The first service at the new location was on May 22, 1892. After thirty-three years of existence and regular use the building had much needed repairs. Due to the extent and estimated cost of repairs and the changing environment of the location the bishop’s committee was of the opinion that the money was better spent on a replacement building. The building was sold to the Dann Brothers. Max and George Dann, Lithuanian natives, who owned an adjacent lot to the church where they had a growing junkyard business.

St. James Mission’s seven families and twenty-six communicants maintained its individuality throughout the years without a church building. The year of 1950 began the reorganization of St. James Church. More Episcopalians had moved into the community and they wanted more regular services; they also wanted a Sunday school. One of the mothers went to Bishop Kirchhoffer and pointed out the need for a church school for St. James Mission. He recommended she take a survey and report back the number of families with children. Within a week she was back with an accounting of a dozen families with children of Sunday school age. The Bishop agreed to send a resident minister. Mid February, 1950 the new vicar (priest) arrived in New Castle. A temporary bishop’s committee was formed and a survey of the community for a meeting place was done. A small Boy Scout building on Thornburg Street was the only immediately available building for rent. It was furnished with a bright red Coca Cola machine, a stuffed raccoon, Boy Scout decorations and folding chairs. It was a place to begin anew.

The first service, Morning Prayer with a sermon, with the new vicar was on February 19,1950 with ten people in attendance. The annual parish meeting was a week later on Monday evening. The goals and ambitions of the church were outlined. First to meet the stipend of a vicar and then to build a church building. It was estimated that to be able to support a resident vicar without diocesan aid there would need to be at least forty-five pledging families. The much desired Sunday school was organized in a separate meeting the same day.

The women’s guild reorganized and became active. They created an event of games of contract and auction as well as bridge, euchre, and canasta. One hundred and forty women attended. There were thirty-five desirable prizes awarded to the winners of contract and auction and the high scorers in the other games. The proceeds from the ticket sales provided much needed supplies for the new venture. Other guild activities throughout the year included regular study courses, missionary work, and social events.

During the early weeks of renewal the bishop’s committee met frequently. A building committee was formed and became the most active group for the next twelve years. The young vicar was full of energy. With his leadership, advice, and words of encouragement a great enthusiasm was held by the parishioners for the next several years. There were confirmation classes, adult training classes, and baptisms.

There were Holy week services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Evening Prayer on Saturday evening with a preparation service followed by the lighting of the Paschal candle. Easter Sunday had a sunrise service consisting of the Holy Eucharist and later a Morning Prayer service with a sermon.

In June Bishop Kirchoffer came for the first confirmation to be held in St. James Mission for twelve years. There were five confirmed that day.

The bishop’s committee and the diocese planned to purchase a building for a more permanent site for the church. A residence at 423 South 11th Street was most suitable. The members set about remodeling and reconstructing the eight room house while continuing to have services at the Boy Scout building until the end of February 1951.

There were sixty-six services during1950, the greatest number of services in one year of the previous fifty years.

The following is a report published in the periodical of the Diocese of Indianapolis:

Indiana Church Comes Back

With the dedication of the new chapel the parishioners of St. James’, New Castle, Indiana, have completed a step forward begun over a year ago, when a handful of interested people petitioned the bishop for clerical guidance. They had no building and no money. St. James’ is not a new parish, having been founded some sixty years ago. But for the past eighteen years had been without a resident minister. Things went from bad to worse, and seven years ago the diocese was forced to allow the sale of the fine building. Since that time, and until March 1950, the surviving remnant was served by supply clergymen, twice a month, at afternoon services in the Lutheran Church. Then a group of determined parishioners, mostly women, pleaded their case successfully with Bishop Kirchoffer, who sent a young man, fresh from seminary, to help get the parish back on its feet.

