In his evident great zeal and anxiety, the Commissary was warmly followed by the Rev. Mr. Zorabuhler of Frederica, under whom that parish was fixed to include the “Town of Frederica, with the islands of Great and Little St. Simon’s, and the adjacent islands,” and the name changed to St. James’.
Throughout the Revolutionary period, the Missions were probably served from Savannah. Recovery from the disasters of war was very slow, and it was not until after the consecration of Bishop Elliott, in 1841, that the Church became organized for work. Only three clergymen were in Georgia to organize the primary Convention of the Diocese, in 1823.
In his first address to this Convention, Bishop Elliott said: “The religious instruction of our domestics, and of the Negroes upon plantations, is a subject that never should be passed over in the address of a Southern Bishop.” Six years later, he enlarged upon what he deemed to be a worthy ministry to them. He spoke from experience.
“During the last week, I visited the mission upon the north side of the Ogeeche River, under the charge of the Rev. William C. Williams. A neat country church has been erected by some of the planters of that side of the river, which was sufficiently completed for service but not for consecration. I officiated in it on Sunday, the 18th of April, when eight candidates were presented for Confirmation, the first fruits of the earnest labor of their missionary. Mr. Williams is pursuing the only plan that will be of any service with this class of our population, identifying himself with their spiritual condition, and going in and out among them as their pastor and guide. It is my earnest hope that our Episcopal planters will take this matter into consideration, and make arrangements for the employment of missionaries of their own Church, so that Masters and Servants may worship together in unity of spirit and in the bond of peace. It would tend very much to strengthen the relation of Masters and Servants, by bringing into action the highest and holiest feelings of our common nature. There should be much less danger of inhumanity on the one side, and of insubordination on the other, between parties who knelt upon the Lord’s day around the same Table and were partakers of the same Communion.”
The Ogeeche Mission has an interesting history of continuous life from 1847 to the present day. It is ten miles from Savannah in the heart of the then great rice fields, where two Churches—St. Mark’s the first, and still used, and St. Barnabas’, now decayed—were built. The Negroes were utterly illiterate, and remained so until about 1890, when Mr. Dodge built a school, and the younger ones were taught. The Services were committed to memory by that very large congregation, and the responses were, and are, “as the sound of many waters”; the singing, like a great organ. No instrument was used. The “clark” for about fifty years was a very big, commanding, black member with magnificent voice, who, at the proper time for chant or hymn, stood before the congregation, sounded the note, raised the tune, and both led and inspired the singers. The habit still continues.
The Rev. Mr. Winn, for a long time their rector, wrote this tribute in November, 1921. “They knew the Service and took part in a way to make one’s heart glow, and which would put any white city congregation to shame. To minister to and among them was an inspiration, even though physical conditions as to locomotion, etc., were trying. I have dealt with Negroes from the time of my ‘black Mammy’ Molinda, who was ‘no common nigger’ but a ‘Molly glossy nigger,’ having come from Madagascar; but while I could understand anything said to me while looking the speaker in the face and paying close attention, yet, when one of them spoke to another, it was mostly an unknown tongue to me.
“Bishop Nelson, late of Georgia, said that a Service among those rice-field Negroes was the most splendid thing he ever experienced. That was my experience also; for, excepting the great procession and Service at the laying of the corner-stone of the Washington Cathedral, some eighteen years ago, there has not been, in my 41 years of ministry, any approach to the joy of a Service among those Negroes. It was not merely enthusiasm—I could arouse that among any congregation of Negroes—it was apprehension, appreciation, and the outpouring of the soul.”
There is perhaps no congregation in the South upon which the ravages of war had so little effect. Later changes have greatly reduced their number, but the old habits remain. The offering is still, in part, eggs or other farm produce as reverently offered as the money and coins in the silver alms-basins of the city-church.