From the collection of Margaret “Cookie” Cook
Tag Archives: HIV/AIDS
Notice of a Weekly Hour of Prayer for Those Who Have Dealt and All Those Who are Dealing with AIDS and ARC at Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany (1987)
The Clucas Memorial Stole of the Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany (1987)
Rose Sunday at the Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany means Rev. Rodger Broadley celebrates the service vested in a rose stole. I was unfamiliar with the history of the rose stole until Rodger made reference to it in his sermon. The stole was made by the mother of Lowell Clucas III (1944-1986), who was most likely the first congregant at the Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany to die from AIDS-related complications. A year after his tragic death, his mother presented this stole to the parish. I suspect very few at SLATE would recognize the name Lowell Clucas. It is up to us today to remember Lowell, as well as the many others like him whose lives were tragically cut short. More about Lowell’s life, including a picture, can be found on here.
AIDS and Religion: The Philadelphia Response [Sections Related to the Episcopal Church] (1988)
Photograph of a Group from Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany and Martin Sheen at the Burning Bush AIDS Hospice (1989)
Leaflet for the AIDS Ecumenical Prayer Service at Trinity Memorial Church (1987)
Gay Ministry Program at Trinity Memorial Church – Tenth Month Report to the Bishop of Pennsylvania (late 1980s)
13th Street in the Time of AIDS: A Leaf from the Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany Burial Register (1990-1992)
The third volume of the parish register of the Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany (SLATE) is a curious historical document. Spanning the 1970s-2000s, the register is very light on baptisms, rather light on marriages, very heavy with confirmations, and packed with funerals. As interesting as parish registers are, the SLATE burials are an especially vital historical artifact to the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Philadelphia as Chris Bartlett, Executive Director of the William Way Center, found. As reported in the New York Times, “Beginning in 2005, Mr. Bartlett began assembling the names of every gay male Philadelphian who died after being diagnosed with H.I.V. or AIDS, searching obituaries and the Names Project registry of people commemorated by the AIDS quilt, combing through records of social clubs and the rosters at St. Luke and the Epiphany, the Philadelphia church that took on the task at the epidemic’s height of “burying the people no one else would,” Mr. Bartlett said (2009).”
I took this photo about a year ago. The burial register is designed to span two pages, the identifies of these men can be found on the left (which I did not photograph). You will also notice gaps in the dates as well as burials out of sequence. Due to the large number of burials, the parish administrator assumed the task of recording them in the register. Many were not initially recorded, thus requiring supplemental pages to be added. I did not photograph those supplemental pages.
Personally, I find this image to be a powerful reminder/memorial. I took this photograph at age 36. Many of these men were “my age” at the time of their deaths. To read these names was…well let’s just leave it at that.