"They Looked At Us Like an Astronomer Would View Pluto": High-Church Christianity and Rural America

This is one of two projects conducted over the summer of 2024 by Jacob’s team. The now-defunct St. Mary’s Redbank Episcopal Church—the most northern, remote, and poor establishment in the Diocese of Pittsburgh—is situated amidst the picturesque hamlets and rolling hills of the Redbank Valley in rural Pennsylvania, overlooking the Alleghany River. This small country church spent countless years acting as both a center of worship and social activity for the virtually abandoned village of Redbank and its community. The mission is of simple construction, seating between fifty to seventy-five congregants, and is embraced by a proud cemetery boasting veterans from the Civil War to the Gulf War. For nearly one hundred fifty years, St. Mary’s Redbank Episcopal Church withstood poverty, neglect, and disenfranchisement from the overarching entities that controlled it. The church’s history has thus been defined by repeated clashes between urban and rural religious customs wherein the authoritarian arm of the diocese sought to interfere and even withdraw their support from the congregation.