A Resolution to include the name The Reverend Canon Thomas Wilson Stearly Logan Sr., D.D. in “A Great Cloud of Witnesses”
Resolved, the House of ____________ concurring, that this 80th General Convention instruct the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to review the name of The Reverend Canon Thomas Wilson Stearly Logan Sr., D.D. for inclusion in The Episcopal Church ‘s “A Great Cloud of Witnesses”; and be it further
Resolved, that the General Convention instruct the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to create collects and biographies for The Reverend Canon Thomas Wilson Stearly Logan Sr., D.D. and present these materials to the 81st General Convention for addition to “A Great Cloud of Witnesses”; and be it further
Resolved, that the General Convention request that the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance allocate $5,000 for the triennium for the implementation of this resolution.
Explanation:
Overview: Criteria for additions to A Great Cloud of Witnesses offers a wide and diverse collection of people from across Christian History and the Episcopal story. As our common life continues to unfold, new names will need to be added. These criteria provide guidelines for how these people will be considered.
Criterion 1: Historicity
The Reverend Canon Thomas Wilson Stearly Logan Sr., D.D. 1912-2012.
Born March 19, 1912, in Philadelphia, PA., the second son of the Reverend John R. Logan Sr. and Mary Harbison Logan, Thomas carried on many traditions of Christian and public service for which his parents and family generally were deeply respected, known, and loved.
A product of Philadelphia Public Schools, Thomas graduated from Lincoln University (PA.) in 1935 and earned his Bachelor of Sacred Theology from General Theological Seminary in May,1938. He and his older brother John Jr. were admitted to the deaconate on the same day, June 10, 1938, at Holy Apostles Church in Philadelphia, PA. and together into the priesthood on June 5, 1939, on the same day at St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia, PA.1
Rev. Thomas Logan was a deacon and curate at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church of New York City for a year and a half. He returned to Philadelphia on Jan. 1, 1940, to become the Vicar of the Chapel of St. Michael and All Angels which he helped to become a parish in the Diocese of PA. in May,1945. He was called to Calvary Episcopal Church, Northern Liberties, known as the “Monument to Bishop William White,” on September 9, 1945. The merger of Calvary and St. Michaels and All Angels was historical. It became one of the first interracial parishes in the Diocese of PA. Furthermore, the merger linked the ministry of Fr. Logan with Bishop White, who ordained the Rev. Absalom Jones, as the first African American priest in the Episcopal Church. Fr. Logan’s leadership in this merger foreshadowed his commitments to racial equality and inclusion of all peoples in a community of worshipers within “one body and one spirit.” (Ephesians 4).
Fr. Logan pastored at Calvary Northern Liberties for 38 years until 1983, when he reached the age for mandatory retirement. He then served as Associate Priest at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas and Rector Emeritus and Interim Priest at five Philadelphia parishes, and finally, continued his ministry outside of the church as Chaplain to Philadelphia hospitals and to other public service agencies.
As an advocate for social justice (Micah 6), Fr. Logan was committed to civil rights and to representing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He pursued this calling through various leadership roles in support of the faith. He held the prestigious position of president of the Hampton University Ministers Conference, begun in 1924, as a voice for African American clergy of all denominations to deepen their relationship to their churches and communities. He became the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Prince Hall Masons in 1968. In 1976, he was a founder of the African American Museum in Philadelphia and a president of the National Church Workers Conference, the forerunner of the Union of Black Episcopalians. He further served as a delegate to the 1995 Anglican Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. Moreover, he served on numerous boards including the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the Hero Scholarship Fund for Philadelphia Fire Fighters and Police Officers for the children of fallen public servants.
In general, the ministry of Fr. Thomas W.S. Logan, Sr. was courageous and prophetic. He was a man of color who transcended color to take the Gospel beyond Calvary Episcopal Church into a diverse community of organizations and groups where he could represent the Good News of the Triune God, guided by the Holy Spirit.
