Secession in Savannah

St. John's Episcopal Church in Savannah, founded in 1840, is the largest and richest parish in the diocese of Georgia, which encompasses the southern half of the state. It has also been steadfastly segregated. But the Episcopal Church's Canon 16, as amended last October at the General Convention in St. Louis, bans the exclusion of any member from worship in any parish on racial grounds. Rather than obey the ruling, St. John's is leaving the Episcopal Church.

"I believe that integration is contrary to God's will," says the Rev. Ernest Risley, 59, Pennsylvania-born rector of St. John's for 29 years. Since his installation, he has refused to admit Negroes to worship--except for servants attending a family wedding or funeral--on the ground that those who show up at the door want to make a political point rather than pray.

"I'll Resign." Georgia's Bishop Albert Rhett Stuart tolerated St. John's segregated worship until the revision of Canon 16, which by last January led the other six white Episcopal churches in Savannah to open their doors to Negroes. Hoping to forestall a struggle, Bishop Stuart in March summoned Risley to his office, urged him to yield, suggested that he could lay the blame on Stuart. "I'll resign as a minister before I'll allow Negroes in St. John's," answered Risley.

On Easter Sunday four Negroes, accompanied by Atlanta's Father John Morris, white executive director of the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity, were barred by ushers from entering the church. Two days later, St. John's vestry agreed that they had the choice of obeying Canon 16 or disassociating from the church, decided to put the matter to a vote by the 1,400-member congregation. By 785 to 75, with 125 absentee ballots still to be counted, the members voted to secede. After the vote, Father Risley submitted his resignation from the ministry to Stuart on the ground that the church was "embarking upon new canonical requirements which cannot lead to anything but heartbreak and sorrow."

"I Wasn't Able to Sleep." The heartbreak and sorrow came as he predicted, but chiefly because St. John's thus made itself the only Episcopal church in the U.S. unable to accept the decision of its spiritual leaders. Many of the parishioners broke into tears when the vote was announced, and even those who plan to follow Risley on his independent course are troubled about what they have done.

"I wasn't able to sleep or do any work," admits Senior Warden W. Hunter Saussy, a vice president and trust officer of the Savannah Bank & Trust Co. "I don't think any of us were happy."

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