USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Canaan parish, 1733-1933, being the story of the Congregational church of New Cannan, Connecticut > Part 13
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The function of the public school system itself is a most complex one. The elementary school must teach certain basic facts and accomplishments on which all other developments must be founded. I look on the primary teacher as the most important unit in the whole educational structure. On her work everything to come is based. If worth is measured by material things, hers
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should be the brightest crown with the most valuable diadems. But is it? With the advancement to junior high school comes a differentiation due to the divergent tastes and abilities. Finally in the High School comes a time when several paths open up for the student.
Is he college minded? The college preparatory department must meet his needs. Does he tend to a commercial life? An entirely different course must be pursued. Is he apt with his hands? The vocational branches are open. Is there a girl with a flair for teaching? The Normal School course calls for a line of work distinctive to itself. Perhaps the student has none of these adaptations or ambitions, but is clearly able and entitled to something beyond the elementary school. In such case the General Course is designed to meet his needs. Thus it will be seen that the necessities of every individual must be met in as efficient maner as the facilities of the school will permit. Any curtailment means that some one or some group is being robbed by society of the essentials of an education that are imposed by that same society. Such a possibility means that the future generation will look back on the present with feelings the re- verse of gratitude to put it mildly.
I cannot close a paper of this nature without paying tribute as of old to the class room teacher. The teacher of children and young folks is a human being just like everybody else. The daily work of the class room is what makes up the sum of success or failure of the individual pupil or the school. Just as the business or professional man succeeds or fails by reason of his application to his daily duties, so does the success or failure of the school depend on faithful performance of the every day work in the class room. Hold up the hands of the teacher. In this lies ultimate success.
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"THERE SHE STANDS-THE CHURCH"
A play given in the lecture room, November 22, 1933, written by Stephen Benjamin Hoyt, according to certain specifications.
T HE committee in charge of the extended celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Church felt that due consideration had been accorded our past and that, as the period of celebration drew to a close, we should concern ourselves with the church of the present and future. As the anniver- sary program began in June with a dramatic depiction of the church of the past, they hoped to conclude it with some dramatization of the church of today-its problems and aims. This play is the result.
SUMMARY OF THE PLAY
Into Jed Hanford's store come such folk as we all know, and they air their opinions freely as people who drop into country stores always have done.
Jed is a churchman of the old school and his religion has persisted serenely through the shocks of modernism. Blessed with Yankee wit and shrewdness, "Uncle Jed" to everyone in town, he understands the language of youth, and his faith in the present day "amazing generation" is second only to his faith in the church.
In the home of his niece, Mrs. Robert Bennett, he is the balance wheel when family problems weigh heavily on a timid conscientious mother, and but lightly on a happy go lucky father. His dry humor is ever the side partner of a rare spiritual poise.
Abner Andrews sees the sphere of the home, the church, and the school threatened. He harbors a particular grievance against the press which he takes out on Ed Hirsch, a newspaper reporter.
In the Bennett family where children from five to seventeen years old are growing up, the current problems of reconciling the present and coming generations appear against a church background. Margaret, a modern high school student, resents the restraint her mother's code requires. To her, as to her brother John, who is at the age when he thinks in terms of baseball and when nobody is expected to love a boy but his mother, athletics are the field where modern youth finds its liveliest expression. Margaret is just old enough to be impressed by the words of her friend Bess Decker-"religion is but the
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PART OF THE CAST OF "THERE SHE STANDS-THE CHURCH"
expression of God through truth and beauty, and one need not attend church to be religious."
There is talk of a coming wedding and a church play in which the Bennett twins, James and William, are to patricipate.
Reverend Edward Wainwright ("Dr. Ned"), pastor of the church, has inherited from his father "The Old Minister," an understanding of the de- pendence of the church upon the family, as well as the conviction that the prevalence of divorce is a portentous omen of our day, a sad proof that the church in all its history has failed to educate its people for married life.
In the coming marriage of one of his young people, Caroline Borden, Dr. Ned brings the subject to the attention of her mother. His own spiritual grasp of this, to us, most difficult and delicate matter, is revealed in an incident in- volving his own child, Eve. Here the child mind still free from the influence of even the later years of childhood, accepts with perfect equanimity what a short time hence might have required painful mental adjustment.
