USA > Connecticut > The story of the Diocese of Connecticut : a new branch of the vine (Espiscopal Church) > Part 19
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In the early 1870's the Missionary Society's directors became worried by the ineffective conduct of diocesan missions and pro- posed a new organization. Their agitation inspired the Convention in 1877 to adopt a canon organizing six archdeaconries: one each for Fairfield, New Haven, Litchfield, and Middlesex Counties, one for Hartford and Tolland, and one for New London and Windham. The Society revised its constitution to harmonize with the canon, and the archdeaconries were soon formed by meetings of the clergy and lay delegates.
The canon has been amended repeatedly and boundaries have been changed, but the organization remains substantially the same. The presiding officers at first were called "deans," but later "archdeacon" was adopted. Gradually the archdeaconries began to promote diocesan growth. Their first reports became models for all later ones, including financial accounts, aided parishes and missions, foreign-language services, new work, and special mis- sionary services.
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At first there was friction among the archdeaconries, and between them and the Diocese, partly because New Haven and Fairfield felt that they paid and the other four received. Such difficulties soon largely disappeared, and the archdeacons became nerve centers of missionary work. The system's persistent weakness was that they were busy parish priests. But, as the witty Rev. Harry I. Bodley of New Britain observed, they had one great merit in costing practically nothing.
Repeated proposals for radical changes in the archdeaconries always have been rejected. The most persistent one was the plan for a diocesan archdeacon, which was suggested as early as 1907. It was seriously discussed by the Council and the Convention in 1935-1937, and was earnestly recommended by the Department of Missions, and persuasively supported by Bishop Budlong and the Rev. Floyd Kenyon. Convention ultimately found the solution in the appointment of diocesan missionaries.
This strategy has not interfered with the continued effective work of the archdeaconries. They promote missionary enterprises through organizations resembling the Diocesan Convention and departments. The result has been tighter bonds between the parishes and the Council.
PARISHES
The parish is the basic administrative unit of the Diocese. In colonial times it was the only one, and according to law was an "ecclesiastical society," with the vestry as a "society's committee." The actual area served by a priest might include several towns and churches. The Convention recognized that situation in 1808 by establishing thirty-four "cures," mostly comprising two or more towns, and in 1828 increased the number to forty-four. This be- came the accepted way of enfolding all Church people into the parochial ministry.
It did not allay the growing discontent with the character of parochial government. The Congregational laws contradicted Episcopal tradition, encouraged annoying irregularities, and defied Bishop Jarvis's efforts to introduce uniform canonical practice. The Convention strove to secure a form of parochial corporation more in harmony with Episcopal usages. The only concession was a law of 1842 making wardens and vestrymen a "society's committee".
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Bishop Brownell was displeased with such a makeshift and Bishop Williams resolved to abolish it. In 1866 the Convention empowered him and the Standing Committee to request a law "more in accordance with the spirit and terminology of the Church." Upon examination they discovered that parish voters could empower wardens and vestrymen to transact all business which was "their own original right." In 1868 the Convention ordered the publication of forms for organizing and incorporating a parish, and for its application for admission.
Dissatisfaction persisted and in 1876 the Convention ap- proved a proposed law to organize and govern parishes according to the Church's rules and canons. Next year the Legislature passed an acceptable act, allowing all ecclesiastical societies organized in communion with the Episcopal Church to be known as parishes, empowered to hold property and to exercise all the ordinary powers of corporations. Administration should be in accordance with the diocesan constitution, canons, and regulations. The Convention accepted this law as "the Charter of the Church in this Diocese," and as such it is still in effect.
That victory did not settle all problems and many years passed before parochial administration fulfilled Bishop Williams's ideal. A serious defect was the loss or neglect of records. The Committee on the Preservation of Ancient Records, appointed in 1894, found great gaps in the archives of older parishes, especially in registers of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials. In some cases there were few or no entries for years, and the com- mittee scathingly condemned such negligence.
