USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Hartford's First Church > Part 8
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The Ancient Burying Ground does not now belong and never has belonged to the Church but manifestly the inter- est of the Church is very great in this God's acre. It was placed under the charge of the Park Board by the city gov- ernment and has since had excellent care. It lies now be-
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Hartford's First Church
tween the Meeting House and Center Church House, and will ever be dear to all those who worship in the Meeting House or come to serve at the Church House.
If it had not been for this improvement of the Burying Ground and the widening of Gold Street, the present loca- tion of the Center Church House would have been quite impossible. The Church is therefore doubly indebted to those who were responsible for carrying out this plan at a time when the need for an addition to its plant had be- come imperative.
In the later years of the pastorate of Dr. Lamson in- creased attention was given by the Church to the conduct of the Sunday School. Devoted and effective volunteer serv- ice had been given to the school during nearly one hundred years. Wise guidance had been supplied by laymen serving as superintendents and by earnest and loyal men and women serving as teachers. With the growth of the community and the dispersal of the homes of many of the people to greater distances from the center of the city it became increasingly difficult to secure volunteer service and it was found nec- essary to secure trained and experienced paid workers for the direction of the school in order to make it serve ade- quately under these changed conditions. This extension of the work of the Sunday School brought vividly to the atten- tion of the committees of the Church and of the Sunday School staff the need of a more adequate plant in which to carry on the educational and social activities of the con- gregation. The rooms used for this purpose on the second floor of the old Chapel Building were found to be too lim- ited and too lacking in facilities to make possible the devel- opment that was felt necessary and desirable.
On November 13, 1904 the members of the congre- gation were surprised to find an item on the calendar which
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Center Church House
Center Church House
read, "The sum of $4.00 has been deposited with the Treas- urer of the Church to start a fund for a new Parish House." The manifest contrast between the meager amount thus offered and the amount needed for any such ambitious proj- ect caused some smiles to pass through the pews as the congregation assembled. In the following weeks the item reappeared upon the calendar with some slight increase in the total amount registered.
Meantime the Minister had occasionally mentioned the matter to members of the Prudential Committee of the Church and others who might reasonably be expected to have special interest in any proposals looking to the future welfare of the Church and its work.
In the week before the Easter of 1905 Mr. Francis R. Cooley informed the Prudential Committee that he and his mother, Mrs. Clarissa Smith Cooley, his sisters, Mrs. Clara Cooley Jacobus and Mrs. Sarah Cooley Hall and his brother, Mr. Charles Parsons Cooley, were disposed to offer to the Church a gift of one hundred thousand dollars, in memory of the late Francis B. Cooley for the purpose of securing a site and erecting thereon a suitable parish house.
The Business Committee which received this informa- tion in behalf of the Prudential Committee at once set about to secure a site, or at least some options for a site, know- ing that this step should in all business prudence be taken before any public announcement be made of the gift. Prop- erty at the corner of Gold and Lewis Streets was deemed the most desirable for this purpose. The property on the south side of Gold Street was considered as possibly avail- able. The original proposal had suggested the wisdom of retaining the building next north of the Meeting House as a permanent investment of the original fund of 1802 which had been used in its purchase.
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The property desired was found available for the pur- pose and options for the lots were secured with the excep- tion of that for the lot on the immediate corner of Gold and Lewis Streets. It was hoped that an option on this lot also could be secured the day before Easter in order that announcement of the gift might be made at that service. At noon, however, unexpected difficulties appeared. For the moment this seemed to block the opportunity of the Church to receive the gift proposed.
In the evening of that day, however, the Business Com- mittee was able to negotiate for a further piece of prop- erty on Lewis Street somewhat to the north of the property for which options had already been secured. This made possible the announcement of the gift, inasmuch as enough ground had been secured on which to build the needed parish house even if the immediate corner of Gold and Lewis Streets should not prove available. Accordingly the gift was announced on Easter Sunday, 1905 and the congre- gation was privileged to celebrate the great Christian festi- val with an enthusiastic response to this challenge to their future service and with sincere gratitude to the family of one who had long served the Church as a devoted and wide counsellor and a loyal supporter of many of the prac- tical aspects of its work.
On the following day the difficulties which had arisen with regard to the proposed purchase of the property on the corner of Gold and Lewis Streets were overcome and the Church was in a position to plan for the building of a parish house on the site which was clearly recognized as the most desirable for that purpose. It appeared, however, that there were certain leases upon the property thus ac- quired and while the desire was marked among the workers of the Church to go forward immediately with the new
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Center Church House
project, it was considered on the whole wise not to sacri- fice any considerable portion of the gift in buying up these leases, but to wait for the four years necessary for their expiration, and in the meantime to let the fund accumulate by the addition of its income to its principal while the plans for the building were undertaken with abundant time for their careful preparation in view of a thorough study of the probable future needs of the Church and its work.