Caroline Borden, daughter of a wealthy family, poised with both financial and social assurance, has no thought of herself as a victim of marital tragedy. Nor has her mother, the complacent Mrs. Jerome Borden whose husband has "such a vast clientele in Cleveland and Detroit." She felt that in sending her daughter to "the best schools where biology and all that is taught," her obliga- tions in such matters had been discharged. Dr. Ned with a far deeper under- standing realizes, as Mrs. Borden does not, that the very assurance in which the Borden family reposes constitutes one of the most fertile sources of the divorce evil.
The Church Play-"Not For Reason, But For Faith" following against this background of the natural faith of childhood, deals with the period of doubt which displaces it in adolescence.
A youth, passing from faith through doubt and cynicism, soliloquizes with his inner self. Intelligent, educated, sensitive, he is the natural product of certain of our educational habits-a devotee of the intellectual.
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As he voices his inmost thoughts, there comes the answers reflected by the seeds of faith sown in childhood and from which his education and training have diverted him. To each despair speaks this inner voice, leading him finally to recognize that his reason, not his faith has been blind.
His enlightenment is glorified by a vision in which remnants of twice- told tales hitherto vague and unrelated, take shape in the form of pictures. These pictures represent his own thoughts resolving themselves into form, de- picting first, the elementary quality of faith as an instinct; second, its organized form, religion; and third, its unbroken continuity through the church. He realizes that the sacrifices upon which civilization is built were inspired not by reason, but by faith.
THE CAST
Jed Hanford, clock tinker
Percy Davenport
Martha Beers, his clerk Beatrice Keyes
Frances Fairweather, spinster Kate Evans
John Bennett, baseball fan Shepard Robinson
Abner Andrews, of thrift and decided opinions William E. Piper
Ed. Hirsch, newspaper reporter Frank Rae
Mrs. Jerome Borden, society matron May Anna Strathie
Margaret Bennett, high school student Phyllis Rowand
Bess Decker, her chum Ruth Northrup
Dr. Ned Wainwright, pastor Wayne Miller
Mrs. Bennett, conscientious mother Hilda Robinson
Caroline Borden, church worker and bride elect Elinor Cantrell Robert Bennett, father Loren J. Keyes
The Bennett Twins Billy and Stanley Achorn
Eve Wainwright and Tubby, her cat Martha Jane Miller
Youth Ernest Rau
A Voice, his inner self Grace Isabel Colbron
Directed by Grace Isabel Colbron and May Anna Strathie Pictures by Mary W. Katzenbach and Dorothy Stearns Music in Tableaux directed by Lawrence Perry. Quintet: Ruth Harris, Mathilde Offen, Edith Harris, Lawrence Offen Stage and Properties. Walter M. Terry, Earl Rover, Mary B. Clarke, Cyril Barnes, Norman Meek.
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In the Tableaux: Verdin Cantrell, Margaret Wylie, Margaret Sterling, John Parkington, Clarence Bouton, Emery Katzenbach, James Bickford, Mar- jorie DeNike, Louise Mead, Hulda DeNike, Barbara Terry, Millicent McKendry, Edward Behre, Russell Graff, W. E. Piper, Frank Rae, Lawrence Davenport, Richard Weil, William Wylie, Harold Mead, Charles Morton, Penfield Mead, Harold Mead, jr., James Strathie, Frances McKendry, Isaac Nesbit, William Urban, Roger Silliman, Barbara Stearns, Edna Barnes, Ellen Gale, Mary Clarke, Mary Louise Hall.
(NOTE-The manuscript of this play is in the archives of the Historical Society )
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THE PROGRAM ENDS
With a reception in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Clarke at which motion pictures of the June play were shown as a surprise feature.
O N December 6, the last formal gathering of the congregation in observance of the anniversary took place in the lecture room, when a reception was held for Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. The room had been decorated with palms and flowers and the platform arranged to accommodate the guests of honor, the deacons and their wives.
