USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. II > Part 20
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which, however deliberately formed by a young and ardent spirit, a further knowledge of the world, and a deeper insight into the hidden things of the heart, might make it desirable to rescind. We would not that any individual, however much his talents might promise, should become a candidate for the sacred office from motives of mere gratitude to his patrons, or, indeed, without feeling himself, on the deepest and most rational convictions, moved thereto by the Holy Ghost.
" The cause of this society, then, is the common cause of learning and religion, and it will be success- ful in proportion as men of real worth and talents shall be aided to surmount the difficulties of poverty, and to occupy useful stations in the learned profes- sions. It is true that genius will, at some rate, work its own way in spite of all obstacles, and we would be far from lending encouragement to inaction, and from sparing any young men in straitened circum- stances the salutary necessity of making themselves. Such a scheme would be unnecessary and unwise, if not positively hurtful. We would have no drones fattening upon the fruits of our labors. Our wish is to extend only a partial support - enough, however, to enable our young friends to toil their arduous pathway up the hill of science without lagging under the lengthened chain of debt, by which many gen- erous spirits are dragged down and lost to that sphere of usefulness, which a little succor would have em- powered them to reach. They whom we would aid, should learn to rely on themselves, to put forth all their energies, and they should seek no indulgence
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but that of equal privilege for study with those whose collegiate course is uninterrupted."1
The Society was the child of the Convention, and the foregoing extract from the first Annual Report of the Board of Directors will show the spirit and design of its founders. The Constitution limited assistance to the form of loans, and to students in the College at Hartford, and these loans were to be repaid, without interest, within three years from the time of leaving college. By his own note the student became re- sponsible for the sums received, and, when returned, they were to be used again in aiding other meritorious young men, members of the Episcopal Church, in the attainment of a collegiate education. Though a loan- ing society, it has been the means of doing much good, and the lengthening the list of the clergy of the Diocese, shortly after its organization, was due in no small measure to its beneficent agency. It is still in existence, modestly continuing its work, and, by a canon of the Diocese, each parish is required to make an annual collection in aid of its funds.
Among the canons that underwent the revision of 1821, were those which declared the offences for which a clergyman may be brought to trial, and the manner of his trial. The constitution of the ecclesiastical court, the notification to the offender, the charges made against him, and the form of proceedings, were all detailed by the new Canon with a minuteness which left no room for doubt or misunderstanding. Under the old law, it was provided that an indefinite number of persons, accusing a minister of offences for which he might be tried, should apply in writing first
1 Journal of Diocesan Convention 1828, pp. 38, 39.
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to the Standing Committee, and if it appeared to them that there was ground for the charges, they were to report to the Bishop, who thereupon " called a convention of the clergy (not less than seven), and, after a full and fair examination, the Bishop, with the advice of the clergy present, should pronounce sen- tence against him."
The new Canon was specific, and required two per- sons, one of whom must be a presbyter of the Dio- cese, to bring the charges, under their own signature, to the Standing Committee, and if the Committee deemed them properly made, they notified the Bishop that there was sufficient ground for presenting the offender for trial, and they prepared to act as prose- cutors before the court of nine presbyters subse- quently designated to hear the case.
