Mariners’ Church of Detroit

The faithful parish priest, celebrated in song for ringing a church bell twenty-nine times to commemorate the loss of all hands aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald, has been consecrated to the Holy Office of Bishop.

Father Richard W. Ingalls, Rector of historic Mariners’ Church of Detroit, joined the Apostolic Succession on Sunday, May 2, at a 10:00 a.m. service there, attended by a packed church of well-wishers. Mariners’ Church, “The Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral,” is located in Detroit’s Riverfront Civic and Renaissance Centers at 170 E. Jefferson Avenue. The Consecrating Bishops were the Rt. Rev. Dr. Robert J. Godfrey, of Atlanta, Michigan; the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Morley, of Fairhope, Alabama; the Rt. Rev. Melvin H. Pickering, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the Rt. Rev. Vincent V. Thakore, of Atlanta, Georgia.

Several Bishops of the Anglican Communion had long urged Father Ingalls to assume full sacramental authority for the congregation. After many years of prayerful consideration, the Rector accepted the call to be consecrated, with the Trustees of the Church heartily concurring. Now he will be able to conduct those services reserved for Bishops, such as Confirmation and Ordination.

“I was reluctant at first because I thought the focus should be on the parishioners of Mariners’ and not on me,” Fr. Ingalls said. “I was persuaded over time that the New Testament model of a bishop survives in many parts of Christendom. So this step will enlarge my service to the congregation, the community, and the Will of Julia Anderson.”

The Will he refers to is the 1842 founding document of Mariners’ as a free and independent church, not subordinate to any ecclesial hierarchy. Mariners’ is governed by a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees under the Act of Incorporation, No. 142 of 1848 by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan, which Act has neither been amended nor repealed. Services at Mariners’ follow the traditional Anglican liturgy of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
In the New Testament model, each house-church congregation had its own bishop-overseer. He was the chief pastor of his flock, and the administrator and dispenser of its charity. He was also responsible for all preaching and teaching, and was also the guardian and representative of his people in relations with the non-Christian community. This role as priest, pastor and administrator of his congregation is in almost every respect identical to that of a Rector/Priest at an autonomous church such as Mariners’.

Father Richard Ingalls became Rector of Mariners’ Church in 1965, and since then has become well known in Detroit’s maritime and civic communities for creating annual public services such as the Blessing of the Fleet, Navy League Sunday, and the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Service. These services bring congregants and the community together in remembrance of God’s love and care throughout their daily lives. The Blessing of the Fleet, which he celebrated for his fortieth consecutive year at Mariners’ on March 14, is the prototype for similar annual services such as the one at Faith Lutheran Church in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan which celebrated its tenth anniversary March 21.

The Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot immortalized Fr. Ingalls’ bell-ringing at Mariners’ Church in his 1976 song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and he has been known to return to Mariners’ for the annual service. During a savage Lake Superior gale on November 10, 1975, the Great Lakes ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank near Whitefish Bay with all 29 hands aboard. It was the largest ship ever lost on the “Inland Seas.”

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Contact: David Pennock
248-645-6336