After all had greeted Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, the committee announced that by coincidence rather than deliberate plan, the anniversary which opened with a surprise program in June would close with a surprise. Chairs were arranged, a curtain hung across the platform and the motion pictures of the play, "Choosing The Site," shown.
Both Mr. John M. Karl and Raymond McWilliam had taken pictures of the pageant and, although neither was complete, it had been possible to cut and piece the two films into an almost perfect picture of the play. A thought- ful selection of appropriate music by Mrs. Fred Rockwell at the piano and Mrs. Laurance Offen, violinist, accompanied the presentation of the pictures, com- plete films of which have been placed in the church safe and with the Historical Society for future use.
The attendance on this occasion of approximately 250 people reflected an impressive and continuous interest in the anniversary program and the Anni- versary Committee, then and there, decided upon the advisability of preparing this book as a record for the future.
When the pictures ended and the lights were turned up there were cries for the author and Mr. Hoyt responded as follows:
"I wish I might respond with a graceful sparkling speech that authors are wont to make, but I may not, for two reasons. One is that the committee has decreed that there shall be no speeches on this occasion, the object of which is purely informal sociability in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. The other reason- well, the other reason doesn't matter. I believe the committee expects every- one in this room to shake hands with everyone else in this room before they leave tonight, and to indulge in that most delightful and inexpensive exper- ience of becoming better acquainted with each other. I am told that they expect to invite you all here 100 years from tonight to give an account of the progress you have made in sociability. We have been priding ourselves that
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we were 200 years old, but it would appear from this gathering that we might rather pride ourselves upon having lived for 200 years and remained young.
Now it seems as if that were a very comfortable place to stop and I think I see the word "Yes" in large capital letters written across my wife's face, but there is something which has been left unsaid that I would very much like to say, although there are many others here far more entitled to the privilege than I.
Over six months ago on that beauitful afternoon in June when the shadows played across the parsonage lawn and a colorful gathering enjoyed this lovely little play, an echo of which has just been heard here, I was assigned a task, in company with Darius St. John and Mrs. Thomas Tunney, to study the ministers of this church from its beginning. Inasmuch as my particular field was con- fined to the first six ministers, I was unable to pursue an idea which occurred to me at that time, to its conclusion. I should like to do so now.
I should like to write in our record of this observation of our 200th anniversary something which because of the very mechanics of our organiza- tion, has been omitted. I mean by that, that this discovery is not exactly my own. We are all conscious of it, but nobody has had an opportunity to express it. I feel exceedingly inadequate to the task, and at the moment could almost wish that Dr. Wood or Stanley Mead stood here in my place. However, I shall try to express an idea which to me seems necessary to complete our inventory of our past and present.
Each one of our thirteen ministers from John Eells to J. Howard Hoyt had a rather definite task to perform. All ministers, as you know, are expected to be organizers, pastors and preachers. The extent to which ministers have been called upon to exercise these functions, one and severally, has varied with the conditions of their times. During the days of the early ministers, I fancy their sermons dealt largely with orthodox theology. Later there rang from this old pulpit in the second church sermons warm with the ardor of evangelism, and during the later periods leading up to the Civil War, no doubt the spirit of loyalty, if not abolition, expressed itself in the sermons of the Rev. Theophilus Smith. In the long pastorate of Dr. Hoyt, coming down to our own day, were sermons sweet with spiritual reassurance, gentle as a mother's touch; here the Victorian unit ended.
The twentieth century had come, and with it the process of evolution, which had sped up from a snail's pace recognizable only to geologists, palaent- ologists and evolutionists, until now Old Man Evolution had suddenly become fashionable and joined the mad speed craze until he found himself ahead of us, and I fancy even now he may be sitting down catching his breath and looking back upon us with a sardonic grin. The Great War came and left the world in a state of chaotic uncertainty. Old ideals, old ideas, morals, man- ners and customs, underwent such a change that we required new means of
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meeting old problems. There was an abrupt ending to a period, and here came on the scene our fourteenth minister. Like many of his predecessors, a young man, but not only fresh from college and theological school, as were the rest; our fourteenth minister came fresh from an experience which no other minister had ever known. With his scholar- ship and his grace, he came to us from a scene of battle on the western front, decorated for bravery, but blest with those sound views concerning war which have been the basis of a great movement for universal peace that is now fore- most in the hopes of the civilized world.