Criterion 2: Christian Discipleship
The most influential orientation to Christianity and to the ministry that Fr. Logan received came from within his family. His parents were devout members of the Episcopal Church. His father, the Rev. John R. Logan Sr., born in 1876, and his wife Mary Love Harbison, born in 1887, were blood relatives to Bishop Henry Beard Delany, the first elected African American Bishop in the Episcopal Church. From these family roots, Fr. John Logan Sr. believed that his life had been blessed with the birth of eight children, which included 6 sons and 2 daughters. His oldest son, John, Jr., became a priest and succeeded his father as the Rector of St. Simon the Cyrenian Episcopal Church in Phila. PA. Moreover, his younger brother, Thomas, according to family history, was placed on the altar at birth by his father and dedicated him to God in thanksgiving.
With the consecration of two sons into the Episcopal Church and its ministry, the Logan family is a historical witness to the Baptismal Covenant of belief and faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The family history also illustrates an intimacy within the family that serves as a source of inspiration to become Christians and to bear witness in a life serving Christ, one of the key principles found in the criteria throughout A Great Cloud of Witnesses.
Criterion 3: Significance
Serving his faith and the community, Thomas Logan built upon his father’s example. The senior Logan was called the “Pastor of the City” for his acts of ecumenicity with other preachers and denominations. His son became known affectionately as “Father Tom,” for similar participation and his warmth in greeting a wider community, while pursuing his calling. Part of the son’s gift of ministry (Galatians 5), was that his spiritual teachings and witness were so vibrant even at home that they stimulated his son, the grandson of Fr. John Logan Sr. to become an Episcopal priest also. And so, the Holy Spirit blessed the father with a vision of ministry for his son Fr. Tom Sr., who became an example to his son Thomas, Jr. (b. 1949) to pursue the priesthood. Thomas Jr. was in fact ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church on July 21, 1983, at the Church of St. Matthias, Philadelphia, PA. By God’s grace and blessings, the Logan family presented three generations of Episcopal priests, in one unbroken succession of ministry, to the Glory of God.
Furthermore, Fr. Tom Sr. was a visionary leader in various fraternal and civic organizations throughout his life. This was his public ministry in the sense that it led him into organizations where his presence represented a witness to the Good News of the Gospel. He was a member of two of the oldest historical fraternities for African American men, Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc. and Sigma Pi Phi (aka the Boule’). He belonged to the Frontiers International. In addition, he served as the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Prince Hall Masons of Pennsylvania and, further, as the Imperial Chaplain of the Shrine of North America, as well as being the Exalted Ruler of the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of the Elks of the World.
During the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement, Fr. Logan befriended the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. early in the Atlanta pastor’s campaign for equality and social justice. Logan marched in the movement and participated in fund-raising activities for Dr. King, whose work in non- violent direct action would lead him to receive international acclaim as the winner of 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Fr. Logan’s ministry courageously engaged both sacred and secular spaces. He served God as the Rector of what is now Calvary St. Augustine for 38 years and, as noted earlier, lead one of the diocese’s first integrated churches. Under him, Calvary was a base and a beacon to a challenged neighborhood. He was a central advocate for significant community development, including pre-school and after-school programs before this became a common activity in providing for underserved communities. After his death, the community, and elected officials within the City of Philadelphia paid tribute to his ministry in 2016 by naming the streets bordering Calvary St. Augustine Church as Logan Divinity Way.
During his life, Fr. Tom served as a member of many public organizations, which placed him in a position to represent the Triune God in settings outside of the church. The fact of the matter is that few members of the clergy in any denomination accepted more invitations to be a guest preacher and cross traditional ecumenical bridges than did Calvary Episcopal Church’s first priest.
In the Pennsylvania Diocese, Fr. Logan was well-known because of his values, and the joy and warmth of his personality. Fr. Tom left a leadership mark on many organizations. He was a member of the Restitution Fund Commission. He was a founder of the National Conference of Black Episcopalians, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and a lifetime member and president for ten years of what is now the Union of Black Episcopalians. He was also a past president of the Homeless Fund in Philadelphia.
