Father Jim Abbott of St. Matthias Episcopal Church Retires

Father Jim Abbott  – Photo: Urban News

By Sarah Williams

Father Jim Abbott shared his final sermon with his congregation last month, and St. Matthias will be diminished without him.

On October 30, 2011, “Father Jim,” a warm, humble, and spiritual man, retired after twelve years as rector of the historic East End church. During his years there the congregation has grown in numbers and diversity while maintaining a remarkably balanced ethnic diversity. On any Sunday the pews are filled with white and black parishioners alike, a rarity in churches not only around Asheville but anywhere in America.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Jim Abbott grew up mostly in Virginia and North Carolina. Before moving to Asheville, he was rector of a large Episcopal church in Columbia, SC, but he chose to take early retirement from there in order to serve God in furthering the mission of the church in a smaller, more ethnically diverse congregation. Since his parents were living in Black Mountain at the time, Jim and his wife, Diane, decided to move to the Asheville area. God opened up a house for them in the East End neighborhood and led them to St. Matthias, where he was asked to become rector.

Members of the St. Matthias congregation.  – Photo: Urban News

Father Abbott answered the call, and in his twelve wonderful years there he positively impacted members of St. Matthias, and they in turn positively impacted him, greatly deepening his faith in the process. In addition to growing in membership, the congregation began a college fund to help the young people of their congregation further their education following high school.

Father Jim’s tenure has also seen the growth of the church’s music ministry, which has become stronger and more diversified, a testament both to the congregation’s interest in a wide range of music genres and to the historic building’s excellent acoustics. In addition to its talented choir, St. Matthias is home to the renowned, classically focused Reynolds-Miller Chorale, which moved to the church a few years before Father Abbott arrived, and for the Sunday Afternoon Concert series, established during his tenure, whose performances range from chamber music to contemporary compositions to operetta.

St. Matthias is thought to be Asheville’s oldest historically African American congregation. Originally known as the Freedmen’s Church, it was formed at the close of the Civil War as a mission of Trinity Episcopal Church to serve the needs of the newly freed slaves. It was built by noted African American building contractor James Vestor Miller, whose company built a number of religious and civic buildings in and around Asheville. St. Matthias’s original design included educational space for a parochial day school, which provided the first formal education in Asheville for children and adults in the African American community.

Father Abbott was one of the founders of Christians for a United Community, a coalition of black, white, and Latino churches who have come together to work for racial justice, healing and reconciliation among themselves, and also to work with others to make Asheville a more united community. In his second “retirement” he plans to give more time and attention to furthering the work of that unique organization.

“Father Jim” asserts that he has learned a lot during his dozen years as rector of St. Matthias, and he plans to take what he has learned and use it in his on-going ministry in the Diocese of Western North Carolina and in the Asheville community. He brings with him his hope that his own Episcopal denomination will become more diverse and inclusive, and equally that other Asheville area churches will come together, more often and in a deeper way, across racial and denominational lines.