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The Church That Margaret Brown Built
By the Reverend Dr. M. R. Ritley
Margaret Brown was graduated from St. Margaret’s House in 1942. At that time, the Westchester area of L.A. (near what is now the airport), was undergoing a huge spurt of growth because of wartime industry. Large aircraft plants were being built there, along with houses for hundreds of aircraft workers who flocked into the area. Westchester had new jobs, new houses, new streets — everything but a church.
So Margaret Brown decided to do something about it, and started a one-woman campaign to get a church established in the neighborhood. She began by meeting with Bishop Stevens (the Rt. Rev. William Bertrand Stevens, second Bishop of Los Angeles, and himself the father of one of the first women ordained to the priesthood in L.A., the Rev. Emily Hall).
Margaret Brown asked the bishop for a priest to start services in Westchester, but there was a real shortage of clergy, as so many of the younger ones were serving as chaplains with the armed forces. With so many things, including money, in short supply, Bishop Stevens was not enthusiastic about committing diocesan resources to the project. But Margaret Brown was a very determined woman. If she could raise enough money — in advance — to pay a supply priest to do a service every Sunday for the rest of the year, plus Christmas, Good Friday and Easter, would the bishop be willing to send a priest to Westchester? Bishop Stevens, not even remotely convinced that she could do it, agreed.
So Margaret Brown started out in real grass-roots fashion, literally pounding the Westchester pavements and knocking on endless doors, to see what kind of interest there was in starting a church in the neighborhood. She was pleased to find that there was a surprising amount of interest. For one thing, a good many people had uprooted themselves from their homes to come and find work in the war plants, and they were far from their own neighborhoods and faith communities. For another thing, many of the women who worked in the aircraft plants had husbands who were serving overseas, and they really felt the need of a church community’s support. Most especially, they wanted a Sunday School for their kids. And since there was no church at all in that part of Los Angeles at the time, even a fair number of Methodist, Lutheran and Presbyterian women pledged their support.
These women became Margaret Brown’s staunchest allies, and got to work to raise the money, canvassing for donations, holding sewing fairs and sponsoring salvage collections and other projects. In a few months’ time, Margaret Brown was able to go back to the bishop with the assurance that people had pledged enough money to pay for a supply priest to do Sundays, Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. Bishop Stevens, impressed by her energy and commitment, was converted to the project. He soon found a retired priest who was willing to take on the task, and Margaret Brown and her friends tucked fliers into mailboxes all over Westchester, announcing the inauguration of church services.
Surrounded by barrage balloons, worshipers filed into the local firehouse to attend the first Episcopal services in Westchester, while the air raid warden’s shack served as an impromptu vestry for the priest and acolytes. Margaret Brown herself organized the Sunday School classes, and Westchester’s first church was on its way.
It’s a real war-time story in its own way, when you come down to it. Throughout the war years, women rolled up their sleeves to keep hospitals, schools, and factories going while thousands of men were away serving overseas. We all remember Rosie the Riveter, of course, but we sometimes forget Isabelle the Intercessor! With so many clergy serving elsewhere, the church, too, depended on women to continue much of its day-to-day work of ministry. The priest in Westchester was available on Sundays, but the rest of the week, it was up to the Margaret Browns of the parish to visit the homebound, hold fundraising events, teach Sunday School classes, gather for weekly adult Bible study, and keep faith alive in what must have been a very anxious, lonely and trying time for many families.
By 1945 Holy Nativity was established as a regular mission of the Diocese of Los Angeles and a small, white colonial church was built near Manchester Boulevard. Westchester folks referred to it for years as “the church that Margaret Brown built.” After the war, Holy Nativity was a focal point for a great deal of activity, including a day school. It became a parish in 1956.
And Margaret Brown? What a story hers is, too! She graduated when a great many things were in turmoil. With no official support, she set out to put her theological education to work where she knew it was needed, and within 18 months had not only initiated regular church services in Westchester, but founded a parish that is still thriving today. She lived to see Holy Nativity’s 50th anniversary in 1995, and died in January 1998.
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The Church of the Holy Nativity serves the communities of Playa Del Rey,
Marina del Rey, LAX, Westchester
and also serves the Westside and South Bay areas of Los Angeles. |
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