The year 2009 marks the 100th anniversary of the dedication of both the Rood Screen and the Pulpit.
The Rood Screen is unquestionably the most valuable Tiffany object in
the Nave, as it was actually designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany
(1848-1933), rather than having been designed by one of his employees
and then credited to him. It came from New York City three months
before it was dedicated in a special service on Friday, January 1, 1909.
The dedication was also a social event, and engraved invitations were
sent to everyone in Kansas City society.
The Rood Screen is a memorial to August Robert Meyer who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1851. His parents had come to America from Hamburg, Germany, many years before that. After his fathers untimely death in 1864, August received training in engineering in Switzerland, in the School of Mines in Freiberg, Saxony, Germany, and at the University of Berlin. When he returned to the United States, August worked briefly for a coal mining company in Illinois, and then set out on his own, traveling West. He set up an ore-crushing mill in Alma, Colorado, in 1875. His training and talents assisted him in making his fortune in Colorado.
August R. Meyer was one of three men who founded the city of Leadville, Colorado. After performing a critical survey of the land around Leadville, Mr. Meyer purchased thirty acres, and set up a mining operation. His fortune was assured when silver was found on his property. August Meyer continued mining the silver for several years, and then began to invest his wealth.
After carefully studying the railroads and commercial prospects of several "boom" towns, Mr. Meyer specifically chose Kansas City as his new home and as the base of operations for his various mining and smelting concerns in 1882. He became an important member of the Kansas City community, and was appointed to the first Parks Board in 1892, and then served as the first President of the Board of Park Commissioners. In 1893, Mr. Meyer and architect Adriance Van Brunt (1836-1913), who designed our Guild Hall in 1888, visited boulevard and parks systems in large cities on the East coast of the United States. They presented a report to the Parks Board, and then Mr. Meyer, along with the landscape architect, George E. Kessler (1862-1923), drafted the plan that was the basis for the boulevard system developed in Kansas City. Meyer Boulevard was named to honor Mr. Meyer's contributions in that regard.
One of the interesting things about this memorial gift is that Mr. Meyer was never a member of this Parish. While we have known for nearly twenty years that the Rood Screen was not originally designed for this building, it was only recently that the Meyer family's first choice was discovered. When he died at the age of 54, in December of 1905, August Meyer was a member of the First Congregational Church in Kansas City, and had served faithfully on its Board of Trustees. Four days after his death, the First Congregational Church merged with Clyde Congregational Church, and they set about building a new church at the intersection of Admiral Boulevard and Highland Avenue. It was there in that new building that the children of August Meyer intended for this magnificent liturgical object to stand.
According to architectural experts in Kansas City, the structure built by the merged Congregational churches from 1906 through 1908 was, for sixty years, the most magnificent church in Kansas City. However, the Congregationalists are rooted in the Puritan movement, and dont care for anything reminiscent of Catholicism. When the children of August Meyer attempted to present their memorial gift to the First Congregational Church, its Board of Trustees soundly rejected the gift.
The children visited with Julius Augustus Schaad (1866-1938), the rector of Grace Church in 1907. This meeting came about because one of the Meyer daughters, Agnes (1884-1947), and her husband, Henri M. C. Low (1878-1970), were members of this Parish. They asked the rector if Grace Church would accept the gift, and he assured them that it would. Shortly after the meeting, the widow, Emma Jane Hixon Meyer (1857-1932), joined Grace Church, and was very active, including donating several chairs for use by the Bishop and other clergy in the Chancel in 1928.
If you look closely at the Rood Screen, you will see that it is not actually tall enough for the arch in which it stands at the top of the Chancel steps. Tiffany and his workmen compensated for that by adding another cross at the peak of the Rood Screen, and they used that to anchor the Screen at the top.
