St. Philip's Episcopal Mission, c. 1873–1902 — The Church That Became the Brethren's

c. 1873 – 1902

The town's third church of 1880 was an Episcopal mission founded about 1873 through a lay physician's efforts; it is defunct, and its building passed to the Church of the Brethren. Chapman says only that "the Episcopalians also built a church a few years ago," and Howard that they came "a little later" than 1868. The full narrative is the Diocese of Northern Indiana's own archive, read whole: "St. Philip's Mission was founded in St. Joseph County about 1873 under Bishop Talbot and through the efforts of Dr. Sylvester Laning, a layman who became a licensed lay reader." The Rev. George Magill of St. Paul's, La Porte, had done earlier missionary work at North Liberty, with no building mentioned. "A frame church was erected through Laning's efforts in 1873" — a December 1873 newspaper account quoted by the archive calls it "a fine specimen of Gothic architecture," with a furnace and seating for 200, in a town of "only 600 people." An engraving of the new building appeared in the 1875 illustrated atlas of the county, whose index lists the view as "St. Phillip's Church" — the atlas spells the name with a double l, the diocesan archive with one, and both spellings print as their carriers print them. A Ladies Aid Society existed by 1873, and North Liberty High School held classes in the nave during the week. In 1877 Dr. Laning "sold the church building and property to the diocese" and later moved to Kingman, Kansas. The mission "was not consecrated until July 1885" by Bishop David Knickerbacker, Talbot's successor, "perhaps because it was still in debt." In 1892 the church was struck by lightning and severely damaged. In 1894 the Rev. Walter Scott of Bristol was given charge of it, together with New Carlisle, and the Rev. Clarence Brandt, missionary at New Carlisle, did some pastoral work there. The mission was still listed when the Diocese of Michigan City was created, but no parish report was ever filed; its surviving records run only 1890–1894. The archive closes the course: "In 1902 the church property was sold and later became the Church of the Brethren in North Liberty." The Brethren's own history gives the purchase year as 1903; the conflict prints whole under the Brethren article below and is not resolved here. No Episcopal congregation stands at North Liberty today.