Between June 30, 1933 and June 1, 1935, St. Peter’s was led not by ordained priests but by students at Virginia Theological Seminary. Fall’s history provides no reason why this was done or what they did when communion was necessary since student priests would not have been able to perform that part of the service. Their names were John Ellis Large (1933-1934) followed by Frederick Griffith (June 15, 1934-June 1, 1935). We have Griffith pictures but not Large’s even though Fall says “their photographs appear in the church sacristy.”
Large actually became an author and was famous enough to have his obituary in the NY Times in 1982.
A native of New York, his early career was that of a English teacher and school principal on Long Island before he entered seminary. He left St. Peter’s to be ordained at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, L.I., in 1934.
His career spanned service in St. Simon’s Church in Brooklyn, Christ Church in Babylon, L. I. , St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, and Church Heavenly Rest at Fifth Avenue and Saint Boniface, both in New York City.
Large appeared in print also from defending Billy Graham’s 1957 crusade in NY which garnered much media attention. He was quoted in saying “Some ministers have used bad taste in criticizing Graham, and one said the Holy Spirit couldn’t exist in the Garden. But what started in the Garden of Eden and reached its finest moment in the Garden of Gethsemane should be brought out of those gardens and into the present. Madison Square Garden is as good a place as any for that.
Large was ahead of his time for his studies on spiritual healing. He introduced the practice of laying on our hands to St Boniface in 1963 after doing the same at Heavenly Rest earlier. At Boniface, the demand led to the creation of a separate mission hous. Many churches are incorporating healing directly into services today.
Large’s was a prolific author. His books include Ministry of Healing , God So Love the World, Night of Betrayal: A Narrative Poem, God is Able: how to Gain Wholeness of Life, Young Pegasus, and Think on these things