Saint
Bede's Mission
(Rt 3, Box 4-A, Cleveland, OK 74020) has a history related to the famous medieval scholar, but it has a local history as well. Both are of real interest for an understanding of the origins of the fine, little church which serves those living in the Lake Keystone area, not far from the intersection of Route 64/412 and State highway 48 on what is called "the Westport peninsula." (20 minutes west of Tulsa.)
Local History
Lake Keystone did not exist prior to 1964 when a massive dam was officially put into commission; for that reason, it is not surprising that there was not a high speed highway from the Westport area to Tulsa. As late as the fall of 1967, the Keystone Expressway was still on the drawing boards. A number of the Tulsa families who came out to Westport during the summers had difficulty keeping in touch with their church families. Rather than be deprived of the benefits of communion on both social and sacramental levels, these families created St. Bede's Church. Many involved assumed that the Westport Peninsula (the land between the Arkansas River and the Cimarron River in Pawnee County) would become a booming suburb in a few short years. Newspaper articles of the time forecast as many as 37,000 inhabitants and the new church even planned to construct an elementary school on the property at Westport.
Until the mid-1960s, church services took place in a typical home structure on Cherokee Street in the City of Cleveland. Then, in 1967, the families—under the leadership of Jack Harlow— constructed a church along the road to what we know as the Westport Marina—about a mile North of the Westport Exit road (off of what is now State Highway 412). The new St. Bede's, designed by Tulsa architect John Brooks Walton, was dedicated just one week before the equally new Westport Baptist Church was officially opened—just to the north, on the way to the Westport Marina.
At the time of dedication, Chilton Powell was the Bishop of Oklahoma; he was represented at the event by the Frederick W. Putnam, suffragan bishop of the Oklahoma Episcopal diocese. The Priest in charge was the Rev. Richard Whiteside, chaplain at the Hissom Memorial Center, a major state facility on the west side of Sand Springs. In the last few years, the congregation has been visited annually by the Rt.. Rev. Robert M. Moody—who has performed ceremonies of baptism, confirmation, and rededication, all inspiring events to remind us of our relationship to a vital diocese.
The small congregation required participation from its members and it was often the case that each generation of children would progress through the church from the role of acolytes to the status of working adults and parents. The rotation of altar duties and snack preparations involved all of the families and fostered a close relationship among people who often lived within walking distance or a short drive.
Members of the church have wonderful anecdotes to share from the common experience with this modest building. Mrs. Mildred Carroll has preserved the image in a number of sketches and drawings, one of which is on the first page of the church web site. On the north wall of the parish hall, a rock from Jarrow, the monastery where St. Bede lived his entire, sequestered life, remembers the spiritual roots leading back to the saint for whom the building is named. In the church, the baptismal font is the only item which came from the original place of worship in Cleveland; the bowl for the font was made by the legendary Art Carroll, one of the early supporter's of the church. Each Sunday as part of our services, a bell in honor of John Draughon rings with resonance of the contribution which he and his wife made to the church. (Joanne Draughon was the organist for years and was, herself, a living history of the Episcopal Church in the Tulsa area.)
Over the years, there have been a series of "supply preachers" to St. Bede's. Until shortly before his death, The Rev. Ted Hoover was renowned for his "clothes line" sermons on which he hung many ideas—some of them related and some of them just worthy of being mentioned to add color to a sermon. Currently, The Rev. Jack Powers presides; he is in a long line of pastors—all of them different in style and temperament—who have brought this country congregation the sacraments and the word of God.
St. Bede's History (673 -735 )
First and foremost, St. Bede was a scholar who was given over to the church for education as a child of seven; he remained in the cloistered environment for the rest of his life. He traveled little from St. Paul's monastery in Jarrow, Northumbria, England, but his mind was always on an adventure of some kind. Within the intellectual options of his era, he was a scientist, a literary critic, and a historian writing in English about the experience of the English nation. His famous history is still a reference work for scholars of the medieval period; indeed, in many respects, it is the only extant source for details about the early national history and the life of the church. As the web site for what is called "Bede's world" reports, "Bede began his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, in the days of Roman Britain, when Christianity first arrived in this island, and traced the thread of Christianity through the departure of the Romans, the arrival of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes and the development and eventual conversion of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms." Bede's History is noteworthy for its citation of sources, a practice unique to him and one that makes him a real scholar—for readers could check and evaluate his sources and his interpretations. As a scientist, Bede was most interested in calculating the days of the year and is said to be the one of the first astronomic observers to assert that the solar year was not precisely 365 days; along with other scholars in his day, he identified the need for a correction to keep the months in cycle with the seasons. As a literary scholar, he produced studies in the history of the Virgin Mary (called "mariology"); furthermore, he wrote commentaries on major segments of the bible. He even wrote a book on poetic meters to assist those interested in writing poetry in the service of God. At the most practical level, he produced studies of grammar in an effort to standardize language usage.
Bede was dubbed a "Saint" in 1899, but was known in the intervening period—and today—as "The Venerable Bede," a term of respect in his own time and a title which has survived into the present. He exhibited the blend of piety and wisdom which we associate with the term "Christian Scholar."
Sources
Local history: Peter Rollins, Mrs. Mildred Carroll, Bill Brookman, Rev. Jack Powers.
Has extensive information about Bede
St. Bede's World - Map & Directions
Maps the geographical location of Jarrow. The map can be enlarged, but clearly shows that the monastery was along the River Tyne in Northeast England.