Accordingly the house was not built until 1909. The corner stone was laid on November 9, 1908. The building was dedicated November 17, 1909 and has been for a score of years the happy home of the activities of the Church.
For many years the rooms in the so-called old Chapel Building had been used by different organizations of the city undertaking religious or social welfare work. During a long period, a weekly meeting of the ministers of the city was held in the old parlors. Organizations such as the Con- necticut Bible Society, the Woman's Aid Society, the Shelter for Women, and The Charity Organization Society turned naturally to the Church for the use of these facilities for their meetings, both because of the convenient location of the Church in the center of the city and because of the num- ber of Center Church people engaged in these activities.
When Center Church House was built, these same or- ganizations and many others sought the use of its chapel and various rooms with similar purpose. In view of the re- lation of the Church to the city historically and because of the obligation which it felt toward its cultural life, it was decided to adopt the most generous possible attitude toward such applications for the use of the Church House. The Prudential Committee adopted the principle that the use of the various rooms in Center Church House be
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granted to religious, educational or philanthropic organiza- tions without charge, except for the necessary janitor serv- ice involved, at such times as should not conflict with the regular uses of the house by the Church itself and by its organizations. The policy thus adopted has been carried out in the conduct of the parish house and a great number and variety of organizations of the city have made use of the rooms and facilities available to further the purposes of the educational, religious or welfare work to which they are devoted.
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CHAPTER VIII
Educational Aims and Achievements
IN the Puritan churches knowledge of the Christian truth and life was from the beginning closely bound up with the cultivation of its expression in worship and its practice in conduct. One of the motives of the Puritan revolt in Eng- land was the desire for a more intelligent and more in- telligible presentation of the Gospel from the pulpit Thoughtful Christians in whose hands had been placed the Bible in their own language, in the version of 1611, were stirred to read its pages and sought to understand its meanings. They desired the help of an educated and effec- tive pulpit in this undertaking. They protested against the leadership in worship of men who could only read the service or at most repeat the sermons of other preachers.
When they were established on this side of the water, these churches desired not only a minister who could preach the gospel from the pulpit in his sermons on successive Sun- days, opening its meanings to their questing minds as a preacher, but also a minister who might serve as a teacher among them, sharing occasionally the pulpit with the pastor and leading the people in the consideration of the meanings of the Gospel in additional hours devoted to instruction. It would be interesting to know just what was the division
Hartford's First Church
of ministerial labor between Thomas Hooker, the first Minister of the Church and Samuel Stone who was associ- ated with him as the Teacher. Unfortunately there is no record remaining which gives a clear picture of the way in which these tasks were shared. The leadership of Hooker was so marked that it is probable he gave both the sermons that were preached on Sundays and the occasional lectures that were delivered on other days before the citizens of the Colony gathered in their Meeting House.
The usage of the Church soon developed a regular meeting during the week, the purpose of which was instruc- tion in the meaning of the Gospel and probably the com- munication of information as to the affairs of the times, in so far as knowledge of them could come in those days by the slow methods of transit that were provided from the old home in England, from the communities of the Bay Colony and from other developing communities of Connecticut and New Haven. This occasion came to be known as "the Great and Thursday Lecture," and served the purpose of a kind of weekly editorial delivered by the minister or by the teacher upon such current events as had come to their knowledge.
Throughout the early history of the Church this in- stitution continued, more or less intermittently, and for successive generations it served as the chief means of reli- gious education among the people aside from the instruction provided by the pulpit in the worship of the Lord's Day. There are no records to indicate any special organization of the Church for the purpose of cultivating this privilege and its opportunities. One can imagine that attention in the Thursday lecture was often diverted from religious themes to the affairs of the Colony. Instruction as to the relationship of the towns one to another, as to their common responsibilities and as to their organization through the
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Educational Aims and Achievements
General Court, must have claimed the attention of many such a gathering in the earlier years when the organization of the Colony was being developed. Later the theological and ecclesiastical debate which issued in the division of the Church and the forming of the Second Church must have provided matter for many vigorous presentations on the part of Mr. Whiting who became the leader of the new movement. In the eighteenth century during the Great Awakening the instruction of the Church in the Thursday lecture must have been devoted very largely to the con- sideration of the theological ideas that lay back of that general movement among the churches. Doubtless as the years moved on towards the period of the Revolution, political issues came to the front in the lectures delivered by Mr. Dorr during his pastorate. It is likely that in Nathan Strong's time the lectures were interrupted by the necessities of the war and its effect upon the community. Whether Dr. Strong made use of them to set forth his political ideas in the years following the Revolution, when there must have been much discussion of political matters, we do not know.