Thoroughly aroused, the Convention ordered the deposit of full registers in fireproof safes, and the copying of scattered records. The new rules required yearly inspection of registers, reports to the Bishop, and periodic publication of changed parish names. The Bishop appointed a Permanent Commission on Parochial Archives to collect and publish records. Because instances of fla- grant carelessness still occurred, Bishop Brewster advised the im- mediate entry of records, and in 1911 required the register to be presented to him at every visitation.
The Bishop also deplored the careless practices in parochial finances. He insisted upon sound business methods, careful handling of offerings, full information on use of funds, con-
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scientious auditing, and strict compliance with the canon on the security of trust funds.
The Bishop and the Convention became impatient with the frequent disputes about the qualifications of voters. In 1917-1918 a committee examined the state law and the canons, and declared that voting depended upon performance of the duties of member- ship. The Convention amended the canon to secure the right to those who regularly attended services and contributed to current expenses.
By the 1930's parish administration had achieved uniformity. Records generally were carefully kept and included many registers of services. Numerous parishes kept the Bishop regularly informed of their activities by sending him their weekly or monthly bulletins.
MISSIONS AND CHAPELS
Organized missions, called "Diocesan Missions," are es- tablished by the Bishop, with the advice and consent of the Ex- ecutive Council, and upon notice to the parishes in which they are located. The Bishop may terminate the existence of missions, upon due notice and by advice and consent of the Council. They are governed by executive committees, consisting of the officiating minister and officers chosen by the annual meeting and appointed by the archdeacon. The clerk keeps full records of proceedings and of legal members, who are admitted as in parishes. Property is owned by the Missionary Society, which provides the necessary financial aid.
Every organized mission is represented by a delegate in the Convention and in archdeaconry meetings. Missionaries, who are appointed and removed by the Bishop, make quarterly reports to the Diocese.
Unorganized missions called "Missionary Stations" may have the usual officers but elect no delegates to archdeaconry meetings or to the Convention. They are generally smaller than organized missions and have existed mostly in communities requiring a special ministry, such as small country towns or foreign-born neigh- borhoods, or are the first step towards "Diocesan Missions."
There is no canon or set of regulations regarding non- parochial chapels, and their governance is purely informal. Summer chapels have committees of seasonal attendants to provide
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ministers and worship and to administer the property. Their officers keep financial records and minutes, but are not required to report to the Diocese. Ecclesiastical acts are recorded in neighboring parishes or in those to which the parties belong.
Many chapels in church homes, hospitals, and schools are considered as formally Episcopalian. They are usually not con- trolled by the Diocese or required to make reports, although they may be mentioned in school catalogs or reports of trustees. Few have formal ecclesiastical records, excepting service record books in some cases. Acts by the chaplain or the Bishop are recorded in the local parish, or the one to which the parties belong.
DIOCESAN HOUSE
The smoothly running diocesan government is taken for granted by most Churchmen, who rarely realize its vast amount of incessant hard work. Only the Bishop fully appreciates it, and occasionally expresses gratitude in his address to Convention. Bishop Budlong once said: "As I preside over the various Diocesan Boards month after month and realize the immense amount of time and effort which is freely given, year by year, by hard-working men and women for the welfare of the Church, I am humbled and inspired by their devotion to their tasks and am proud to be their Bishop."5
Their manifold activities have required a larger diocesan headquarters. For many years the Bishop's office was his home. Bishop Williams administered the Diocese from his rooms at the Berkeley Divinity School in Middletown, with a theological student as his secretary.
Bishop Brewster's accession in 1899 inspired discussion of a central office. In 1904 the Convention named a committee to consider acquiring a bishop's residence and a diocesan house. Four years later they favored locating the office in Hartford, and appointed a commission to raise funds and secure property. The Connecticut Churchman already had mentioned the absurdity of a diocese with forty thousand communicants and no headquarters. In 1915 the generosity of James J. Goodwin provided the first episcopal residence, a spacious house on Woodland Street in Hartford. The house was remodeled and enlarged and provided with a chapel, and for many years was home and office.