What was the task he faced? In what respect did it differ from those of his predecessors? The post-war generation had broken loose from all that had been. A flood of literature indulged in an orgy of iconoclasm, and we Victorians were branded hypocrites. Restraint of any kind, adherence to a code, was resented by this post-war group, but I submit that these Victorians who have been accused of insincerity in wearing their religion on their sleeves, were not hypocritical. They were carrying on with the only means they possessed, namely, an adherence to the convictions of their day, which had called for some semblance of religious observation. This, I take it, was due to the fact that man's contact with his fellow man was so limited that his expressions of religion were sometimes shallow, inadequate semblances, but which were the only means by which he could show his colors. With the changes which had come about man's contacts had become tremendously broadened, and in- stead of living his life in a small sphere, he was in touch with the entire world. No longer did he need visible evidence of piety. Piety had passed out of the picture, but piety was not hypocrisy.
So this fourteenth minister no longer preached piety to a pious people, as had all of his predecessors. With piety went the idea that man was re- warded according to his faithful and conscientious efforts. Old Man Evolution had now decreed that man was not rewarded according to his conscientious and faithful effort alone, but according to his conscientious, faithful and "intelli- gent" efforts. It was no longer sufficient to strive faithfully; one must strive faithfully guided by accurate knowledge and sound opinions. The scope of human interest had broadened so that the flock to which this fourteenth minister preached, representing an unusual plane of intelligence as they do, still were unable to do justice to the task of keeping posted on the great variety of subjects about which every intelligent man must know something.
So there confronted our fourteenth minister almost a super-human task of presenting sermons which lacked nothing in grace or inspiration, but which supplied a tremendous amount of information without which one could scarcely claim to be well posted and possess a background for sound opinions; with which faith and courage become a power. The new idea was not salvation for one's self, but the highest degree of useful service in the individual. So
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ALEXANDER CLIPPER
MR. AND MRS. CLARKE BEFORE THE PARSONAGE.
our fourteenth minister faced a new task, and how admirably he has met it is evidenced by the unbroken record of attendance and the frequent requests for copies of his inspiring and informative sermons.
I wish that I had had an opportunity to present this view in a more studied manner, but I am sure you will agree with me that those who have occasion to consult the record of our anniversary observation in the years to come will want to know that we were fully conscious of the change which had taken place when our fourteenth minister came to us, and were sincerely appreciative of the remarkable way in which he discharged his task.
And so, if it be given me to say the last few words in this six months' observation of our 200th anniversary, then I am sure you will all say, "Let them be-Thank God for our fourteenth minister, Merrill Fowler Clarke."
THE REVEREND MERRILL FOWLER CLARKE
Merrill Fowler Clarke was born July 25, 1887, in Wolcott, N. Y., where his father, Rev. L. Mason Clarke, D.D., was then serving the Presbyterian Church in his first pastorate. Maude Fowler Clarke, his mother, was born in Geneva, N. Y., was a graduate of Granger Place School for Girls in Canan- daigua, N. Y., and at the time of her marriage was an art student. She died in 1932.
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Merrill F. Clarke grew up in Syracuse, N. Y., until ten years old when Dr. Clarke became pastor of the First Presbyterian church there. He retired in 1926.
Merrill Clarke went to Brooklyn Latin School and Polytechnic Preparatory School. He entered Amherst college in 1905, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa honors in three-and-one-half years. He spent a half-year abroad, including a Summer semester in Philology at the University of Munich. He taught at the Hill School, Pottstown, Pa., for two years. He entered Union Theological Seminary with the class of 1914. In the fall of 1915 he was made Stated Supply of the Olmstead Avenue Presbyterian Church, Bronx, N. Y., and in May following was formally ordained to the ministry.
