History

Our first Eucharist as an organized mission was celebrated on April 28,1963 with The Rev. Canon Francis William Tyndall, the Canon Missioner of the Diocese, as the celebrant. There were 92 people in attendance in the lunch room of the Jack London Junior High School for the opening Eucharist. The Rev. Jack Parker, Rector of St. Gregory's Church in Deerfield, was appointed as the first Vicar to serve until a permanent Vicar was called at a later time. It is interesting to note that a very few years later a large number of the young people in the church school were eating lunch each day in the room where they had been baptized.

In July of 1963 The Rev. E. Raymond Sims was appointed as the vicar immediately after his graduation from seminary and ordination as a deacon. Nine different priests and the Bishop of Chicago, The Rt. Rev. Gerald F. Burrill, celebrated the Sunday Eucharist's until Fr. Sims was ordained to the sacred priesthood in December 1963. Fr. Sims remained as Vicar of St. Hilary's Church until the end of November 1965 when he was called to a parish in Wisconsin.

On the first Sunday of December 1965 The Rev. Richard N. Warren became the Vicar of St. Hilary's church which had begun meeting in rented space at St. Mark's, United Church of Christ just three weeks before his arrival. Fr. Warren organized the fund raising efforts which eventually resulted in the final move of St. Hilary's Church from leased quarters to its own building on the current site. Unfortunately the building was not finished before Fr. Warren left for California in the middle of Lent in 1969.

The Rev. R. Bruce Wheeler became the vicar of the growing mission two weeks after Easter in 1969 just in time to see the beginning of building. Fr. Wheeler's formal installation as Vicar and the official ground breaking ceremony took place on September 21, 1969 even though the walls of the building were already up and he had been serving the mission since Easter time. Very shortly after accepting the call to St. Hilary's church Fr. Wheeler took on an additional duty as Night Pastor to the Rush Street entertainment area.

The temporary church building and education space were occupied for the first time for the Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve of 1969 and a few months later Fr. Wheeler opted to make the Night Ministry his full time ministry, leaving St. Hilary's at the end of June 1970.

The Rev. Richard A. Crist came to St. Hilary's Church on July 1, 1970 with a commission from Bishop Burrill to bring the church to parochial status and to complete the parish building plan. He was installed as vicar in September of that year. In 1981 St. Hilary's reached parochial status and Fr. Crist was elected rector, a position from which he retired on July 1, 1999.

Our current building, which houses the permanent church, was consecrated in October 1988 by the Most Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold,III, the twenty-fifth presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

The Rev. John C. Seville served as interim rector and served from September 1999 through July 2001.

The Very Rev. Terri C. Pilarski was called as rector in July of 2001 and began her ministry at St. Hilary's the following month. She was installed as the rector by the Rt. Rev. William D. Persell in December of that year. Pastor Terri was installed as Dean of the Elgin Deanery at Diocesan Convention in November 2002. As Dean she serves as a liaison between the Episcopal churches in the Elgin area and the Bishop. She also serves on Diocesan Council and the Clergy Enrichment Committee.

Under Pastor Terri's tenure St. Hilary's has mentored new clergy in the diocese. In the fall of 2002 we mentored The Rev. Scott Barron during his six months of transitional diaconate time leading to ordination to the priesthood. Scott now serves as priest in charge at St. John's in Mt. Prospect. Pastor Terri served St.Hilary's until March 2, 2008, when she moved to Green Valley, Arizona.

Deacon Jim Nichols became ordained to the diaconate in February 2005. He served with Pastor Terri in a wide variety of duties. All the while he served, Jim was living with active, metastatic prostate cancer. Deacon Jim died in August 2006, leaving us with a powerful witness of grace and humor under difficult circumstances.”

The parish became acquainted with the ministry of Deacon Coleen Smith in the spring of 2007. Deacon Coleen cared for the usual diaconal ministries, was a Licensed Pastoral Counselor, and moved to Wisconsin in late December, 2007.

Reverend Deb Seles joins us as Priest beginning March 9, 2008. A warm welcome to Pastor Deb.