Echoes Forward

I’m sure you have a few people in your life that are hopelessly obsessed with the old. Even as a historian and the elected keeper of my family’s ancient artifacts, I have met plenty of folks who greatly surpass my excitement about old stuff. But please believe me when I tell you: no one appreciates physical tradition like the people at Old Wye Church in Wye Mills.

Believe it or not, one of the youngest things at Old Wye Church is their annual Bazaar (formerly known as the Christmas Bazaar, but they’ve made the rare choice to change the name this year to just the Old Wye Bazaar). That Bazaar turns 60 this year.

Probably the oldest thing on the Old Wye campus is the wooden Celtic Cross that stands in their backyard. The cross was fashioned out of wood from the Wye Oak tree, an over 400-year-old beast of a tree that fell in 2002 (told you they liked old stuff). While that tree was reaching retirement age in the 1600’s, worship was already taking place on this very ground. Old Wye was founded as a “Chapel of ease” for St. Paul’s in Centreville, and the brick building was first built in 1721.

Just like the historic buildings that sit along the Choptank River, the front door of the church does not actually face the road. Rather, it is on the “back” of the building. This is because the Wye River is located just under two miles worth of farmland back, and the rivers back then were the highways. There is a long-standing myth that the tiny stream that currently runs behind the church was once a navigable waterway. That is false, physically impossible with the way the land is situated.

Another interesting tidbit about the church’s architecture are the pews. Rather than your usual straight rows, Old Wye still has box pews, which look like literal boxes with doors. This is a sort of the original version of “social distancing.” Families would have their own box, as to not spread germs, and also to keep their body heat and whatever heat they could produce with buckets of hot coals or blankets inside the box. Auctioning off a family pew is also what helped pay for the construction of the church originally. As you can imagine, boxes then become a commodity that can be passed down through generations or sold. It wasn’t until 1792 that a gallery was added, with a separate entrance from outside the building, for free and/or enslaved African Americans. But don’t worry, there are no assigned seats at Old Wye Church today!

I wish I could say the Old Wye Church stayed steadfast through all of the historical trials of America: war, economic panics, religious shifts, etc. But it did become extremely neglected in the time immediately following the American Revolution due to extreme poverty and changes to the church/tax system that we don’t have time to get into. Thankfully, Old Wye was fixed up in the mid-1800’s after a Bishop saw the condition of the church and services continued. The church got its big makeover in the 1940s funded by Arthur Houghton, with help from the same architects who were restoring Colonial Williamsburg, and that’s how we got the beautifully restored 1721 church we see today.

Church was obviously still important back in 1721 for the same reasons your mom tells you it is today, but it was even more vital to the functioning of society. Churches played a much larger role in local government, especially prior to the American Revolution. Church was where you got to see your neighbors, sometimes to have your taxes collected, and to talk about the news (or gossip, but you didn’t hear that from me). Old Wye Church, having been present for nearly all of colonists’ existence in the area, served all of these purposes and continues in some respects to be a beacon of community. There is perhaps no better example of this than the Bazaar.

In fact, the Bazaar is so integral to the church, that it is included in the official Visitor’s Guide of the church, which reads, “the Main Room is used as well for meetings by various groups from the community, and it is the staging ground for the parish’s traditional Christmas Bazaar, held annually – for six decades now – on the first Saturday in November. Preparations for this well-attended, many-faceted event begin in the Main Room and eventually sprawl all over the other buildings and grounds. The proceeds from the Bazaar are used to assist charitable organizations in the wider community.”

The ladies of the ECW – that’s Episcopal Church Women – have only missed two years planning and executing this event. The organizers said that perhaps by original design or just by happy accident, the event brings together the women of both churches in their parish (Old Wye and St. Luke’s in Queenstown) to put it on.

Many of the original event’s aspects are still kept sacred. You can expect to find a Sweet and Savory Shoppe, plants, handmade items, Christmas items, an “Emporium” of donated items for sale, jewelry and handbags, and more. Of course the history of the church is on display, with the faithful Town Crier offering educational tours of the grounds. The church women have historically and continue to meet throughout the summer to plan and create the crafts that sell at the Bazaar, with many ECW women calling this regular camaraderie the highlight of the event for them.

When asked why the event is so important to the church, the women, as expected, answered affirmably: “tradition.” They talked about the joy of seeing multiple generations of church-goers come to the Bazaar and being able to preserve that piece of their memory each year to share with their children and grandchildren. They said that even when they tried to change certain aspects of the Bazaar, such as the menu for the luncheon, the community was not impressed. Customers often look forward all year to the homemade chicken salad and country ham on biscuits and various soups. Even during the toughest of times, the women endured. At one point Old Wye had no one to staff the kitchen during the event, so the women from a Methodist church in Grasonville volunteered to serve simple ham and cheese sandwiches and vegetable soup.

The money raised by the event helps the ECW support local causes. The long list of charitable causes they have supported with funds from the Bazaar includes Tides of Grace, Compass Regional Hospice, and Haven Ministries. They’re also willing to help out with financial needs around the church – especially if it’s something “women notice” like needing to reupholster the furniture.

There are currently a recorded 85 parishioners spread between the two churches. The bulk of which is elderly, another fact that some members joked doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. But these women are bound and determined to keep the Wye Parish alive for another 200-plus years. And in a world where seemingly every volunteer-run operation is struggling to find footing, the Old Wye Bazaar is pretty much a necessary component of the church and greater Old Wye community.