Dear Fellow Member of the Diocesan Family:

First let me say, this letter has the approval and hearty endorsement of your Bishop, Rt. Rev. Clinton S. Quin.

It concerns the upbuilding and environment of Episcopal young men during the time they are students at A. & M. College.

You probably are aware that A. & M. College is located four miles from city churches and that it is not possible for these students, even if they so desire and the weather permits, to attend Sunday morning service in Bryan and return to the campus for their noon-day meal; besides, restrictions are such that lower classmen find it difficult to get away at any time.

For many years the spiritual atmosphere and development of the youths who live on the campus have been the sole responsibility of the denomination to which they belong. Feeling the great importance of religious contact and training while these young men are severed from their family and church life at home and realizing the temptations which always come to the young men to neglect the spiritual side of life when in college, many of the religious bodies are endeavoring with a great measure of success to provide that which otherwise would be totally lacking.

Most of the larger churches have full time student pastors on the campus and, near by, a church or a definite place for worship and for group meetings. The Episcopal group has been inadequately served by a part time student pastor and has had no place of its own in which to hold services although the Diocese has for years owned a lot adjoining the campus. However, since last fall Rev. Roscoe Hauser has been secured as full time student pastor.

Seeing the great need for a chapel of our own Diocesan Council created the A. & M. Chapel Committee instructing them to solicit funds and to put up a building on our lot. At the last Council the committee reported that enough had been secured to build an inadequate frame structure but recommended that a substantial brick veneer churchly edifice be erected at a cost of $3500.00 more than funds on hand, exclusive of furnishings.

By unanimous action, the Council agreed to underwrite the sum of $3500.00 and directed the committee to proceed at once to erect an adequate building. The committee was also asked to endeavor to obtain additional gifts to relieve the Diocese of the need for assuming this debt.

The committee has approved plans for a well-appointed Chapel 39 by 76 feet, and cuts shown on front and reverse side of this sheet give only a faint idea of the beauty and dignity of the building. The contract will be let in a few days and the Chapel completed during the spring semester. We need your co-operation now so that we may pay the contractor as he proceeds with the work.

Please send at once the amount you are able to invest in the training of young men in reasonable, sane Christian citizenship. Make check payable to Episcopal A. & M. Chapel Committee and enclose in envelope herewith furnished.

   Thanking you in Christ's name, I am,
   Sincerely,
   Rev. J. P. Love
   Chairman Episcopal A. & M. Chapel Committee
 

Rt. Rev. Clinton S. Quin, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, Rev. J.Parker Love of Cameron, and Rev. Roscoe Hauser, Jr. at the cornerstone laying and dedication service, September 23, 1938.

Plans for Episcopal Chapel

Members of the Texas A.& M. Chapel committee, Rev. J. M. Love, Cameron, chairman, accepted Architect Ernest Langford's plans for the proposed Episcopal student chapel at a meeting of the committee late Friday afternoon. The chapel, cost to not exceed $10,000, will be built on property owned by the Episcopal Church, Diocese of Texas, across from the postoffice at the north gates of the A. & M. campus. The lot is 100x79 feet and the chapel will be 39x76 feet.

Those attending the committee meeting Friday were T. S. Carlisle, Palestine; Chas. DeWare, Brenham; T. S. Wyche, Temple, G. Sam Parker, George Chance, Rev. Roscoe C. Hauser, Jr., A. and M. student pastor, and Rev. L. A. Wilson, secretary of the committee, all of Bryan; Rev. F. P. Goddard, Marlin, and Chairman J. Parker Love, rector of All Saints Episcopal church, Cameron.
[Bryan Eagle, 1938]

A church with a personality

It can truly be said of St. Thomas' Chapel at College that it is a church with a personality. One cannot cross its threshold without a sense of reverence. Personally as we stood and lifted our eyes Heavenward in this lovely environment of simple beauty, we were struck with the character that the architect, Ernest Langford, had woven into the building; the urge that came to one for the searching of your heart and the reaching out for the mercy seat, earnestly.... The exterior and interior of the building is beautiful and a design of art, but that isn't the most important thing, it is this soul of the church that influences the lifting of every person that enters within its gate.... When we looked this building over, our reaction was one of gratefulness to the architect, who could create such a feeling of divinity into a building to influence the youth of this community....
[Pavement Pick-Ups was a column in the Bryan Eagle, published in 1938.]

St. Thomas' First Vestry

Student Dances were popular

Women of St. Thomas
organized early