Finally, when interviewed for a public history program and asked about his greatest accomplishment, he responded directly. None of the public service and social leadership roles superseded his ministry. He unhesitatingly declared that his greatest accomplishment was” dedicating his life to God, serving the church as a priest, and following the Master, Jesus Christ.” 2
Criterion 4: Range of Inclusion
Rev. Thomas Logan Sr.’s service to God and man in an ever - expanding way benefitted from the foundations of family examples, chiefly his father’s ministry, as they motivated him to act on how these activities of public service could deepen his service to God and mankind. Some of this vision was undoubtedly reinforced by conversations he had with his older brother, John Logan Jr., over the direction and purpose these life events meant for their father and what they might mean for each of them. Clearly, the Holy Spirit guided the Logan brothers to join each other in a spiritual walk with God. With their father present, the Logan brothers became deacons of the Episcopal Church on the same day, June 10, 1938.
The Logan family commitment to ministry and service, wrapped around the example of his father, legends, historical roots, and Episcopal Church history, stimulated Fr. Tom Logan, Sr. to respond to a calling from the Holy Spirit to the unchurched and into other faith groups. In this way, he extended his service to God that went beyond the conventional framework of church organizations into wider circles whereby his gifts from the Holy Spirit touched many. In reaching beyond the familiar, Fr. Tom Sr. embraced the world’s diversity. Furthermore, he acted on this vision of service by participating as a delegate in the wider Anglican communion to the Anglican Conference in Cape Town, South Africa in 1995, where the focus was on connecting the world of Anglican worshippers.
Criterion 5: Local Observance
Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), in Alexandria Virginia currently holds the historical photographs that Fr. Logan bequeathed to the Bishop Payne Library at VTS. The Seminary requested and he sent hundreds of photographs to the collection and some of his sermons. Its contribution to the collection is that it includes rare photographs of African American clergy and other workers who would remain, if not anonymous, without visual representation in church history. Beyond the academy, the leadership of Philadelphia memorialized his life and work for all by naming the streets bordering Calvary St. Augustine Logan Divinity Way in 2016.
Criterion 6: Perspective
By Faith, Fr. Tom was born into a family of believers in Christ, ministers to the church, and patriots to the country. His father, John R. Logan Sr., witnessed the marriage of his sister Alice Logan (1858-1912) to Louis P. Perry (1848-1917) in Danville, VA. Louis and Alice Perry raised the orphaned John R. Logan Sr., whose parents died when he was 13, along with their children in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Two of their sons became ministers. Rev. Robert N. Perry (1881- 1971) served as pastor to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church from 1905-1919 in Wilson, North Carolina. He also registered for the WWI draft from Wilson County. Robert finished his ministry at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Thomasville, Georgia. Westly J. Perry, his brother and sometimes listed in references as John Westly, served the Methodist Church as a “preacher,” according to the 1930 Federal Census.
By Faith, John Logan Sr., and his nephew Robert N. Perry both attended Bishop Payne Divinity School in Petersburg, VA. As noted earlier both went on to become ministers in the Episcopal Church. Moreover, John Sr.’s first cousin, Nanny Logan, married Henry Beard Delany who in 1918 became the first black person elected Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Bishop Delany and his wife Nanny were parents to ten children, including the well-known activists and celebrated centenarians, Sadie and Bessie Delany.
By Faith, Bishop Delany’s leadership of “Colored” Church Workers is a direct link to the ministry on Fr. Tom Logan. Logan served as president of the Conference of Church Workers Among Colored People from 1951-1956, the precursor of what is now the Union of Black Episcopalians. 3 The spiritual legacy can be heard earlier in 1912 when Bishop Delany in closing remarks as the president proclaimed the power of Christ at the annual “Conference of Church Workers Among Colored People.” He said:
If Christ has cleansed our inner lives, we need not fear to reach out and reclaim for Him the woman of the street or the man in the gutter. Indeed, if he has touched our lives we must help just such lost ones for whom he died...