In June, 1917, he received leave of absence from his church and entered the U. S. Army Ambulance Corps. In July he sailed for France, and was at- tached to the French army as an ambulance driver, serving in the Marne, Aisne, Oise and Belgian sectors. His unit was S. S. U. 539, composed largely of Amherst men. His section was honored with two awards of the croix de guerre with palm, and received the citation for the fourragere. Mr. Clarke received the personal award of the croix de guerre.
He served wtih the French Army of Occupation at Landau, Palatinate, Germany, until February, 1919. He returned home in April, and in September resumed work at the Olmstead Avenue church.
In 1922 he resigned to assume the pastorate of the New Canaan Congre- gational Church, where he assumed his pulpit on July 16. At the time of the observance of the church's two hundredth anniversary he is still grow- ing in personal influence in the community, and is esteemed far be- yond his own parish as a preacher and occasional speaker. He is a member of the Fairfield Association of Churches' Missionary Committee, the Connecticut Council of Churches' Social Service Committee, and as chair- man is very deeply immersed in the work of the General Conference of Connecticut Social Relations Committee, and that of the Industrial Relations Committee of the New England Regional Conference on Social Relations.
In 1929 he married Miss Mary P. Bradley of New Canaan, whose place in the community was already a very important one. As wife of the minister of the Congregational church she has had unusual opportunities to be of out- standing service in innumerable connections. She has entered with full-hearted sympathy into the various activities of the church, where her wise counsel, her personality and her native ability along widely diversified lines have made her invaluable. She has been no less interested in Mr. Clarke's extra-church activities, and has been active in local charitable work, and especially in the relief program, a major problem at the time of this anniversary and throughout the depression years following 1929.
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As a gardener and interior decorator of ability, she has helped Mr. Clarke make the old building which was purchased for a parsonage one of the most de- lightful spots in a country noted for the beauty and charm of its homes and their settings. In every respect Mrs. Clarke shares the love and loyalty with which her husband is regarded in the church and the community.
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REPORTS OF THE ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEES
COMMITTEE ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
SECTION I.
The Committee believes that the aims for the general Religious Educational program of the church should be:
1. To foster a constant consciousness of God.
2. To foster a knowledge and appreciation of Jesus Christ and to develop Christlike character.
3. To aid in Spiritual Development.
4. To teach the value and experience of worship.
5. To develop a desire to contribute constructively to the bettering of the social order throughout the world, including a consciousness of World Friendship and the universal Fatherhood of God.
6. To offer definite opportunities for service.
7. To develop a life philosophy built on a Christian interpretation of the Universe.
8. To teach the Bible as a history of religious development and effective guide to present experience.
9. To provide classes for all ages and also teacher training oppor- tunities; opportunities for conference attendance; and to make available books dealing with Religious Education and Devotional Life.
SECTION II.
Since it seemed desirable to consider the Church School as its most neces- sary task, the committee has studied the organization and curriculum of the school; available courses of study in so far as time has permitted; and the report of the Anniversary Committee on Youth in the Church. The Religious Education Committee and Church School Staff met with Mr. Porter Bower, Director of Religious Education under the Connecticut Congregational Con- ference.
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The Committee recommends:
1. That the Church School be graded more accurately and divided into departmental units.
a. Cradle Roll and Beginners
b. Primary
c. Junior
d. Young People
c. Adult and Home Department
2. That separate departmental opening services of worship be held following the reopening of the parish house. The Committee suggests that the Church School teachers discuss the value of this plan, especially as regards the Junior, Young People and Adult Departments in a School of this size, after it has been tried for about two months.
3. That departmental gatherings be held other than Sunday mornings, weekly or monthly as determined by each department.
4. That the Church School begin at 9.45 a. m., allowing a full 65 minute session.
5. That a teacher training program be incorporated as part of the program for monthly teachers' meetings.
6. That a parent class and parent teacher gatherings be planned if it is desired by the parents of the Church School.
7. That available course text books and training course text books for Church School use be listed and that books be added to the Church Library dealing with these subjects.
8. That World Friendship interests and information be a definite part of the Church School program with definite projects adopted by the School.
9. That a nursery class be held during the Church Service, this class to be a part of the Cradle Roll Department program.
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