Describing itself as “Charlevoix the Beautiful,” the city sits on the lower peninsula of Michigan at the junction of Round Lake with Lake Michigan – about one hundred seventy-five miles north of Grand Rapids and nearly three hundred miles from Detroit. Round Lake leads to Lake Charlevoix, lined by what locals call “cottages” and boathouses. In the warmer months, the main thoroughfare called Bridge Street is lined by hanging baskets of petunias.¹ This reviewer remembers when the verge between the automotive traffic and sidewalk along both sides of the street was planted chock full with petunias, but cost-saving measures have reduced this to just the hanging baskets in recent years. The city is divided by the canal that connects the smaller lake with the great one, and a drawbridge links the two sections. Frequent in summer, the raising of the bridge results in not inconsiderable traffic congestion on the busy main street, which is also U.S. Highway 31. In 2022, the bridge was closed for hours due to a bomb threat, but this proved to be a hoax.² Bridge Street is lined on its western side with shops and restaurants, but the eastern side is mostly marina and parkland.

Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix – a French Jesuit priest, explorer, and historian who traveled the Great Lakes in the early eighteenth century – is considered the first historian of New France, which included all of the Great Lakes until it was ceded to Great Britain and Spain in 1763.3 (Michigan would not be admitted to the union as a state until 1837.) Charlevoix (pronounced by the locals “Shar-le-voy”) is home today to a population of fewer than 3,000 souls, which swells many times over in summertime.⁴

Christ Episcopal Church, Charlevoix, Michigan (photograph by the author).

The population of surrounding Charlevoix County grows by almost half each summer;⁵ the discrepancy between permanent residents and summer visitors in the city itself is likely even higher. The northwestern part of Michigan’s lower peninsula has long welcomed tourists, particularly in the summer. Arriving by steamship or railroad, many moguls of the Midwest came from Detroit, St. Louis, and Chicago to escape the summer heat in the nineteenth century. For example, the Chicago Club – founded by members of the First Congregational Church in Chicago – describes itself thus:

The Chicago Summer Resort Company (also known as The Chicago Club) is a thirty-one-cottage association located on approximately forty acres within the City of Charlevoix, Michigan, and fronting on two lakes. Founded in 1881, the campus features beautiful grounds, four tennis courts, and a century-old clubhouse with a living room, dining room, and library. During season, dinner is served in our dining room on Sunday evenings and on occasional Saturdays. Members and renters enjoy a seven-acre scenic reserve island with walking trails, and a beachfront on Lake Charlevoix that includes a swimming dock, seasonal boat docks, a cabana, and other beach facilities, with a lifeguard on duty.⁶

The area served as summer home to the young Ernest Hemingway, whose family had a rustic cottage on nearby Walloon Lake. He affectionately referred to the city as “‘Voix.”⁷ Charlevoix is also home to a number of “mushroom houses,” designed and built by local realtor Earl A. Young (1889-1975). More than thirty of these stone structures with undulating cedar-shake roofs line Park Avenue, Boulder Avenue, and other locations.⁸ The city hosts an annual cherry festival and briefly boasted the honor of baking the world’s largest cherry pie. A monument to this, the gigantic pan still stands.⁹

Just outside the city proper, the Greensky Hill Indian United Methodist Church traces its history to a Native American called Shagasokicki – also known as Peter Greensky (1807-1866) – a Chippewa chief who converted to Christianity and founded the mission in 1844.¹⁰ The original unpainted wooden church seats about eighty. Some of Shagasokiki’s descendants still attend this church.

Charlevoix today also boasts an extraordinary public library.¹¹ Formerly serving as a school, the building was converted in 2006 in a partnership that included tax revenue and some two million dollars in private donations. In 1878, Charlevoix felt a sense of disgrace as it had no library. It first used the upstairs of a pool hall and cigar factory, and graduated through a modest Carnegie library into today’s complex facility, which includes a youth play area, a large room for community events, and a computer center. Thus, the current building serves as a major venue for public gatherings. For instance, your reviewer met Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg there as part of a failed attempt to elect local progressive candidates in 2022.