As the opportunities for the discussion of public matters in other than church meetings increased and as the news- paper began its dissemination of news, the Thursday lec- ture undoubtedly was returned to its original function and was devoted more exclusively to instruction upon religious matters, both theological and biblical. It may be that the people felt they were receiving sufficient instruction on such matters from the pulpit in the worship of the Church, for it does not appear that the Thursday lecture played any considerable part in the church life during the latter part of Dr. Strong's ministry.
At the beginning of the ministry of Dr. Hawes in 1818 the Sunday School movement, which had been initiated in
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England as an effort to reach children and youth who were quite outside of the influence of the churches, made its way to New England and Connecticut. Dr. Hawes gave gen- erous interest to this project and within the first year of his pastorate shared in the organization of "The Hartford Sunday School Society." Dr. Flint, the honored Minister of the Second Church, became the president of this Society and Dr. Hawes became one of the directors. At the begin- ning the Sunday Schools were under the charge of this Society rather than of particular churches. There were four schools organized, each using quarters provided by one of the four churches of the town. School Number One was held at the North Conference Room on Temple Street which had been secured by the First Church during the later years of Dr. Strong's ministry. A second school was held at the Episcopal Church, the third at the Baptist Meeting House and the fourth at the chapel of the Second or South Church. The constitution stated that "the object of the Society shall be to communicate religious instruction to those who shall attend its schools; and to teach the rudi- ments of learning so far as may be necessary for the attain- ment of religious knowledge." There were two sessions on Sunday, one at nine o'clock and the other at two in the afternoon, during the summer months only.
The original arrangement of having the schools admin- istered by a separate society and assigned for their accom- modation and doubtless for their workers to the different churches, did not long prove satisfactory and after two years the responsibility for the schools was taken over by the churches to which they had been assigned. It would appear that the Sunday School Society continued its exist- ence, preserving a friendly oversight of the schools and ful- filling its purpose as a source of inspiration for their workers. Later on the Society developed additional schools
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Educational Aims and Achievements
under its direct control, one of which became Warburton Chapel and another the Morgan Street Sunday School, later on the Village Street School. Other schools from time to time provided Sunday School instruction for children and youth in different parts of the city, one in particular on Albany Avenue and another on New Britain Avenue. Just when the original Sunday School Society ceased its activities is not now definitely known.
Meantime the original Sunday Schools became the edu- cational agencies of the churches with which they had been associated. The school that had been "Number One" be- came known as the Sunday School of the First Church. It was not formally under direct control of either the church organization or its ecclesiastical society, but it was de- pendent upon the Society for provision of the Conference Room in which it met and upon the Church for its officers and teachers. Its pupils were drawn for the most part from the homes of the congregation. The report of the school for 1837 shows that the afternoon session had been given up and one meeting of an hour and a half in the morning had taken its place. Later, in the report for 1867 we find that "the most noticeable and probably important event in the history of our school in the year we chronicle, was the change in the time of holding it from nine and a half A. M. to three P. M." It was felt that, had more space been available, many adult classes could have been formed and the "Sunday School would not merely take the time of the old afternoon service but actually take its place and be a substitute for it." Its purpose was to provide knowledge of the Bible in order that such knowledge might be available in the minds of youth when later on they should be con- fronted with the challenge to enter into the Christian ex- perience. The teachers and officers of the school exercised great moral influence over their pupils and the declared
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purpose of the Sunday School was character building through the provision of biblical instruction. One of the early reports states it in these terms, "The design and end of Sabbath School instruction is to make the children wise unto salvation."
In 1832 the needs of the Sunday School had so de- veloped that the Church asked the Society to make more adequate provision for its accommodation. To meet this need the Society sold the Conference Room on Temple Street and purchased the land next north of the Meeting House on Main Street. The building which stood upon this land was adapted for the purposes of the Sunday School and other meetings of the Church and served as its home until the building of Center Church House in 1909.