The first step was to move to a hall owned by the American Legion [sic] so that weekly morning services could be held. Despite the distraction of stuffed wildlife and scout signal-towers, the little band began to grow. Last October they took a bold step. Using the small fund from the sale of the old church and a new loan, they purchased a residence, centrally located with plenty of ground. Through the weeks and months to follow they worked and gave towards the remodeling of the downstairs into a chapel and the upstairs into church school and meeting rooms. Non-churchmen and friends in the town helped a lot with gifts and discounts, and many of the members worked long, hard hours cleaning, painting, and constructing. The outstanding feature of the new chapel is its chancel furniture, built entirely by one of the new parishioners, Mr. James Mara. The altar is a dignified table, with no frontals to mar its simple beauty. The tiny nave seats only seventy on folding steel chairs. There is room for expansion to the right and to the left of the chancel.

Bishop Kirchoffer was pleased with the all the activity of the little band of Episcopalians in New Castle. At his address to the annual convention he said:

Somewhat more than a year ago I appointed Mr. E. A. Callanan, Jr., as Lay Vicar (if there be such an office in the Church) of St. James’, New Castle. Last Sunday evening I dedicated their new Chapel and parish building in the presence of a congregation which overflowed to the porch. When Mr. Callanan took over, the Diocese paid all of his very modest stipend; six months ago the congregation assumed nearly one half thereof. A year ago the Boy Scout building was rented, so that the regular Sunday morning services could be held for the first time in many, many years. Since then the new building just mentioned has been bought for $9,500, improved to the extent of some three to four thousand dollars and foundations laid for a healthy growth in the future. Arrangements are now being made for Mr. Callanan’s ordination to the Diaconate in early July. Here again is evidence that the Church CAN grow in Indiana.

The church continued to grow and by 1957 had a recorded number of 81 communicants with 33 marked as pledging units. In September of 1956 there was an offered gift of several acres of land for the site of a new church building. Canon Conner was sent from the diocese to review this and other possible locations. To the disappointment of all, he stated that the tract of land was not suitable for a church building due to the uneven character of the land. In January 1957 it was brought to the attention of the vestry that an owner of a farm was willing to sell 16 acres on Bundy Avenue between the new First Christian Church and her home. A committee was formed and investigated the options and they met with diocese to discuss the building site. The site was found to be most favorable for a church building. At the January 18, 1957 vestry meeting it was announced that the diocese approved the land purchase for $16,000 for approximately six acres adjacent the land owned by the First Christian Church. A construction plan of a brick or stone veneer church building with a seating capacity of 250, a rectory, and a parish hall was given to the city zoning commission in February. The commission approved the plan. It was announced at the April vestry meeting that the land site for the new church building now officially belonged to St. James Church. During the following four and a half years much work ensued toward the building of the new church. The approval of a building budget from the congregation and the Diocese was completed. An architect was hired, pledge drives, fund raising, loan approvals, building contractor hired, adjustments to the blueprints, selling of the current building on South 11th Street, meetings, meetings and more meetings and finally the cornerstone was laid.

Near the end of June, the 11th Street property was purchased by the Church of God (later The Temple Baptist). This had been the home of St. James for eight years. Occupancy of the building was divided for the remainder of the year, St. James service was at 8:00am and the Church of God at 10:30am. St. James parish was expected to vacate the building completely by January 1, 1962.

The final service was held at 9:00am on January 1. The following day, members began moving all personal property and furniture, except the pews into the fifth and largest building called St. James Church. The altar and related items were put in place, an organ on loan was moved into the much larger nave. To provide temporary seating, folding chairs were borrowed from local funeral homes. Parishioners finished all the details for the first Sunday service on January 7, 1962.

The first service in the new building was attended by 108 members and visitors, with 78 communicants participating in the Holy Eucharist. The Rev. Thomas A. Dixon and the Rev. Richard H. Bancroft officiated. Many prayers of thanksgiving were offered and incorporated in the liturgy.

A formal dedication was held on Wednesday, June 6, 1962 at 7:30pm with the public invited. The Rt. Rev. John P. Craine, Bishop of Indianapolis, officiated at the dedication. He was assisted by the Rev. Robert Bernhard, Dean of this deanery, Cannon Fred Williams of Indianapolis, the Rev. Russel Moody of Muncie, and the Rev. Richard H. Bancroft, assistant at St. James’. The Rev. William Sheridan of Plymouth was the preacher.

