This week we celebrate the many ways we speak and listen to one other face to face: through our voices, pantomime, and signs. 

Why now? This week marks a watershed moment in the history of the American Deaf: the first Episcopal service in sign language in Pennsylvania in 1859—at St. Stephen’s, led by a pioneering Episcopal advocate for the Deaf, The Rev. Thomas Gallaudet. Who came? About 50 worshippers, possibly from the community of the Pennsylvania Institute for the Deaf and Dumb then blocks away (now the Pennsylvania School for Deaf). Why St. Stephen’s?  Some say that its “speaking” interior, open sight lines and raised chancel made the signed liturgy, Word and prayer accessible to worshippers in the nave, forging a community in worship beyond sound. 

St. Stephen’s support for the preferred language of the Deaf (signing) over mainstream language (voice-based speech) is critical. Even without biases against “disability,” there were profound cultural and religious issues surrounding deafness and muteness (For my broader discussion of the subject, click here).

For Christians, being able to hear and speak determined whether others saw you as having the intelligence to think or even a soul (the means of salvation), since receiving, absorbing, and communicating the Word was defining. It took courage to propose signing as an alternative form of the communicated Word, and yet more time to be accepted within the voice-dominated Church.  

The official date for this first signed service in Pennsylvania, in histories of the American Deaf, is Friday, March 4. St. Stephen’s service records for those years are missing, so there’s no contemporary witness there. An 1886 Diocesan Convention report for work among Deaf Mutes cites celebrating the 27th anniversary of the first service, given to Saturday, February 19. Whichever it is, the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania bore witness to its happening and importance. 

The energy of those early communities remains admirable, with only scattered current signs of Episcopal Deaf congregations, clergy, or interpreted services (one per state listed on the website of the Episcopal Conference of the Deaf). So, with St. Stephen’s milestone signed Episcopal service in mind, we honor all Deaf and the public raves for the signed renditions of the recent Super Bowl performances by Troy Kotsur and Justina Miles. Here is a very public sign that we welcome communing through different forms of speech.

— Suzanne Glover Lindsay, St. Stephen’s historian and curator