Message from Wickford, Rhode Island, USA. Part 1.

We were recently contacted by someone who lives in Wickford, Rhode Island, and who knows our Wickford through contact with St. Catherine’s Church.  Part of the e-mail is reproduced below:

“My name is Pat Carlson, and I currently bear the somewhat dubious title of “archivist” at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wickford, Rhode Island, USA. The connection between our parish and St. Catherine’s in Wickford, Essex, is of long standing. We supplied “care” packages during the wars, and we have, under different rectors, had an even closer association. My own father, the Rev. Canon Frederick H. Belden (later Bishop Belden), participated in a “pulpit swap” with the Rev. Mr. Prance in 1968. The curates exchanged places two years later. I have enjoyed many visits to Wickford to see friends first made in those days. My husband and I last visited in 2006.

At St. Paul’s, we are currently going through all of our historical documents in an effort to get everything catalogued and properly stored. In the process, I have come across a bound copy of the Parish Magazine for Wickford, Essex dated 1897. Would you have any interest in having this material?”

The copies of the 1897 magazines were gratefully accepted and we hope to further explore this established connection between the two Wickfords.