Calvary Episcopal Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to give it the telling it deserves. Way out in Fort Bend County stands Calvary Episcopal Church, and friend, this congregation carries a story that reaches all the way back to the very birth of Texas itself. Episcopal missionaries were already pushing into this land soon after Texas gained its independence from Mexico.

That is not a congregation that arrived fashionably late. Then came 1859, and a man named Judge W. E.

Kendall decided something needed to be done about a proper building. Through his effort, the first church building was erected, and with that, the church became a parish. Think about what it took to make that happen on the Texas frontier.

Judge Kendall made it happen. Early clergy stepped up to lead the congregation, men like the Reverend Hannibal Pratt and the Reverend William T. Dalzell.

Those are names worth saying out loud, because they did the quiet, steady work that keeps a young church alive in a young land. And the membership, well, it was not exactly ordinary. Among those who counted themselves part of this congregation was Mirabeau B.

Lamar, statesman. That name rings through Texas history. Alongside him sat many descendants of the early Texas colonists, people whose families had already written themselves into the founding chapters of this place.

The marker calls it a rich heritage that provides a significant link to the early history of the Episcopal church in Texas. That is a careful, measured phrase, and it earns every word. Some congregations are young.

Some are old. And some carry the whole arc of a state's beginning right there in their walls.

What the marker says

This congregation grew out of Episcopal missionary efforts that began soon after Texas gained its independence from Mexico. In 1859, through the effort of Judge W. E. Kendall, the first church building was erected, and the church became a parish. Early clergy included the Rev. Hannibal Pratt and the Rev. William T. Dalzell. Members have included statesman Mirabeau B. Lamar and many descendants of early Texas colonists. The congregation's rich heritage provides a significant link to the early history of the Episcopal church in Texas. (1984)