The first clergyman who fell under the operation of this Canon was the Rev. Menzies Rayner. He had been conspicuous in the councils of the Diocese for a quarter of a century, had used his- pen freely in con- troversy, and participated in some of the sharpest theological disputes of the day. Quick-witted, as shown in a former chapter, and rather belligerent in his temperament, but deficient in the refinements.of literary culture, he was a bold assailant, and thought little and cared less about the storms that might arise from encountering the prejudices and opposing the views of Christian people from whom he widely dif- fered. Calvinism was the ghost that constantly dis- turbed him in his religious dreams, and he fought it like a tiger. Whenever it rose before him, he in- stantly prepared himself for battle, and with a feeling of conscious ability, and flattered by the praise of
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men who love the prophets that "speak unto them smooth things," he overlooked the principles of the Church, and fell into the habit of countenancing and disseminating opinions contrary to her doctrines and discipline. He sprung to the opposite extreme from Calvinism, and the dissertations in dogmatic theology which he uttered, both from the pulpit and from the press, finally awakened the fears of his friends and parishioners, and led them to charge him with holding and teaching the doctrine of Universal salvation. In- stead of quieting their suspicions, and convincing them that he was sound in the faith and accepted the generally received and Scriptural view of the future punishment of the wicked, he grew bolder in the utterance of his opinions, and complied with invita- tions from Universalists to preach in school-houses, public halls, and private residences, where the rubrics and liturgy of the Church were, for the most part, disregarded, and the impression produced that he was a great champion, in the priestly office, of the cause of Universalism. His controversies, about this time, were not wholly confined to religious matters, for at a Convocation of the clergy held in Newtown, June, 1826, he "obtained liberty to make a statement in relation to a lawsuit in which he was interested." This was a suit brought by himself against a fellow townsman for defamation. It grew out of his defence of Universalism, and although it was decided in his favor, and he recovered damages to the amount of seven hundred dollars, yet he was unable to regain the confidence and affections of his people, and the parish in Ripton speedily devised measures to termi- nate his rectorship. Other suits followed, one with
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a physician in Ripton, a prominent churchman, who had been his fast friend, and for some time Mr. Rayner gave more attention to the civil courts than was con- sistent with the office of a priest, appointed to serve "in the courts of the house of our God."
Until 1823, the Episcopalians in the town of Hun- tington formed one incorporated society with two churches, and the worshippers in these were not to tax each other for repairs, or any "expense except for the support of a clergyman." But in that year the Episcopalians in the part of the town then called New Stratford (now Monroe), petitioned the General Assembly " to be incorporated into a separate and distinct ecclesiastical society," and also asked that the fund and other property belonging to the whole in common, might be divided and apportioned between the two parishes of Ripton and New Stratford, so that each should have the power to manage its own con- cerns, and possess and control that portion of the fund which was subscribed within its particular limits. The petition was granted, and the division peaceably consummated according to a mutual understanding of the two parishes, but it involved no change in the pastoral relations of Mr. Rayner. He continued his residence at Ripton and officiated as before in the two churches, but there was a growing discontent among the people of that place, which came to a head in midsummer, 1826. Then the difficulties between him- self and the parish at Ripton were carried before the Bishop and Standing Committee of the Diocese, and upon their recommendation, the connection was soon after dissolved. Mr. Rayner transferred his residence to Monroe, and the parish there - whether desiring
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them or not - had, for a time, the full benefit of his ministrations. He claimed a settlement for life, and the people, learning wisdom from the dear experience of Ripton, quietly waited the action of the ecclesias- tical authority to dispose of his case.
On the 7th of November, 1827, the Standing Com- mittee met at Stratford, and the following document, duly signed, in conformity with the Canon, by two persons, one a presbyter and the other a layman of the Diocese, was received and considered :-
"Whereas it is commonly reported and believed, that the Rev. Menzies Rayner, a presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Con- necticut, is in the habit of countenancing and dissemi- nating opinions which are contrary to the doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States; and also, that the said Rayner is in the habit of public preaching, without using the Liturgy of the Church, and further, that his conduct, for some time past, has been unbecoming the character of a Christian minister : -
" Now, therefore, we, the undersigned, earnestly de- sirous that the truth of the said reports should be investigated, agreeably to the fourth Canon of the Convention of the State of Connecticut, do hereby charge the said Menzies Rayner with the above recited offences, and present the same for the consideration of the Standing Committee."