A rood screen is an ornamental partition that separates the Nave from the Chancel, and its use dates to the Middle Ages. "Rood" was the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "cross". It is symbolic of the veil in the Temple of Jerusalem, which was rent in two from top to bottom at the moment of Christ's death on the cross. The cross in the center of the Rood Screen represents atonement, and the large opening in the middle, coupled with the slender, almost invisible support columns, presents an unhindered approach to the Divine Presence. It is made of wrought iron and bronze, with liberal gilding and painting. Sections of the screen are painted midnight blue to mimic unpainted cast iron. The Rood Screen is 30 feet wide by 45 feet tall and is six inches thick. When it was installed, it was said to be the finest piece of ecclesiastical artwork West of the Mississippi River. It cost $10,000 in 1908, which was one-tenth the cost of building the Nave from 1893 through 1895.
The Pulpit is a memorial to William Bingham Clarke, who was a member
of the Parish for many years before his death. He was born in Ohio
in 1848, and was educated and graduated as an attorney. He was
admitted to the Ohio bar in 1869, and in 1871 was sent to Abilene,
Kansas, to oversee the opening of a bank, and he decided to remain in
Kansas. In 1872, he moved to Junction City, Kansas, where he
opened the First National Bank of Kansas.
Mr. Clarke was a shrewd businessman, and made many wise investments. He bought out the other shareholders in the First National Bank of Kansas, and it became known as "The Banking House of W. B. Clarke". His wealth and good fortune grew each time he became involved in a company or project. When he moved to Kansas City in 1886, he set up the United States Trust Company. He began investing in Kansas City real estate. He was involved financially with the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company, and later became its president. During this period, he controlled the entire output of salt production at Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a shareholder in several railroad building projects and was President of the Meyer-Clarke-Rowe Mines Company, with his friend, August R. Meyer. He was the driving force behind the establishment of Mount Washington Cemetery and its Association in 1900.
In addition to his business activities, Mr. Clarke was very involved in the work of this Parish and the Diocese. He served as Junior Warden for several years, beginning in 1893. He also was a representative of Grace Church to the national Triennial Congress of the Episcopal Church in 1891, 1894, and 1897, and he served as Treasurer of the Diocese of West Missouri.
While in Junction City, Mr. Clarke met Kate Rockwell (1857-1946), and they were married on June 8, 1876. This is an important connection because Kate was the sister of Captain Bertrand Rockwell (1844-1930). Captain Rockwell and his wife Julia (1850-1947), who had lived for thirty years in Junction City, were looking to relocate to a larger city in the early 1900s when Mr. Clarke died, leaving Kate a widow. Undoubtedly, Captain and Julia Rockwell moved to Kansas City to be close to his newly widowed sister. Julia Rockwell was the first historian of Grace Church, and later Grace and Holy Trinity Church and Cathedral. It was directly due to her efforts in the late 1920s that so much of the information regarding the memorial gifts was recorded and preserved in the Cathedral Archives.
In January of 1905, Mr. Clarke's health began to deteriorate, and he was diagnosed as being severely overworked. While he traveled to California with his wife and one of his sons in an attempt to recover, his illness continued, and he died on February 24, 1905.
After the death of William Bingham Clarke, his wife and two sons made a trip to New York City. There, in the new showrooms of the Gorham Company, they purchased this magnificent pulpit for Grace Church. The pulpit is an adaptation of the Canterbury Ambo in the Washington National Cathedral. While that pulpit is stone, and is covered with beautiful carvings depicting seven men who were instrumental in the translation of the Bible into vernacular English, this pulpit from the Gorham Foundry is more simple. Its bronze statues depict the four Gospel writers.
The Pulpit was dedicated on Sunday, April 4, 1909. This elegant product of the Gorham Foundry has served as the pulpit for countless sermons since that first Sunday morning in April, 1909, a century of sermons! What blessed feet have stood here! Bishop Desmond Tutu (b. 1931), whose leadership in the face of adversity rivals that of St. Paul, stood here in 1990. Great leaders of the Episcopal Church have visited this Parish and have spoken to us from that very spot. But most of all, let us collectively remember the wonderful sermons that we have heard each Sunday down through the years. The Pulpit has also been a font, from which many blessings have flowed.
Article by Randal Loy
Photos by Bruce Mathews
