Ordination of Donald Allston Fishburne as Deacon and Priest; Amy Allston McEwan at St. Cecilia Ball
Book 1, Page 353 ·1979–1980
Transcription
The page is laid out with four pieces in the left and center; the right half is blank.
Ordination card (upper left)
Pencilled across the top of the card: Deacon
God Willing The Right Reverend Gray Temple, D.D. Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina will ordain Donald Allston Fishburne To the Sacred Order of Deacons In Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church Saturday, June 16, 1979 at eleven o’clock in the morning St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Charleston, South Carolina
Your Prayers and Presence are requested
Clergy: Red Stoles
News clipping (upper center, with portrait of the Rev. Donald A. Fishburne)
Caption beneath the portrait:
Rev. Donald A. Fishburne, Episcopal Priest
Headline (left edge of clipping is trimmed; supplied letters in brackets):
[Fis]hburne ordained
Article body [partial words at the trimmed left margin supplied in brackets; the article is a single fold, ending after the bottom paragraph]:
[The] Rev. Donald A. Fish[burne] was ordained Priest in a [servic]e at St. Matthias’ [Episco]pal Church in Sum[merton] Friday, December 21, [southe]ast of St. Thomas the [Apostl]e.
[The] Right Reverend Gray [Templ]e, D.D., Bishop of the [D]iocese of South Carolina, [w]as Celebrant. Bishop Temple [p]resided at the ordination and [a]t the celebration of the Holy [E]ucharist which immediately [followed].
[Concelebrants with the Bishop were the Rev. clergy of] Christ-St. Paul’s and Trinity [c]hurches, Yonge’s Island; the [Rev.] S. Woodie Miller of [Or]angeburg; and the Rev. Marshall Allen of the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul, Charleston.
Serving as Lay Readers were Leland W. Kelley, Jr., Carlton E. Elliott, and DuValle C. Elliott. Acolytes were Alexander Richbourg, III; DuValle Elliott, Jr.; T. M. Davis, Jr.; and L. Gilland Frierson.
Special music was offered by the St. Matthias’ Church Choir, under the direction of W. Benjamin Hutto, II, Organist and Choirmaster of the Cathedral of St. Luke and the Parish Hall. The luncheon was hosted by the Men of the Church, headed by Henry Rickenbaker, The Hon T. Harvey Beser, and Billy Frierson, and assisted by other men and ladies of the Church.
Newspaper photograph clipping (lower left) — The News and Courier, Thurs., Jan. 25
A black-and-white photograph of a young woman in a long, light-colored gown holding a small bouquet. Caption:
PRESENTED HERE Miss Amy Allston McEwan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hale McEwan of Orlando, Fla., was presented at the St. Cecilia Ball last week.
Cut-out color photograph (just right of the clipping)
A young woman in a pink blouse, dark hair, cradling a long-haired white cat. Pencilled caption beneath in cursive:
Amarynthia Allston McEwan
AI Notes
An album page mixing four items in the upper and lower left quadrants and otherwise blank. Upper left: printed ordination card for Donald Allston Fishburne to the Sacred Order of Deacons, June 16, 1979, with the pencilled word ‘Deacon’ written above. Upper center/right: a clipped news article ‘Fishburne ordained’ with a head-and-shoulders photograph of the Rev. Donald A. Fishburne in clerical collar; the priest ordination service described in the article took place ‘Friday, December 21’ (1979) at St. Matthias’ Episcopal Church in Summerton. The article runs as a single column ending at the bottom of the clipping (page 354 carries a separate item). Lower left: a clipped newspaper photo from The News and Courier, Thurs., Jan. 25 [year torn], captioned ‘PRESENTED HERE — Miss Amy Allston McEwan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hale McEwan of Orlando, Fla., was presented at the St. Cecilia Ball last week.’ Beside it is a cut-out color photograph of a young woman in a pink blouse holding a long-haired white cat, captioned in pencil ‘Amarynthia Allston McEwan’ (per page 350, Amarynthia is Amy Allston McEwan’s sister, both daughters of Robert Hale McEwan + Aramintha Allston of Orlando; per CLAUDE.md Hunter’s recollection, the Allston-McEwan branch are Fishburne in-laws — Aramintha Allston is sister to Amy Perry Allston who married Henry Burnett Fishburne, making Amy Allston McEwan and the Rev. Donald A. Fishburne first cousins). The Rev. Henry Rickenbaker is named without middle initial in the source; T. Harvey Beser is given the formal style ‘The Hon T. Harvey Beser’; ‘Yonge’s Island’ (with apostrophe) and ‘St. Matthias’’ apostrophe placements follow the source.
The St. Cecilia Society, founded in Charleston in 1766, is one of the oldest private social organizations in North America; its annual St. Cecilia Ball remains the city’s most exclusive debutante presentation, with attendance traditionally restricted to descendants of members. Amy Allston McEwan’s presentation, the granddaughter of Donald McKay Allston Sr. and Minnie Perry FitzSimons Allston, places her firmly within that hereditary Charleston society circle.