In order to do this effectively we must beat down self, for selfishness destroys all the beauty and helpfulness of life, and only the love of the dear Master can expel it from the human heart. 4
Fr. Tom was aware of this history within the Episcopal Church because it was part of his experiences within the family history and the mission of the church. This was a legacy intersection where the natural and the spiritual bonded in righteousness. Often, these connections came from family gatherings at reunions and other special events. For example, Fr. Tom knew and visited his cousins the Delany sisters in Mt. Vernon, New York where these stories about their “Papa,” Bishop Delany, were frequently part of the conversations on family members whose influence passed on to succeeding generations.5
In sum, the family of Christ and the family of earthly parents and relatives offered an intimate and continuous voice from God to come and serve the Master.
And by Faith, Thomas W.S. Logan did.
Criterion 7: Combined Remembrances
Wherever references are made to Fr. Thomas Logan Sr, there will be a host of recognized religious, social, and historical affiliations accompanying him. At the time of his death in 2012, he was a centenarian who had lived through the exploration of space, the turbulence of social change to eliminate racism, xenophobia, along with gender and sexual biases. His ministry began with bringing people together into the house of God as one people abiding in one faith. The merger of St. Michaels and All Angels and Calvary Northern Liberties anticipated a much larger conversation about the role of the church in a multiracial society, stained by human bondage, caste and class systems, and slavery.
Fr. Tom Logan, Sr. pastored a congregation through the stormy 1960’s, walked with Dr. King and the Rev. Paul Washington of Philadelphia’s Church of the Advocate, and the well-known minister and social reformer of Philadelphia’s Zion Baptist Church, the Rev. Leon Sullivan, and other clergy activists. Fr. Logan witnessed the election of President Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States.
Fr. Logan’s participation was not just secular and political. It included the Episcopal church as well. Within it, his spiritual vitality and joyful activism contributed to the climate that made it possible for the appointment of women to the Episcopal clergy, beginning with the Rev. Pauli Murray, the first woman and the first African American woman to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal church in 1977 at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, PA. Fr. Logan was in attendance.
Led by his father’s example, Rev. John Logan, Sr., to enter seminary with his brother, Rev. John R. Logan Jr., and to the pulpit, where he inspired his son, Rev. Thomas Logan, Jr. to become an Episcopal priest, the Very Rev. Canon Thomas Wilson Stearly Logan, Sr. heard God’s word and celebrated God’s love for all mankind. His life expressed the word and deed found in Ephesians 4:5. He believed in “one Lord, one faith, and in one baptism.”
With this overview, the life and work of the Very Reverend Canon Thomas Wilson Stearly Logan, Sr. D.D. offers a deep and enlightening testimony of a life glorifying God through the ministry of the Episcopal Church.
It is for the reasons stated above that his name and work be listed in “A Great Cloud of Witnesses”.
Prepared by Dr. C. James Trotman, Member, Church of the Good Samaritan. Paoli, PA. January 2022
Professor Emeritus of English/Founding Director Frederick Douglass Institution West Chester University
REFERENCES
1 Unless otherwise noted, much of the information on Fr. Logan, and his family is located in the archives of the Philadelphia Tribune and in the archives of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Special thanks are extended to Mr. Mike Krasulski , historian at the PA. Diocese office, and to the Episcopal News Service. Also thanks to the family for their support and encouragement, especially to Mrs. Phyllis Logan Simms and to Mrs. Anita Hegamin Trotman for their knowledge of Logan family history.
2 “Rev. Thomas W.S. Logan Sr.: Greatest Accomplishment,” You Tube, April 29, 2010. The excerpt is part of a longer interview process under the direction of the National Visionary Leadership Project, nationally directed by Dr. Camille Cosby and journalist Mrs. Renee Poussaint. The interview took place at West Chester University (PA.). The program ‘s goal was to record the stories of leading African American seniors who had contributed to their communities and the nation. They were interviewed by students, under faculty supervision, for credit.
3 Mack, Daphne, “Thomas Logan, Paul Washington to be Honored at UBE’s 40th Gathering,” Episcopal Church News, June 4, 2008.
4 Beard, Bishop Henry, “President’s Annual Address”: Minutes of the 28th Annual Conference of Church Workers Among Colored People, Sept. 10-13,1912, Internet Archives of the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pg. 21.
5 Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth, Having Our Say: the Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. New York, 1993, Kondansha, America. pp. 65-77.