In consequence of information received from the Bishop that Mr. Rayner had assured him that "he would immediately make the declaration required by the seventh Canon of the General Convention of 1820, to enable the Bishop to suspend him from the min- VOL. II. 18
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istry of the Church without trial," the Committee decided to postpone all proceedings on the charges until further informed, and when they met again, two months afterwards, he had relinquished his ministry in the Episcopal Church, and been suspended from the exercise of its office.1
This was not the first change which he had made, having been, in early life, a Methodist preacher. It was evidently no sudden step with him, and in pre- paring for it he watched his opportunities well, and obtained from the Universalist Society in Hartford overtures tantamount to a call, before finally leaving the fold which had enclosed him in love for so many years. He removed back to the city where he first began his Episcopal ministry in Connecticut, but his old friends did not welcome him in the new capacity of a Universalist preacher. Whatever regard they had for the man, they had more for the Church of Christ, and the same might be said of those who sus- tained him to the last in the cure where Providence permitted him to sow seed that sprang up and yielded a plentiful crop of religious doubt and indifferentism.
This is not the place to record his history in the new pastoral relations to which he devoted the re- mainder of his days. Enough will have been said when it is mentioned that he lived on, beyond the time of his renunciation of the Episcopal ministry, a score of years or more, leaving Hartford after a brief connection with the Universalist Society there, and residing in different places out of the State, ac- cording as he could find the best support for him- self and his family. He made occasional visits to his 1 Appendix C.
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former friends in Connecticut whom he had indoctri- nated with his sentiments, and sometimes he taxed the courtesy of his Episcopal acquaintance to aid him in procuring a hall or school-house to preach in; but these visits could not have afforded him much satis- faction, when he saw the communion which he had forsaken growing everywhere with such fair propor- tions, and the sect, to the bosom of which he had fled, still struggling to plant its foot firmly upon the soil.
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CHAPTER XX.
NEW PARISHES; PROPOSED CHANGES IN THE LITURGY; VISIT OF THE BISHOP TO THE SOUTHWESTERN STATES; AND LACK OF CLERGYMEN.
A. D. 1828 - 1831.
FOR a period of ten years the outward prosperity of the Diocese had been seen, not so much in the formation of new parishes as in the vigor and growth of those already established. Several of them had erected larger and better edifices to take the place of the rude structures built before the Revolutionary War, and in 1828, the parishes of Christ Church, Hart- ford, and Christ Church, Norwich, proceeded each to the erection of a stone edifice in the Gothic style of architecture. That at Hartford was the design of the Rector (Rev. N. S. Wheaton), and was modelled mainly after Trinity Church, New Haven. Standing on the corner-stone, which was laid May 13th, 1828, and referring to the superstructure, Mr. Wheaton, among other things, said : -
"We build this house in Faith. We have the divine assurance that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church; and it is therefore with no feel- ings of distrust that we strengthen our hands for the work.
"We build this house in Hope. We are animated by the expectation that many sons and daughters will
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here be born to God, that many sinners will be re- claimed and fitted for eternal glory. For ourselves, we anticipate, if such is God's pleasure, the enjoyment of many days of holy communion with Him in this house, and when our voices have ceased to roll along its walls, and our heads are laid low in the dust, it is our confidence that a generation will not be want- ing to perpetuate our hymns to Christ, the King of Glory.
"We build this house in Charity. While we con- scientiously differ from some of our Christian brethren, and on points not unimportant, we desire to be united with all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, in the bonds of Christian love. Most devoutly do we pray, also, that the harmony of feeling which pervades the parish in relation to our undertaking may continue and increase. It will be the surest pledge of our prosperity, that our Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself. O pray then for her peace, that it may be found within her walls, and knit all hearts together in the bonds of a close and holy fellow- ship."
The church was consecrated the next year, two days before Christmas, by Bishop Hobart, in the absence of the Bishop of the Diocese.
