During the great Florida land boom of the 1920s, a number of migrants from the Bahamas came to the Miami area to work in the construction industry. New roads were being built, railroad lines were being extended, and land speculators descended upon Florida creating a fantastic real estate boom. Cameron Mann, bishop of the diocese at that time, predicted it couldn’t last. When the bubble burst, as it did in 1926, many of these Bahamian workers moved up the coast and settled in the Fort Pierce/Stuart area where they worked on the farms and in the citrus groves. The religious background of a large number of these Bahamian migrants was Anglican and they were in search of a church. Their need was answered when in 1927 Dr. C. L. Eccleston, a Jamaican and a black Fort Pierce dentist, together with the Rev. J. R. Lewis, a black priest and Vicar of St. Patrick’s Church in West Palm Beach, a black congregation, organized a group of these Bahamians to form a mission in Fort Pierce. Eccleston donated the land, Lewis gave the church its name, “St. Simon the Cyrenian.” The new congregation held its first services in a school on Palm Sunday and Easter. Fundraising and much hard work made it possible to celebrate future services as early as the following February in their own new building.

Undaunted by adversity, the congregation built another. For many years they were served by a number of priests most of whom did not stay long enough to give the congregation effective leadership. But in 1955 they reaped the reward of their patience when the Rt. Rev. Wallace E. Conkling, retired Bishop of Chicago, took charge and remained with them for 13 memorable years. The congregation loved him. It was during this time that the Parish Hall was built.

Upon the bishop’s departure, St. Simon’s again fell into good hands. The Rev. Richard L. Barry served for eight years during which the church took on a whole new outlook. He instituted an annual “Homecoming” which took on the aspect of a family reunion and also helped to pay the bills. The congregation learned to reach out to the community in various ways, especially to youth. Barry, himself, was a leading spirit in the community, serving as a chaplain in the hospital, giving a series of Lenten meditations, invited to open a session of the State House of Representatives, act as examining chaplain for the diocese and a member of its planning board. His biographical sketch appears in “Men of Achievement,” a British publication, and in”Who’s Who in Community Service,” (1973).

St. Simon the Cyrenian burnt its mortgage in October, 1984 and achieved Parish status in January, 1991. It is proud to be an integral part of the Fort Pierce community and, with God’s help, plans to continue to contribute to the betterment of the men, women, and children who form their congregation and their city.