Rev. Louis Howard Temme

The Reverend Louis (Lou) Howard Temme, an Episcopal priest, who lived his belief in the power of community, comprised of folks of different backgrounds, races, languages, and beliefs, died on November 26, 2024. He lived with his wife of 49 years in Center City Philadelphia.

His love of the city, and the diverse people who inhabit it, was a hallmark of his attitude - from the time he was a young teenager growing up in the gritty Philadelphia neighborhood of Fishtown, to his 33 years as pastor of Trinity Memorial Church, a small parish at 22nd and Spruce Streets in Center City.

When he began his tenure at Trinity Memorial in 1972, he discovered a dying parish.  But that dying parish was the local address of the God of his faith, and he decided that he would do his very best, not only to revive that parish, but to help it make a difference in the lives of the surrounding community.  One of his guiding Bible texts was Jesus’s words quoted in Matthew 25:31-40: “When you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me.”

In 1985, as a local community presence and pastor, he attracted people of all faiths (as well as of no faith tradition) to open and operate a shelter for homeless men in the church’s basement. He also helped establish a program to support seniors who were isolated in their homes; he nurtured a preschool program for working families, and hosted one of the city’s first private recycling programs for plastics and paper, that predated the city’s municipal program.  Along the way he opened the doors of the church to a wide range of parochial and public activities, including multiple 12-step groups and cultural and musical groups.  He supported numerous cultural programs and major gatherings of the Center City Residents Association. He welcomed one of the city’s first LGBT-only 12-step AA groups, as well as the Philadelphia chapter of Dignity, an LGBT community for Roman Catholics.  He gave the feminist Wilma Project, later renamed the Wilma Theater, its first performance venue. All of these initiatives combined to make Trinity into an urban community center that belonged to all the people of the city.

As an Episcopal priest he was active in, and supportive of, the many changes underway in the Episcopal denomination. Risking his own ordination, he attended the 1974 ordination of the first eleven female Episcopal priests, held at the Church of the Advocate. He helped one of these newly ordained priests, Alison Cheek, to open and operate the Well Woman Project, a ministry to women who were disaffected and alienated from the institutional church and its male-centric liturgy and government.

He served for ten years on the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania’s Standing Committee, providing advice to the Bishop, and served as its President for eight of those years.

In July 1994, he joined with parishioner and architect John Kohlhas and members of the community to rebuild Trinity Memorial after a devastating three-alarm fire. Together they produced an award-winning multi-purpose sanctuary that was dedicated in May 1997 by Bishop Franklin Turner and Mayor Edward Rendell.

His eye never deviated from the goal of building a diverse human community. He recognized a need for a place where people could meet and get to know and work with their neighbors in ways that brought health and healing to the neighborhood and the larger city.  To that end, he founded Trinity Center for Urban Life. This new organization co-managed the church property, with Trinity’s vestry, to perpetuate his vision for Trinity as a center for community.

When his 33-year ministry as rector of Trinity Memorial ended, he became an interim rector in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. He served assignments at Episcopal parishes in Swarthmore, Valley Forge, Chestnut Hill, Hatboro, and University City.

Lou retired from active ministry in 2011 and was appointed by the Bishop to be one of four chaplains to serve the 300+ retired clergy and spouses of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.  In his retirement, Lou continued his lifelong love of learning, taking classes in photography, film, memoir writing, German, and ancient Egyptian history. He loved walking through the city, and sending his daughters photos from his walks. He loved sharing his knowledge of Philadelphia with anyone who would listen. He enjoyed sharing in the special accomplishments of his children and grandchildren. He loved to laugh.

Lou is a graduate of Central High School of Philadelphia (218th class), Drexel University (BS, Business Admin 1967), The Philadelphia Divinity School (M.Div. 1970 ), and St John’s University, Queens, NY, (MS, Pastoral Counseling 1972).

He met his wife Kathryn Rossé at a winter party on a snowy night in 1974 in South Philadelphia. They were married one year later in a ceremony in the Trinity Memorial Rectory conducted by the then rector of St. Mark’s, Locust Street, Fr. Michael Becker and by long-time friend, The Rev. Stan Dull.

In addition to his wife Kathryn, Lou is survived by his two daughters, Kate Temme and Julie Temme, their husbands, Matthew Zibelman and Geraldo Dannemann, five grandchildren: Kaya, Corey, and Caroline Zibelman, and Olivia and Geraldo Dannemann, and his brother Kenneth Temme of New Jersey, as well as many nieces and nephews. His brother Michael died in an accident in 1980 in Bavaria, Germany.

Lou is also survived by a chorus of loving and supportive friends and colleagues with whom he has shared many adventures in life and in ministry.

A Requiem Eucharist will be held at Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church on December 6, 2024 at 11:00am, followed by a reception. The services will be streamed at 11:00am either via Zoom by clicking here  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89989819593?pwd=enRyZDFCNGJweG4rcGdQVkNXZXdsdz09#success or  via Facebook (without an account) by clicking here https://www.facebook.com/TMCPhilly/  The church will be open at 10:00am for those wishing a time of quiet reflection. His ashes will be interred privately in the memorial garden of historic Christ Church, joining his parents Rose and Louis and his brother Michael.  

Donations in his memory are encouraged to his favorite charities: The German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden St, Philadelphia; Action Reconciliation for Peace, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia; WHYY public television and radio; or to a local charitable organization of your choice.