An edifice of stone in the Gothic style was also built at Kent, and consecrated late in the summer of 1827, - being "the fourth church erected, in four adjoining towns, under the auspices of the Rev. George B. Andrews." The other three were in Sharon, New Preston, and Salisbury, and were constructed of brick. Still earlier than this, a new brick church at Hebron had been consecrated, in the autumn of 1826, which
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Bishop Brownell, in his address to the Convention the next year, thus described : "In point of beauty and design, and excellence of workmanship, it may prob- ably rank as the second church in the Diocese, - Trinity Church at New Haven being the only edifice which is superior to it."
But now new parishes were beginning to be organ- ized in places where, hitherto, there had either been no call for the services of an Episcopal clergyman, or where they had been only occasionally rendered. The church in the eastern part of the State, built before the revolution on the confines of Pomfret, Canterbury, and Plainfield, did not suit the convenience of the Episcopalians residing in Pomfret, and they formed themselves into a parish, which was admitted into union with the Convention at its session in Norwalk, 1828. The next year an organization was effected in Hitchcocksville (now Riverton), Litchfield County, under the direction of a missionary of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and an expensive stone church was begun, and, after a while, completed with the aid of contributions from other parts of the Diocese. But the prosperity of the vil- lage suddenly declined, and the enterprise proved unsuccessful, though more recently the parish has been revived, and the hope is now entertained that it will ultimately flourish.
The parish of Trinity Church, New Haven, received such accessions from the increase of the city and other causes, that it was found necessary, in 1828, to call an assistant minister (Rev. Francis L. Hawks), and to adopt measures to erect a chapel in another part of the city for the better accommodation of the wor-
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shippers. It was a spacious Gothic edifice, the fifth of our churches in the Diocese built of stone, and was consecrated April, 1830. It was the first instance of erecting a second Episcopal church in any city of Connecticut, and the plan pursued to raise the money to meet the expense was the same as in the case of building the mother church. Bishop Brownell, in his address for 1829, said : -
"Since the last Annual Convention, I have visited more than half the parishes in this Diocese, and, owing to its compactness and the facility of inter- course, have had opportunities for receiving informa- tion from most of the others. While a few of these parishes continue to languish, through adverse dis- pensations of Providence, or from a want of zeal in the people, the general aspect of the Diocese is cal- culated to inspire us with hope, and to fill us with gratitude. Most of the congregations appear to be increasing in numbers and strength, and in several instances, where a few years ago the united exertions of two neighboring congregations could hardly sup- port a clergyman, each one is now in the full enjoy- ment of the regular ministrations of the gospel. Some new parishes have recently been organized, and I have lately received pressing calls for missionary ser- vices, with a fair promise of usefulness, in places where the ministrations of our Church have never yet been dispensed. Since my removal to this Diocese, little more than nine years ago, I have consecrated eleven churches, nearly all of which have been built within that period. It gives me peculiar satisfaction to add that active exertions are, at the present time, in progress for the erection of ten new churches, three
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of which are in parishes newly organized. Within the period above alluded to, the number of the clergy belonging to the Diocese has increased from thirty- four1 to fifty-nine, and there are, at the present time, five vacant parishes capable of supporting settled clergymen, besides one vacant missionary station. If the spiritual state of our Church should have ad- vanced in improvement, in the same ratio with its external growth, we should, indeed, have great cause for mutual felicitations. Within the last few years, a decided revival of Christian zeal seems to have per- vaded the great body of our Church, and may we not hope that this Diocese has participated, in no small degree, in its animating spirit ?"
Among the " ten new churches," referred to in this extract, were those at Windham, Chatham (now Port- land), and Middletown. The two latter were in a style of Grecian architecture, and constructed of the brown sandstone, taken from the celebrated quarries in the neighborhood. The church. at Windham was built of granite, and the parish there was a new organization. An Episcopal Society was started in the town as early as 1804, but "after maintaining worship about a year, the members voted to join the First [Congregational] Society in the support of the gospel ministry." A new parish was organized at Saybrook -a place where sixteen men, twelve of them Congregational ministers, met in September, 1708, and adopted a platform which, receiving, a month later, the approbation of the General Assem-
1 This was the number recorded as present at the consecration of Bishop Brownell, but six clergymen " belonging to the Diocese " were absent at that time, among them Mansfield and Tyler.
