 |
| Detail of “St. John's Episcopal Church, Broadway and Royden Street, Camden, N.J.” postcard. St. John's initially supported St. Augustine's, and many decades later ownership of their building was transferred to St. Augustine’s. Public domain image, courtesy of dvrbs.camdenhistory.com. |
Very little published documentation exists about the life and ministry of the Rev. Eugene Leon Henderson, but it seems clear that he was the very first Black priest ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey.
He became a candidate for deacon’s orders on March 22, 1893 in the Diocese of North Carolina,[1] and his formal education occurred at Howard University in Washington D.C.[2] Ordained to the diaconate by the Rt. Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, the Bishop of North Carolina, in 1895,[3] Henderson became canonically resident in the Diocese of New Jersey in 1896,[4] and was installed as the missionary deacon of St. Augustine’s Church, Camden.[5] This mission was started and initially supported by St. John’s, Camden, under Rev. John H. Townsend in June 1888,[6] and had been led by white priests until that point. Bishop John Scarborough of New Jersey, who had long advocated for better support for African-American ministry in the diocese,[7] ordained Henderson to the priesthood on October 7, 1897. The ordination took place in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Camden.[8]
Henderson served St. Augustine’s as their priest, curate[9] through 1898 during this formative period of its growth.[10] He went on to serve in many young congregations across the United States, gaining a “national reputation for developing congregations.”[11] Among other places he served were St. Philip’s, Annapolis, Maryland, St. Luke’s, New Haven, Connecticut,[12] Chapel of the Holy Cross, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania,[13] St. Titus’, Durham, North Carolina,[14] and the Episcopal Church of the Atonement in Washington, D.C. For a time he also held the position of the “archdeaconship of colored work in Georgia,” based in Atlanta.[15] Moreover, he was a very influential priest in the life of Rev. Pauli Murray, who was a congregant of his in both North Carolina and Washington, D.C.
Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Research Historian
[1] Diocese of North Carolina, Journal of the Seventy-Seventh Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of North Carolina (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton, 1893), 14.
[2] Frederic E. J. Lloyd, ed., The American Church Clergy and Parish Directory for 1905 (Uniontown, PA: Frederic E.J. Lloyd, 1905), 146.
[3] George F. Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church (Baltimore: Church Advocate Press, 1922), 273.
[4] Formally received on September 9, 1896. Diocese of New Jersey, Journal of the Proceedings of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Convention, Being the One Hundred and Second Year of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New Jersey (Princeton: Princeton Press, 1887), 186.
[5] Diocese of New Jersey, Journal of the Proceedings of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Convention, 11, 79.
[6] Diocese of New Jersey, Journal of the Proceedings of the One Hundred and Seventeenth Convention, Being the One Hundred and Fourth Year of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New Jersey (Princeton: Princeton Press, 1889), 72.
[7] See, Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, “Bishop Scarborough’s Convention Address of 1890,” DNJRJR (January 1, 2024): https://dionj-racialjusticereview.blogspot.com/2024/01/bishop-scarboroughs-convention-address.html.
[8] Diocese of New Jersey, Journal of the Proceedings of the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth Convention, Being the One Hundred and Thirteenth Year of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New Jersey (Princeton: Princeton Press, 1898), 180. Eventually, the congregation of St. Augustine’s, Camden moved into St. John’s, Camden when the mostly white parishioners of St. John’s abandoned the church during the period of “white flight” that plagued Camden during the 20th century.
[9] Lloyd, The American Church Clergy and Parish Directory for 1905, 146.
[10] David R. King, Forward with Christ: A Bicentennial Historical Book (Trenton, NJ: The Diocesan Bicentennial Committee, 1985), 48.
[11] The Episcopal Church of the Atonement, “Our History,”: https://atonementepiscopaldc.org/our-history/.
[12] Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church, 108.
[13] Diocese of Pennsylvania, “Journal of the 136th Convention,” 284.
[14] The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, “Pauli Murray,”: https://www.episdionc.org/about-us/our-priorities/formation/north-carolina-saints/pauli-murray/.
[15] Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church, 109.
