With reference to the article, "The Spirit of Missions" [TLC, July 22], it might be important to note that the first congregation of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Illinois was organized upon the initiative of laity.

On Aug. 11, 1832, a group of laymen met and organized the Trinity Society of Jacksonville. Under the leadership and inspiration of Major Ignatius Simms, a sometime Roman Catholic seminarian in Maryland, who had left that communion for the Anglican Church or, as it was sometimes called, the Protestant-Catholic Church, this group was dedicated to the establishment of a non-Latin, non-papal, "parish that should hold fast to the old Religion of Jesus Christ adapted for the people of our times," and "a part of Christ's Church, that had come down the ages that combined Evangelical Faith and Apostolic Order, and was, historically, the Church in this broad land."

Upon the recommendation of the site by the Rev. Mr. Corson of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, who had visited Jacksonville in 1831, support was agreed upon, and the first rector came from Connecticut to begin his ministrations in June of 1833. For the holding of property and other legal purposes a legal entity entitled "The Trustees of Trinity Church" had been organized, coextensive with the wardens and vestrymen of Trinity Church. On June 9 of that year, a cornerstone was laid by the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Bosworth Smith, Bishop of Kentucky.

The parish played a major role in the founding of the Diocese of Illinois in 1835, and on Jan. 9, 1836, the building, being completed, was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper.

(The Rev.) W.N. Malottke

Jacksonville, Ill.