Albert J. M. Wilson 1926-1930

Albert J. M. Wilson was born in Belfast, Ulster, Northern Ireland in 1888.  He attended the Mountpottinger School in Belfast and came to the U.S. in 1912.  He was a graduate of Saint Stephen’s Anglican College, at Annandale-on-the-Hudson, and took his master’s degree in arts at Columbia in the Class of 1917, taking his degree in theology at the General Theological Seminary at the same time.  After leaving the seminary he served for a year and a-half at Saint Matthew’s Church, 84^th Street & Central Park West, where he was made deacon.  After his ordination as priest, he was rector of Grace Church, Millbrook, New York for over four years before he was called to Saint Bartholomew’s, NYC, during the rectorship of the Rev’d Dr. S. Leighton Parkes, where he served as curate for three years.

Mr. Wilson came to Saint John’s in February 1926.  With his coming, the “high church” regime was abandoned.  In a sad period for Saint John’s, he stopped the use of mass vestments and other catholic practices.  He instructed Saint Faith’s Altar Guild to store all the vestments that they had made beginning in the 1870s.  These and other liturgical items were eventually given to other parishes for their use.

A newspaper account of his first “service” at Saint John’s stressed all the changes that were taking place:

“Candles glowed upon the reredos above the High Altar at the eucharists yesterday morning as during the previous high church regime but that was the only remaining sign of the thought and practice which has prevailed… Mr. Wilson discarded all eucharistic vestments (amice, alb, crossed stole, maniple, cincture and chasuble) … He abandoned the traditional preparation before the altar… All genuflections and other forms of reverencing toward the altar were given up, as was also the frequent use of the sign of the cross…”

In the prosperous days of the 1920s the church initiated a drive for $100,000 to build a new rectory (its third) and to make extensive improvements to the church and parish house, “to provide much needed room for rapidly developing activities.”

This was in June 1926.  Despite the fact that the drive fell $20,000 short of its goal, negotiations started for the sale of the rectory at 217 Paulison Avenue.  The new rectory (opposite the church across Lafayette Avenue) was built, but the Depression prevented the fulfillment of other plans.

Mr. Wilson resigned May 31, 1930 to become the rector of Saint George’s, Rumson, New Jersey.