Bertram Goodhue was co-architect of Saint Thomas from 1914 until his death ten years later. While it was his intention to have exterior statuary on Saint Thomas, his wish would not be realized until the early 1970s when Dr. Frederick Myers Morris completed the statuary and, at the same time, made a bold statement that would forever link Saint Thomas to the Civil Rights Movement.
In “Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue,” the esteemed Rev. J. Robert Wright chronicles the impactful tenure of its tenth rector, Dr. Frederick Myers Morris. Serving from 1954 to 1972, Dr. Morris championed both good worship and strong preaching. His leadership coincided with the Civil Rights Movement, a cause he fervently endorsed, seeing it as integral to conscientious Christian discipleship. Under his guidance, the church’s philanthropy extended to the NAACP, the Urban League, and the East Harlem Protestant Parish, reflecting his commitment to social justice and community support.
Morris’ commitment to the Civil Rights movement extended from the pulpit to the façade of Saint Thomas. However, there was much discussion about achieving this, as expressed in a letter of June 1, 1971, in which Dr. Morris wrote to then-Canon Edward N. West of St. John the Divine (and an authority on ecclesiastical art and symbolism), mentioning sexton administrator Bob Jones’ idea of the depiction of Martin Luther King and “some prominent Negro woman leader, perhaps Mrs. (Mary McLeod) Bethune”; this would follow the earlier theme of William Wilberforce and Abraham Lincoln. In Dr. Morris’s view, this would be “exceedingly good public relations with the black brethren,” offering an opportunity for a great dedication service at which Mrs. King might be persuaded to speak.
Dr. Morris and Canon West, who were in charge of the project, decided to honor the idea of “Liberation” in these statues, as Dr. Morris believed “it is far more interesting and significant to have this sort of emphasis in modern church adornment than to represent only ancient and traditional saints, which all too often becomes an exercise in repetition.”
Happily, funding for the statuary became available, thanks to a bequest received from the estate of parishioner Mrs. Jean Hafer Newell (who died in 1970), in the amount of $60,000. It would cover, in addition to the statuary, additional major and minor architectural adornment, notably the “Ordination” window in the clerestory on the south side, installed there in 1970.
Carved by the New York firm of Rochette and Parzini, William Wilberforce and the three other emancipators statues were set into their niches in January of 1972. While the Arts and Crafts ethos, popular at the time, is not germane to this statue group, the clean lines and unembellished modeling of the figures (each of which stands at about five feet high) reflect a direct, modernist esthetic.
Though sickly and delicate as a child, the moral determination that characterized the Yorkshire-born William Wilberforce (1759-1833) in later life emanates from his carved likeness. He began his political career in 1780 and became an independent member of Parliament in 1780. In 1785, he underwent a Christian conversion experience, and became an Evangelical Anglican, which led to profound lifestyle changes, among which a lifelong concern for social reform.
Motivated by his desire to put his Christian principles into action, to serve God in public life, and by his contact with anti-slave trade activists, Wilberforce decided to take on this cause. He became a leading abolitionist, and for 20 years, he headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. It would not be until August 1834, however, one year after Wilberforce’s death, that the House of Lords passed the Slavery Abolition Act, abolishing slavery in most of the British Empire.
Wilberforce is seen today as a Christian hero, a statesman-saint who believed to have been called by God to put his faith into action by promoting concepts of social responsibility.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey, and his feast day is July 30th.
This is the first in a series of four essays devoted to the Emancipators statuary, which is located on the tower of the church’s Fifth Avenue façade.
