Historic Artifact Found at St. Philip’s
/On Sunday, December 15, St.Philip’s Church in the Highlands celebrated a return to regular worship services as extensive renewal and restoration work on the historic Gothic structure was completed.
The following day, Sammy Pavic, contractor with Resolution 4 Builders, was policing up outside construction work when he came across an undisturbed area under a porch structure. From a dark corner, he extracted a long carved wooden stick. Thinking it was perhaps part of the church’s outdoor creche scene, Pavic contacted his father, contractor Kris Pavic, and Jan Anderson, the church member in charge of the restoration project.
“I could see it was quite old,” recalls Anderson. “And there was a plaque on the handle. We couldn’t decipher it at first, but finally were able to see the script clearly. It reads: 'Used at the Consecration of St. Philip's Church in the Highlands A.D.1862.' Anderson and the Pavics were looking at a Bishop’s crozier - a traditional staff based on a shepherd’s crook - that is at least 157 years old.
St. Philip’s began as a wooden structure in 1770. Destroyed during the American Revolution and rebuilt, its congregation resolved in the mid-1800s to construct a new stone edifice. Designed by famed architect Richard Upjohn, the beautiful stone structure began construction in May 1861. A year later, it was ready for consecration. On May 1, 1862, the Feast of St.Philip and St. James, the consecration was carried out by the Bishop of New York, Horatio Potter.
Bishop Potter was a highly respected prelate in the Episcopal Diocese of New York and served as Bishop from1854 to 1887. Born in La Grange, he was a strong abolitionist, a founder of Bard College, and obtained the original charter for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The crozier that Bishop Potter used at the consecration would have been presented to the Rector at the close of the 1862 ceremonies.
The crozier will next be evaluated by antiques restoration expert Philip Guttridge. At some point, it will go on display. “No one has seen this crozier in living memory,” reports Anderson. ”How the crozier ended up hidden away for many years we can’t explain. But its appearance right now, when we have just celebrated a major renewal of this beautiful church, feels like a true blessing.”