 In September of 1961 members of the building committee elected to contact two foreign sources of artistic church figures after not finding a satisfactory figure from suppliers of church fixtures. The recommendations of the committee were presented to the vestry for approval in October for Mr. Jose Pinal, a woodcarver in Mexico City and woodcarving firms in Oberammergau, Germany. Through communications by mail Jose Pinal said he could supply the figure but was concerned about the quality of the Spanish cedar that was available in Mexico for the specified size. After a six week wait an impressive catalog from Gg. Lang sel. Erben family was sent from Germany. They had been in the business of supplying figures to churches worldwide for 185 years. Deciding to go with the German company and after two years of communications and careful consideration the committee selected a figure that was seven feet in height of Jesus preaching in the “come to me” position. He was made of the linden tree, stained a medium dark color, waxed, and was to be delivered the first of March, 1963, in order to be placed before Easter, April 14.

The 250 pound statue was encased in a wooden crate on March 7, 1963, transported to Hamburg, Germany then loaded aboard the Meyer Line ship “Havtroll” arriving in New York on March 27. Six days later it was shipped to New Castle, Indiana, arriving on April 4. The figure was home! After uncrating, it was found that the delicate hands were fabricated and packed separately. Several members of the church constructed a tripod and pully system to hoist the figure to a previously placed steel hook on the wall above the altar. It was attached by an iron bar fastened to the hollowed out back of the carving. The hands were then attached with a little glue! The cost of the sculpture was donated by three parishioners.

In the early days of the building construction, two members of the committee took the plans for an altar and the Stations of the Cross and drove to Oolitic, Indiana. They visited the Ornamental Stone Shop, owned and operated by William Chenault and his son, Edward. The company had been recommended by a friend of the church. Mr. Chenault showed them the facility and then a sample of their work. They agreed to have him carve the altar and Stations of the Cross. The altar was completed on March 31, 1962.

The altar was sketched by a member of St. James and the architect then designed the plans for it. It consists of two stones of trapezoidal polyhedrons shape placed inversely, one upon another. These support a third rectangular polyhedron stone forming the altar table. Each of the pieces are made of buff Indiana limestone; the whitest, fine grained stone in the region. The top of the table has fluted edges and has a small recessed crypt in its center where relics have been placed. The carving on the front of the altar, IHC, are the first three letters of the Greek spelling of Jesus. This symbol was devised and used by very early Christians.

The Stations of the Cross refers to a series of images depicting the way of Jesus when he was lead to his crucifixion. Our Stations are fourteen cubes of identical stone as the altar with pictures beneath them placed on the walls in the Nave.

The altar rails are made from an early nineteenth century, hand hewn walnut beam from a demolished barn. The sawed and shaped boards were assembled with aluminum to create our simple altar rail. It has served without a crack or weakness the many prayers of members in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

The Aumbry door was made of beachwood with a superimposed cross of anodized aluminum in its center. There are two fish on one side and five loaves of bread on the other of the cross shaped in a contrasting wood. An aumbry is a small cabinet in the Sanctuary wall usually near the altar. This cabinet stores vessels of consecrated bread and wine as the Reserved Sacrament shared at the Holy Eucharist. When the Reserved Sacrament is present a Sanctuary Lamp will be lit. We believe that this is the Holy Presence of Jesus. At the Maundy Thursday service (the Thursday before Easter) the altar is stripped of all the linens, candles, books, and the Reserved Sacrament is removed in remembrance that Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We have three freestanding candlesticks, one on each side of the altar and the third to hold the Paschal or Christ candle in season. They are made of walnut and aluminum. The Processional Cross is also made of walnut and aluminum.

The half giant bivalve mollusk shell is our Baptismal Font. This has been in the church since 1954. The stand was made in 1964. The shell is a symbol of pilgrimage and the missionary spirit of our patron saint. This symbol is sometimes associated with the baptism of Jesus.

We have a long history in New Castle, Indiana. Our beginnings were full of adventures and love for God’s people. We pray for ALL of God’s people in the world and ALL are welcome at our altar. We hope to continue our work in this new normal of the 2020’s and welcome your visits and your prayers that we may hear that still small voice to love and serve the Lord.