A service commemorating the life and legacy of the late Rev. A.H. McNeil, who was the first Black clergyman for the Episcopal church in Hopkinsville, is planned at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at Grace Episcopal Church, 216 E. Sixth St.
For the second consecutive year, the Commission on Racial Healing for the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky will lead the service — and the public is invited.
- SUBSCRIBE: Sign up for our newsletters
The service coincides with the 165th anniversary of McNeil’s birth month. He was born Alexander Hamilton McNeil on Oct. 10, 1858, in New Hanover County, North Carolina.
On Jan. 19, 1896, McNeil was ordained a deacon by the Diocese of Kentucky and became the first minister of Hopkinsville’s Chapel of the Good Shepherd.
The church — constructed in 1896 with the support of two members of Grace Episcopal — also served as a school and library. It is now the Aaron McNeil House, the headquarters for a crisis relief agency and food pantry. (Although his name was Alexander, the clergyman became known in Hopkinsville as Aaron.) He is buried at Vine Street Cemetery.
