St. Mark’s Parish Fights to Keep Their Rector
Prominent church members organize to persuade Reverend D.C. Garrett to decline outside offers and move the church away from pew-renting.
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About thirty-five leading men of St. Mark's Episcopal Church held a surprise meeting at the Chamber of Commerce on Monday evening to express their appreciation for their rector, Rev. D.C. Garrett. Having recently delivered a well-received address before the council of bishops in Chicago, Garrett had attracted attention and received several tempting offers from other parishes across the country. The members of St. Mark's, fearing his departure, organized to assure him of their moral and financial support. During the meeting, the group also discussed the church's finances, resolving to abandon the system of pew renting—where only those who could afford a seat had access to church services—in favor of a system of subscriptions, supporting Garrett's vision of making St. Mark's a free church for the entire community.
“The meeting also discussed the present plan of raising church revenue by means of pew renting, and it was the sense of the meeting that it should be abandoned.”
This 1893 debate over 'pew-renting'—the commodification of spiritual space—echoes today's struggles over whether civic and communal spaces should remain public or be gated behind membership fees and economic exclusion.
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