The Scandal at St. Mary’s
A Seattle Episcopal rector faces a congregation-led revolt after rumors of 'immoral practices' turn an ordinary service into a chaotic public showdown.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A great extraordinary and dramatic scene was enacted at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, one of the oldest and formerly the most fashionable in the city, when the rector, the Rev. Henry D. Jardine, attempted to conduct services. He has been rector of St. Mary's for the past six years, and has been one of the most advanced men in the Episcopal Church. Public sentiment has been intensely wrought up against Jardine owing to charges made against him of immoral practices, and but for the presence of police in the church in large numbers he would undoubtedly have been dragged from that pulpit and tarred and feathered. When Jardine appeared at the altar the congregation acted like a hostile mob. In reading the Lessons, he read the Seventh Commandment, when he was met with a storm of derisive laughter, stamping of feet and cries of 'Shut up, Satan!' As soon as quiet had been in a measure restored he proceeded in a clear tone and with painful distinctness to read: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness.' This did not have the desired effect and was received with hisses. The congregation, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' and set forth thunderous applause, which exceeded in volume the outbursts that preceded it. As the rector ceased speaking and turned to kneel at the altar, he was again greeted with derisive cries. All through the services, the congregation continued to express their bitter and hostile feelings, the exhibition being a singular spectacle of a religious body calling their pastor 'guilty' of 'immoral, prejudiced conduct.'
“When Jardine appeared at the altar the congregation acted like a hostile mob.”
While the specific 'immoral practices' remained coded, the public fury reflects a familiar Seattle dynamic: moralizing in the pews turning into a civic mob. St. Mary’s has long since evolved, but the intersection of personal reputation, religious authority, and public outcry remains a constant theme in Seattle's civic history.
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