English by birth, the Rev. Augustus Reginald Hoare went to Alaska during the Klondike gold rush of 1898. He began working as a missionary for the Rt. Rev. Peter T. Rowe in 1902 and was ordained to the diaconate. In 1903 he was ordained to the priesthood and, by 1904, was simultaneously directing four missionary stations in Alaska due to a shortage of missionaries in the area. He assumed rectorship of the Point Hope Mission in Alaska in 1907, but left ten years later as a result of illness. After a period of convalescence in California, he returned in 1920 only to be murdered by the man whom he had taken on as an assistant.
The Holy Spirit Mission Church for the Deaf was founded as a parochial mission in 1960 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, California and would later become a Diocesan mission. A profile of the church written in 1988 states that their mission is “to proclaim to Gospel among hearing impaired and deaf people and their families and to enable Christian ministry and community among hearing impaired and deaf individuals in a language understood by them”.
Roger Pickering, a deaf seminarian, became the first Vicar after his ordination in 1963. During his six-year tenure, he offered services in several different locations in the Bay area, provided pastoral care for hearing impaired persons all over California, and established a religious education program at the California School for the Deaf. After Pickering’s departure, services were reduced from once a week to once a month until 1983 when a full-time Vicar was hired. By 1987, lack of grant money for deaf ministry in the diocese forced the Mission into part-time status once again.
Little information is available regarding the status of the Mission past 1988, however records indicate that it was in operation until the early 2000's.
In October of 1942, National Council created the Home Department, which inherited the work of the pre-existing Department of Domestic Missions and combined that work with four other pre-existing divisions of the National Council: Christian Social Relations, Christian Education, College Work, and the Youth Division. In December of 1945 the Army and Navy Division was added, and in December of 1948 the Town and Country Work Division was created.
Because it oversaw the entire domestic missionary program of the Church, the work of the Home Department was wide-ranging. Ethnic ministries were led by secretaries for Native American, African American, and Japanese mission work. It also focused on providing financial support and competent clergy for African American and Native American parishes, which were often neglected or underfunded by their dioceses.
Rural work was carried out by the Town and Country Division until 1962, when the work was returned to the oversight of the newly-formed Division of Domestic Mission. The Army and Navy Division (later renamed the Armed Forces Division) primarily supported chaplains in the Armed Forces. Other domestic work included Braille books for the blind and support for clergy serving deaf Episcopalians. The Home Department also sent women workers out into the field in various capacities. In the 1960s, most of the department’s resources was directed towards urban ministries.
In 1968, a complete restructuring of Executive Council dissolved the Home Department. The work formerly grouped under the Home Department umbrella evolved into a series of “Program” groupings, under the direction of the Deputy for Program and the Presiding Bishop.
William E. Hooker, of New Milford, Connecticut, was a lineal descendant of the Reverend Thomas Hooker who, in 1635, led the white, Christian settlers into what became the capital city of Hartford. William Hooker was ordained to the diaconate in 1879 and to the priesthood in 1882 by Bishop Huntington. He was assigned to various parish centers in Connecticut and New York and died on May 19, 1939.