Charlevoix is also the location from which one embarks on a ferry to Beaver Island, less than thirty miles out in Lake Michigan – a journey lasting two hours. On this island in 1844, one Joseph Strang claimed to have been appointed the successor of Joseph Smith as leader of the Mormon church. After serving in the Michigan House of Representatives, Strang had himself proclaimed king (not just of the island but of the Kingdom of God), wearing a red flannel robe and tin crown. The island and its seasonal chapel may one day be covered in these pages.¹²

In 2019, the congregation of Christ Church celebrated the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding. In a sermon preached on that occasion, the rector said this:

The economic depression that came to be known as the Panic of 1893 lasted for four years and was the worst at that point in American history. In all, over 500 banks failed, and almost 20,000 businesses declared bankruptcy. The unemployment rate in the state of Michigan was estimated to be as high as forty-five per cent. So what happened in the midst of all this economic dislocation and seeming hopelessness? Some crazy Episcopalians in Charlevoix, Michigan, decided to build a church.¹³

The priest connected the somewhat astounding circumstances under which the parish was founded with its current mission statement.¹⁴ Noting that the Diocese of Western Michigan’s population was half what it had been thirty years earlier, he mentioned the pending merger with the Diocese of Eastern Michigan—currently in progress.

He also mentioned that, in the early 2000s, “the people of Christ Church did it again,”¹⁵ and the congregation built a parish hall. This structure includes an elevator, a modern kitchen, a coffee station, a children’s play area, and accessible washrooms. Its connection to the church building may seem odd, but no other solution presented itself. When one stands in the church looking at the altar, the sacristy is found through a door on the right; this opens into the rector’s office, and that opens into the parish hall. On the left of the chancel, just past the organ console, is a larger corridor leading to the hall. After worship, most parishioners head up the aisle and into the parish hall, not outside through the narthex’s tower doors.

The white-painted church is of Carpenter Gothic style. Founded initially as a summer mission, Christ Church did not conduct worship year-round until 1942. By 1953, the mission presented a class of fourteen children for confirmation, and in the late 1960s, there were more than fifty children in the Sunday School. A photograph documents a mixed choir and a boy choir in 1956. The mission became a parish in 1980. Throughout all of this time, the population of Charlevoix never exceeded three thousand persons.¹⁶

The inside of the church has pews in the nave, and the chancel has room for just two chairs. The choir sings from one transept, and the electronic organ occupies the other. Behind the altar, inset in a wooded reredos, one finds five paintings entitled Shepherds on the Great Night. These were the work of a Chicago Club member.¹⁷ The altar has been moved forward about three feet so that the priest may preside across it, facing the people. Above the paintings there are five windows, now illuminated artificially, as the parish hall building abuts them. These and other stained-glass windows are abstract, not representational, and they provide pleasant hues of color during morning worship.

As to details of this modern-language Holy Eucharist: Arriving at about 9:35 a.m. for the ten-o’clock service, this reviewer finds the tower doors to the church locked; ditto one other side door. A fourth door – leading to a stairway to the parish hall – is, however, open. Entering here, a group of twenty or more are found busily preparing for a luncheon to follow the service. After several greeting and orientation moments and a brief kerfuffle about the color of the paraments, the service begins.

First, the organ plays a prelude, which is listed in the bulletin as I Vow to Thee by Gustav Holst (1874-1934). This is the hymn tune known as THAXTED, which was adapted from the “Jupiter” movement of The Planets by Holst. The familiar tune sets a poem by Cecil Spring-Rice (1859-1918); the poem is a patriotic musing about England, although it does not specifically mention that country by name. It has been programmed, perhaps, because the week coming includes the Veterans’ Day holiday, although the text would be more appropriate for our Memorial Day.¹⁸ Readers may never know for sure, as the organist has recently departed for southern climes for the winter. In his absence, he remotely programs the electronic organ to play music each week and has a parishioner cue the musical selections.

