Today
the Church remembers and honors a son of the United States of America who
became bishop in Liberia, Samuel David Ferguson, who was born on New Year’s Day
in 1842 in Charleston, South Carolina, and who died on this day in 1916 in Cape
Palmas, Liberia.
Ferguson’s family moved from
Charleston to Liberia when he was six. He was ordained a deacon on 28 December 1865,
and was ordained a priest on 15 March 1868. He was consecrated as bishop of The
Episcopal Church of Liberia in West Africa on 24 June 1885 at Grace Church, New
York, becoming the first black member of the House of Bishops.
As missionary Bishop of
Liberia, Ferguson established Cuttington College in 1889. With the aid of a
$5,000 gift from Robert F. Cutting, the treasurer of the Board of Missions,
Ferguson purchased 100 acres of land, hired an all-Liberian staff, and built
Epiphany Hall, the school’s first permanent structure. Over the years, other
permanent buildings would replace the remaining initial thatched hut structures
of Cuttington. The school’s departments included theological, agricultural, and
industrial education. Ferguson’s purpose for the school was to give the youth
of Liberia and Africa the skills to meet the physical and spiritual needs of a
growing nation. Despite being closed for nearly twenty years during a
devastating civil war, Cuttington College still exists to fulfill Bishop
Ferguson’s vision.
Let us pray: Almighty God, we bless you for moving your
servant Samuel Ferguson to minister in Liberia, expanding the missionary vision
of your Church in education and ministry. Stir up in us a zeal for your mission
and a yearning for your holy Word; through Jesus Christ, who with you and the
Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo
Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550
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