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St. James', Upper Montclair has special service for WWI members

Capt. George Stanley Butcher
By: 
Bob Cannon / The Montclair Times

[The Montclair Times] When the Rev. C. Melissa Hall became interim rector at St. James Episcopal Church in early 2014, she was surprised to discover the church had no plans for a special Memorial Day service. But her discovery of an old flag piqued her interest and encouraged her to conduct a little research. "I found it behind a couch, and I said, 'What is this?'" she recalled. "It's bordered in red. I believe there are 91 blue stars in the middle on a beige background, and across the top there are seven gold stars."

It turned out that each of those elements had a historical significance. "It represents all 91 who served," she said, "and the seven stars commemorate the seven who were lost in World War I."

The church's archives turned up photos of the seven St. James parishioners who were lost in World War I. "So they started doing research, and they started with the seven casualties," she said, "and that's how we ended up with the stories and the pictures. Our hope down the road is to research all of these names and see if we can find any of their families.

"So I did this service, it was something they never had here before. People were deeply touched, and said, 'Can we do this again?' So this is the second annual Memorial Day service here."

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See also New Jersey church honors its war dead to highlight cost of conflict (Episcopal News Service, May 26, 2015).

Six of the seven members of St. James' lost in WWI are pictured in the gallery below.