The work of the Sunday School through the more than one hundred years of its history has been notable in the contribution of intelligence, fellowship and character it has made to the membership of the Church. The school has kept in touch with the leaders in the work of religious educa- tion both in the community and throughout the country and has shown itself ready to make use of the newer methods as developed by the resources of modern pedagogy. During the pastorate of Dr. Lamson the rules of the Church were so amended as to provide that the election of the Superin- tendent of the Sunday School should be made by the Church. The school has had the devoted service of as fine a body of Christian men and women as ever served a Church in its educational work. A list of its officers and teachers through the years would include a large proportion of those who have made the Church what it has been and would show as well the names of not a few of those who have been prominent in the business, the cultural and even the political life of the city. The school has had the active sympathy and earnest interest of the congregation and it is probable that
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very few have come into the membership of the Church on confession of their Christian faith who have not been prepared for that step and in most instances led to it, by the instruction given in the school and the guiding influ- ence of its teachers upon their lives. By personal influence and by instruction the work of education in religion was thus carried on. Groups of boys and girls were gathered, societies of young men and of young women were organ- ized, flourished, gave their witness, offered their contribu- tion and were succeeded by other groups gathered with the same purpose.
Meantime the Thursday meetings of the Church, long since transferred from the afternoon to the evening of that day have continued to serve the educational purpose with which they were initiated by the fathers. The old Confer- ence Room on Temple Street during the later years of Dr. Strong's ministry was the scene of many Thursday evening meetings which contributed to the moral and re- ligious development of the more devoted members of the Church and its congregation. In like manner the old Chapel Building on Main Street was a place where on Thursday evenings the meanings of the Gospel and the bearing of its truths upon life and character were earnestly set forth by the instructions of the ministers.
At certain periods, meetings for conference and prayer and for the witness of Christian experience were also held during the week by different groups within the church mem- bership. Such meetings, held usually on Tuesday evenings, did much to promote the growth of the Christian life among the young people of the parish during the pastorate of Dr. Hawes, and led on to the formation of Young People's Societies in later years.
The Thursday evening meeting of the First Church has never been characteristically a prayer meeting, though
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always marked by an earnest spirit of devotion. It has been a meeting of the Church for instruction and for guidance. Expositions of scripture, interpretations of Christian truth, presentations of common tasks, have there challenged the minds and hearts of the people.
In the years following the World War the scope of these Thursday meetings was somewhat enlarged to include more fully the purposes of Christian education. Three motives were acknowledged, the desire for fellowship, the desire for instruction and the desire to engage in Chris- tian service. Fellowship has been achieved through a com- mon meal where around the tables friend has met with friend. New friendships have been formed and the spirit of Christian comradeship has had ample contagion. Instruc- tion has been given covering many ranges of the missionary work of the Church in the city, throughout the state, the nation and the world. Notable series of instructions upon different parts of the Bible have been presented and the wider aspects of Christian truth have been opened up by many gifted teachers who have generously given of their time and strength for this purpose. Plans have been made for many worthy Christian tasks in committee meetings and group gatherings that have been held in connection with these Thursday evening series which have come to be known as the Lenten School and the Fall Series. For the older youth and for the men and women of the Church these evenings have become a kind of adult education move- ment within the congregation.
In similar fashion the organizations of the women, of the men and of the young people have provided oppor- tunity for the education of the congregation in religion, its meanings and its tasks. Programs have been arranged, not for purposes of entertainment or recreation, but with the purpose of communicating new knowledge and under-
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standing of the meaning of the Christian way and the nature of the Christian task. The most recent develop- ment of this extension of the educational work of the Church has been the current events series for men and for young women, given by the Minister at a noon luncheon hour. The response to this service of the Church is such as to indicate further possibilities for its ministry in pre- senting a Christian interpretation of life and of the affairs of the world.
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CHAPTER IX The Women's Organizations
DURING the greater part of the history of the Church the impulse to Christian service among the women of its mem- bership and congregation has found expression in the per- sonal ministries of those elect and devoted women who have been most sensitive to human need and most responsive to the compulsions of the Gospel laid upon them by their Christian devotion. The greater part of the Christian serv- ice of a congregation must always be of this personal, un- organized sort, which can have its registry and its memorial only in the realm of the spirit.
In more recent years this impulse to Christian service has found expression in organized form. As early as 1859 an organization of women in the interest of home missions had been formed and was rendering its service under the popular name of "Sewing Society." The work of this So- ciety had been in part devoted to the preparation of cloth- ing and supplies for the families of ministers serving in home missionary churches in different parts of the country and in the preparation of garments for use in various relief organizations within the community. In 1886 this Sewing Society became formally related as an auxiliary to the Home Missionary Union of Connecticut, which was organized
The Women's Organizations
about that time to correlate and develop the activities of similar societies in many Connecticut churches.
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