Next, a lay woman moves to the lectern and welcomes everyone – including today’s guest priest – and announces the opening hymn, which is “For all the saints” (SINE NOMINE, the rousing tune by Ralph Vaughan Williams—1872-1958). Sadly, the organist has programmed only four of the eight stanzas in The Hymnal 1982, so “soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest” and “But, lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day” will not be sung today. During the hymn, the priest and a server process down the aisle. There is no choir today. The church is comfortably full with perhaps fifty in attendance in a space with the capacity to hold about a hundred. There are even a few worshippers in the upstairs gallery at the rear.

After the Opening Acclamation and Collect for Purity, all sing the Gloria in excelsis to the familiar Robert Powell setting. During this, the organ inexplicably cuts out, but the congregation continues to sing with gusto. The priest then proclaims the Collect of the Day, which is for All Saints’ Day. The prayer book does prescribe that “All Saints’ Day may also be observed on the Sunday following November 1, in addition to its observance on the fixed date.”¹⁹ That language – like that of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution – proves sufficiently vague as to allow the prevailing current practice, whereby All Saints’ Day is observed on the Sunday following November 1, but not observed on the fixed date. The noted liturgist and church historian William H. Petersen refers to this as “a peculiarity of Anglicans.”²⁰

All are seated fora reading from the Book of the Daniel (7:1-3, 15-18): “the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever.” After this, Psalm 149 is recited responsively – sadly by half verse, wreaking violence on the poetry.

The psalm reading concludes with the Gloria Patri, something the late Marion Hatchett would abhor.²¹ Next follows a reading from the Blessed Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (1:11-23): “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance.” All stand to sing “I sing a song of the saints of God” (GRAND ISLE). This is fortunate, as the guest priest will reference the poem’s author, Lesbia Scott (1898-1986), in his sermon. The other saints referenced will include Rumwold²² and a woman in the congregation who is turning ninety today.²³

Before the sermon, of course, the priest proclaims the Beatitudes (Luke 6:20-31) from the center of the chancel. After the sermon, all stand to recite the Nicene Creed. This is followed by the Prayers of the People (Form II), the Confession and Absolution, and the Peace. In place of a choir anthem, the congregation remains seated to sing “As saints of old their first-fruits brought,” listed as “Blue Hymnal 570.” Christ Church is among those still possessing The Hymnal 1982 in red livery, and the blue color refers to Worship and Rejoice, which the Methodist house Hope Publishing prints. The tune is the familiar FOREST GREEN.

Listed next in the bulletin is the Doxology, meant to be sung to the tune Lasst uns Erfreuen. The gentleman operating the organ, however, is unable to coax it to play anything, so the lay minister leads the congregation in the OLD HUNDREDTH. Before proclaiming Eucharistic Prayer A, the priest reads the list of names of the dearly departed, praying that they, and all the departed, through the mercy of God, may rest in peace. The Sanctus is sung in the Schubert setting. The organist recorded this at a very brisk tempo, so fast as to have just one beat per measure instead of three. This renders some of the harmony parts unmanageable. At the end of the prayer, the priest is surprised to hear the congregation sing “Amen,” which the organ accompanies.

After a recitation of the traditional form of the Lord’s Prayer, the priest breaks the bread – two small loaves of actual bread. He then proclaims the Pascha nostrum and invites the people to communion, which is served at the altar rail with the people mostly kneeling. During communion, some in the congregation sing various selections from Worship and Rejoice, “One bread, one body” and “Come, share the Lord.” After the first Post-Communion Prayer, the priest blesses the people in the All Saints form from the Book of Occasional Services, and all stand to sing “Rise up, ye saints of God!” (FESTAL SONG).

Following the hymn, the laywoman whose job it is today to make announcements, has congratulatory words for the women’s guild, whose harvest fair the previous day raised some four thousand dollars. This news is met with applause. The priest then offers a prayer for the birthday of the ninety-year-old (“O God, our times are in your hand”). He is surprised to have most of the congregation recite it along with him from memory. He then dismisses the people and moves to the corridor leading into the parish hall. The previous week, he stood in the narthex to greet people leaving that way, but no one did.

As the people move into the luncheon of quiche, salad, fruit, and festive drinks, the organ plays Trumpet Solo by “Roman.” While Charlevoix is far from your typical rural community, this congregation nevertheless faces challenges due to diminishing size – part-time clergy and pre-recorded music preeminently among them. However, the people of Christ Church face these with humor and a steadfast commitment to hold fast to the profession of their faith.

