natural disasters of every magnitude, including an earthquake in 1880, the record-breaking Ohio River floods of 1884 and 1937, and the tornadoes of 1915 and 1986.
By 1922 more growth brought a campaign to replace the corner office building used for many years as a parish house. Architect's plans show a three-story building, but the new parish house, put up in 1929, reached only two stories. The Great Depression followed, and once again St. Paul's found itself facing default on its debt. The vestry worked out a repayment schedule, but church finances were strained for several more years. The church women helped retire the parish house debt by operating St. Paul's Kitchen upstairs in the parish hall, where they served "home-cooked" meals to local businessmen.
In the 1960s and 70s population shifts in Newport and adjacent towns meant shrinking rolls. Urban renewal efforts by the City of Newport brought a well-intentioned clean-up that extended to the walls of the church and leveled acres of dense neighborhoods, including the houses of many parishioners.
In 1970 the newly created St. Paul's Child Care Center was incorporated as a non-profit organization, and the parish house corporation bought five vacant lots west of the church to provide parking for the church and the child care center. Church membership held steady or fell in the 70's and 80's. In 1978 the rector left amidst turmoil, the parish was declared a mission congregation, and the Rev. Stephen Alexander was appointed Vicar.
Over the next seventeen years the parish rolls slowly declined. The Child Care Center continued to grow, and gradually took over more space in the parish house. St. Paul's remained a presence in the community however, and many of the church's programs were continued. In 1995, Father Alexander resigned. His sudden departure, unfortunately both preceded and followed by conflict, was a blow to everyone.
Thus began an interim period now in its eighth year, an interval during which our church has had virtually no official clergy leadership. In spite of this, St. Paul's has grown, from the winter of 1997, when ten people on a Sunday was a second cause for celebration, to a present membership of over a hundred, with attendance at about thirty. During 1996, as the rolls decreased and the vestry continued paying a full-time vicar's salary, there was a pervasive belief that the Bishop was going to close St. Paul's. That year a vocal movement arose in the vestry which proposed selling the parish house, or even the entire church property, in order to retrench and relieve ourselves of the huge burden of two old buildings with long-deferred maintenance problems. The underlying notion that an inner-city church could not survive, that we should follow the flow of population to the relatively prosperous suburbs, was not shared by most members. The defeat of the proposal to sell brought further shrinkage of our numbers. Others left because there were no resources for Sunday school or youth programs. Eventually there were almost no children.
The development of our church family during this period warrants description. By the end of 1996, perhaps twelve active members--fewer than half of the congregation at that time--had been parishioners during part or all of Father Alexander's time here. About half of these had begun shouldering as many of the Vicar's duties as they could. The lay leadership evolved into a kind of immediate family, taking turns serving as warden, clerk, treasurer and sexton, learning or inventing their jobs along the way. Each brought a talent and a determination that St. Paul's should not close simply because it couldn't run itself.
Worship services continued uninterrupted. St. Paul's organist-choirmaster--our only paid employee--drew from her long experience and took the additional duties of planning services, finding supply priests, and making bulletins. One parishioner brought knowledge of old buildings to help the vestry contend with a long list of needed repairs and very little money. Another brought a desire for communication; she compiles a directory of members and sends birthday cards to parishioners. Another dear woman simply continued doing what she has done for many years: every Sunday of a Holy Eucharist she comes early to open the safe and prepare the altar. A man who "left" St. Paul's in the aftermath of conflict came on weekdays for four years to clean the nave; he came to be called our "phantom sexton". Everyone in the family was willing to lick stamps, weed the flowerbeds, or clean the pews--whatever was needed to keep St. Paul's going.
Last year, in a heady moment after a wonderful, well-attended Service of Morning Prayer, a new parishioner was overheard to ask, "Why do we need a rector? We're doing so well!" Although it was a joyful sentiment, he, like many newcomers, was not yet aware of how much was being done by how few volunteers, or how much was being left undone.
Supply priests came and went; some became more involved and lent a priestly presence from time to time. The Rev. Canon Lorentho Wooden, retired in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, began serving as a regular supply priest in 1996, and became our much beloved Priest Associate. Two Sundays a month, "Lo" preached hope, encouragement, and opportunity to us, in the nadir of the time without a priest. He provided pastoral continuity sorely needed in our situation until he retired again-from St. Paul's-in the Spring of 2003.
During the years without a leader, our shared determination went beyond preventing a church closing. It included a desire to discern ways to fulfill Christ's will for us in our rapidly changing surroundings. When the burden of monthly salary payments was lifted in 1996, it became possible to do more than open the doors on Sunday. In the summer of 1997 the vestry voted to spend nearly all of our money to put on the church a high quality roof with copper gutters. This watershed decision was a major investment in a historic church building, but it was also a statement: St. Paul's intends to remain in service to God in this church. Fixing a leaky roof meant we could begin repairs to the rest of the building, and then we could pursue mission. The core of determined members began to make our church "look like someone cares about it." The year 1997 was a turning point for St. Paul's.
St Paul's was promised an opportunity for an exciting future in June 2001, when the Diocesan Executive Council responded to a call from Bishop Sauls to redevelop the parish. The council approved a plan, not only to preserve St. Paul's and its ministries, but also to renovate the entire church facility. The cornerstone of the plan is the calling of a priest having the experience and skills to redevelop St. Paul's as a model for urban ministry. The priest will be paid by the diocese the first year; then the cost will be shifted to the parish by increments over the next four years. As a first step, consultant John Dally of the Seabury Institute visited St. Paul's and offered favorable comments and suggestions about the project. The Rev. Charles Ellestad began helping the parish search committee prepare a self-study.
Various proposals for renovation to accommodate new ministries, the child care center and a growing parish, are being considered independently and together. The child care center has studied ways to best serve its own clientele; the diocese is studying additional uses of a renovated church property for ministries, in keeping with the bishop's call for redevelopment; the vestry has focused on achieving access and accessible restrooms for church and parish house.
Conversations are underway with an Episcopal publishing house about relocating its editorial center in new and renovated space in the parish house. Ideas for ministering directly to the neighborhood include a crafts store, bookstore, and restaurant that would be frequented by our new neighbors and visitors, and would also serve as a job-training ministry to help the poor and disenfranchised share in the economic redevelopment of Newport.
St Paul's mission statement says we are to "minister to the neighborhood". We also want to reach beyond--including across the river--to expand our Episcopal presence and our ministry to the people of Greater Cincinnati.