100th Building Anniversary at All Saints in McAlester
Last Sunday, April 26th, All Saints Episcopal Church in McAlester celebrated its 100th anniversary, which included a potluck meal and the opening of a century-old time capsule. The day also served as a “doubleheader,” with 15 confirmations taking place during Bishop Poulson’s visitation to the parish.
Three years earlier, a member of a local Masonic lodge, the Rev. Janie Koch, Vicar of All Saints, asked that April 26, 2026, be set aside. He said that on April 26, 1926, when the main church building, All Saints’ nave, was almost complete, the Masons installed a particular stone engraved with the building's completion. Inside the stone, they had placed a time capsule. He wanted us to celebrate the exact 100th anniversary of the building in 2026.
All Saints Episcopal Church actually began in the late 1800s when a coal mine collapsed south of McAlester. About 120 miners were trapped and died in the collapse. Members of the community came together for a makeshift MASH unit to help the wounded, maintain supplies for the medical staff, and offer comfort for the families of the missing. When the crisis was resolved, the hospital and community leaders wished to retain the religious presence that had become firmly established. All Saints Episcopal Church was born.
The Grand Mason came from OKC, and many members of the lodges in town came to see what the time capsule held. They lifted a box, a little bigger than a recipe box, from out of the stone. It was a copper box covered with the green patina and entirely sealed at the seams by solder. With tin snips, they cut open the box to find a very small 1892 Book of Common Prayer, about the size of a bible that a child would receive at baptism. There were several carefully folded newspapers, damp from a long-time break in the box’s seal. We unfolded the papers and spread them out on tables to dry. The articles were a fascinating array of names and events from McAlester’s history, advertisements, and a cartoon strip.
The Rev. Jaine Koch, Vicar of All Saints, shared that one particularity caught her attention: “The Catholic Bishop wrote in that he was formally announcing he would no longer confirm girls. He said it was a constant frustration when he would lay his hands on either side of the girls’ heads, and his hands would be stuck like pincushions from all the hairpins the girls used for their hairstyles.”
Looking ahead, All Saints plans to assemble a new time capsule and place a few items in it, likely on All Saints Day in November. Proposed items include a cell phone, a newspaper article of the opening of the first time capsule, a watercolor image of the front of the church, a small Book of Common Prayer, a copy of the American Constitution, and a letter written to the congregation of 2126.
Reflecting on the experience, Rev. Koch shared “To consider the 100 year old past with those who filled the time capsule to deciding what to put into a new time capsule 100 years from now truly brings to mind where we are amidst the arc of human existence. We honor those saints who have gone before us in their faith and work, and we remember them in our prayers. Then there are those saints who will come after us, and what will be the world they inherit from us? We pray for them and hope that All Saints Church is as vibrant tomorrow as it was many years ago amidst a community crisis. And we pray that through the years we all are faithful to the work God has given us and sends us out to do and that we are faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.”