J. Barrington Bates                                        Harbor Springs, Michigan

¹ For more information on the “Keep Charlevoix Beautiful” efforts, see http://www.keepcharlevoixbeautiful.org/the-petunia-story.html, accessed 14 November 2022.
² https://www.petoskeynews.com/story/lifestyle/public-safety/2022/08/12/fbi-joins-hunt-find-charlevoix-bomb-hoax-suspect/10307036002/, accessed 18 November 2022.
³ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_France, accessed 14 November Land Policy Institute, Michigan State University 2022.
⁴ https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/charlevoix-mi-population, accessed 14 November 2022.
⁵ Mary Beth Graebert, Mark Wyckoff, and Lauren Bretz, Northwest Michigan Seasonal Population Analysis (East Lansing, Michigan: Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University, 2014).
⁶ http://www.chicagoclub.org/Default.aspx?p=dynamicmodule&pageid=396788&ssid=310141&vnf=1, accessed 12 November 2022. Similar denominational associations exist throughout the area, including Bay View in Petoskey (Methodist), Wequitonsing (Presbyterian), and Harbor Point (Episcopalian), both in Harbor Springs.
⁷ https://www.visitcharlevoix.com/Ernest_Hemingway_, accessed 14 November 2022. Whether he pronounced it “Voah” (French) or “Voy” (American English) is unknown.
⁸ Charlevoix Historical Society, A Guide to the Early Young Structures in Charlevoix, the Beautiful (privately published, 2019).
⁹ Traverse City, about 50 miles to the south, also briefly held that record. The current record is held by Oliver, British Columbia. See https://www. roadsideamerica.com/story/29043, accessed 14 November 2022. Michigan is the top cherry-producing state in the United States.
¹⁰ See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensky_Hill_church, accessed 19 November 2022.
¹¹ https://www.charlevoixlibrary.org/charlevoix-history/library-history/, accessed 14 November 2022.
¹² See https://www.northernexpress.com/news/feature/king-of-beaver-island/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Strang, both accessed 14 November 2022.
¹³ Thomas P. O’Dell, sermon preached for Christ Episcopal Church, Charlevoix, Michigan, 7 July 2019 (in the author’s possession).
¹⁴ “Christ Episcopal Church lives as a branch of the Episcopal ‘Jesus Movement’ in Northwest Michigan. Our prayerful response to Jesus’ grace inspires our faithful acts of love toward all people,” mission statement published online at https://christepiscopalchurch.net/, accessed 19 November 2022.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/charlevoix-michigan, accessed 26 November 2022. The city did achieve a population of 3,164 in the census of 1990, but it has since decreased.¹⁷ Debbie Crandall Stutzman, Marge Carey Kirinovic, and Anne Carey Stanley, compliers, Christ Episcopal Church: 125 Years Strong, 1894-2019 (privately published, 2019), 13.
¹⁸ The first stanza of the poem reads:

“I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love:
the love that asks no question, the love that stands the test, that lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
the love that never falters, the love that pays the price, the love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.”

¹⁹ The Book of Common Prayer [1979] (New York: Church Publishing, 2007), 15.
²⁰ William H. Petersen, “ What to Do When All Saints Sunday and Advent 1 Coincide“ (http://www.theadventproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/AllSaints Advent1Coincidence.pdf, accessed 14 November 2022).
²¹ Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995), 327-328. Of the psalm, Hatchett says, “its integrity was never to be compromised by additions or by using it to cover actions.”
²² Rumwold (662-662) was born in Buckinghamshire, and died only three days later, “but not before repeating several times ‘I am a Christian,’ making a profession of faith in the Holy Trinity, and asking for Baptism and Holy Communion from the priests. . .. He then preached a sermon on the Holy Trinity and the need for virtuous living, freely citing Scripture and the Athanasian Creed.  The prodigious infant then expired”, from David Farmer, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, revised edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
²³ Full disclosure: this reviewer served as guest priest at this service, which concluded the rector’s sabbatical leave.