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bly, became the legal ecclesiastical establishment in Connecticut. It was natural that some feeling should be exhibited when steps were taken to introduce the Episcopal form of worship1 into a town around which clustered, for the Congregationalists, such pecu- liar historic associations.
The Convention of 1829 appointed a committee to take into consideration the state of the Church in the Diocese, but nothing of importance was elicited in this way. A brief extract from their report will show that the spiritual building was, as it always should be, the main concern of the clergy.
"To secure the future prosperity of the Church, the harmonious efforts of both ministers and people must bring into action the feelings of the heart, the powers of the mind, and the devotedness of the soul to God. The externals of religion may be beautiful and splen-
1 " Now we turn the leaf, and see a page altogether different - a page blotted by disunion and the rendings of deforming schism. As early as the beginning of February [1830], the month anterior to the great acces- sion to this Church, and in the midst of a full flow of revival feelings, and the all-thrilling sympathies of religious excitement, some of our opulent citizens invited an Episcopal clergyman to officiate in private dwellings, and hold a weekly evening service. These meetings continued, week by week, either in those mansions or the school-house, till, on April 9th, they observed a public day of worship, on Good Friday. On May 31st, as I understood, they organized their church, and elected their wardens and vestrymen. On the 9th of August, 1830, the corner stone of the Epis- copal church was laid, and, in the next year, Aug. 16th, 1831, the church was consecrated. Public worship has been sustained by them to the present time, and we have now two houses of worship within our local boundaries. All this constitutes a new era in my ministry, and in the religious history of Saybrook." - Rev. F. W. Hotchkiss' Half Century Sermon, 1833, pp. 13, 14.
The clergyman who held the " weekly evening services" was the Rev. Ashbel Steele, a Missionary of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.
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did, and the form of godliness may spread far and wide; but what are these when its power is not deeply felt, or when the holy truths, sealed by the blood of apostles and martyrs, are rejected or coldly assented to? The sinfulness of the human heart must be felt, faith in the atoning blood of Christ must be consented to in the affections, and all the duties of Christianity practiced, to render the spiritual building of God all glorious within. Sacrifices must be made, and the standard of the cross must be raised over the ruins of pride and selfishness and vanity, for the safety of our own souls and the souls of our fellow men."
Up to this time Bishop Brownell had administered the rite of confirmation to three thousand three hun- dred and seventy-four persons.
Since the revision by the General Convention of 1789, the Book of Common Prayer had undergone no changes. Some dissatisfaction was occasionally expressed with the length of the morning service, but, for the most part, the members of our communion were entirely contented with the Liturgy, and opposed to alterations.
At the General Convention of 1826, the House of Bishops, then composed of ten members, and all being present except two, unanimously recommended cer- tain changes in the order for reading the Psalter and Lessons, in the office of Confirmation, and in the rubric at the end of the Communion service. These changes were proposed by Bishop Hobart, and the preamble which accompanied his resolutions stated that the House of Bishops were "deeply solicitous to preserve unimpaired the Liturgy of the Church, and yet de-
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sirous to remove the reasons alleged, from the sup- posed length of the service, for the omission of some of its parts, and particularly for the omission of that part of the Communion office which is commonly called the Ante-communion." The resolution which related to the reading of holy Scripture, provided that " the minister may, at his discretion, instead of the entire Lessons, read suitable portions thereof, not less than fifteen verses. And on other days than Sundays and holy days, in those places where Morning and Evening Prayer is not daily used, he may read other portions of the Old and New Testament, instead of the prescribed Lessons." An alternative preface was to be inserted in the Order of Confirmation, and also another collect, which might be used, at the discretion of the Bishop, instead of the first collect.
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