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This seemed inadequate, and in 1918 the Convention con- tinued the commission to secure a diocesan house with a paid secretary and a secure place for valuable records. Bishop Acheson enthusiastically promoted the project, and hoped that some generous person would give a building large enough to provide offices for all diocesan organizations.
The benefactor failed to appear, but in 1919 Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford offered rooms in its old parish house. Next year the Convention empowered the Commission to negotiate with the Chapter to establish a diocesan house at the Cathedral. In- stead, the Chapter offered the Dean's former residence on Garden Street, which was conveniently near the railroad station and the business district and had many rooms for offices.
There the administration remained until 1939, when the Diocese acquired by bequest the former home of Doctor Gurdon W. Russell on Farmington Avenue. It was a solid brick building with large rooms and spacious grounds for parking. After its renovation and redecoration, largely at the expense of Canon and Mrs. Plumb, the diocesan offices were removed there in the autumn, and the Garden Street house was demolished.
After surprisingly few years, the expanding administration demanded still more room. The question of a new location was solved in 1952, when the Diocese received as a gift the home of Miss Mabel Johnson on Asylum Avenue, a stately brick and stone mansion in the Tudor Gothic style. The staff moved there in December, and the Russell house was torn down to make way for a parking lot. On May 18, 1953 Bishop Gray dedicated the house, together with other gifts and a bronze plaque commemorating Miss Johnson's bequest. He also consecrated the chapel and dedicated the altar, which formerly stood in Bishop Acheson's private chapel in Middletown, and was given to the Diocese by his widow. The house was formally opened at a reception on May 19, during the Diocesan Convention.
For the first time in its history the Diocese has an adequate headquarters. Large grounds with trees and flowering shrubs provide an attractive setting and room for a large parking lot. The house gives the impression not of an office building, but rather of a hospitable home. Its spiritual center is the chapel, with daily services for the staff and many private confirmations. The panelled
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conference room, the stately staircase, and many roomy offices impart a sense of spaciousness without unbecoming luxury.
THE DIOCESAN ARCHIVES
An adequate Diocesan House guaranteed greater safety for important records, which has been a pressing concern for more than a century. In 1846 the Convention designated a committee to collect the records in private possession for the Archives, and to publish historical documents. The members included two ex- perts in church history, the Rev. Samuel Farmer Jarvis, and the Rev. Eben Edwards Beardsley, who in 1866 published a two-volume history of the Diocese. They recommended publication of the records of Convocation, and the volume appeared in 1904.
Doctor Beardsley's history awakened the Diocese to the urgent necessity of preserving records, and inspired the Convention to appoint him as Registrar. Thus began the work of the Diocesan Archivists: The Rev. Messrs. Eben E. Beardsley, Samuel Hart, William A. Beardsley, Arthur Adams, and Kenneth W. Cameron.
Doctor Hart's distinguished service was the compilation of reports on early parish records, which he ordered to be tran- scribed for the Archives. The task continued for many years, and preserved records that might have been hopelessly lost. His de- voted interest suggested the creation, in 1897, of the Permanent Commission on Parochial Archives, led by Storrs O. Seymour, F. Clarence Bissell, and the Rev. Joseph Hooper.
The Commission tirelessly ferreted out documents to illuminate parochial and diocesan history. Doctor Beardsley listed the alumni of the Episcopal Academy. Mr. Hooper explored the papers of Doctor Samuel Johnson in the Connecticut Historical Society. He obtained from Miss Mary Fogg the papers of her ancestor, Daniel Fogg, the first rector of Trinity Church in Brooklyn, and of Colonel Godfrey Malbone, its founder. He also began to publish a series of volumes of historical documents.
His work was continued by Doctor Beardsley into the 1930's, when the Diocese experienced a remarkable revival of interest in records. Bishop Budlong cordially endorsed the Federal Historical Records Survey which, under the auspices of the Connecticut State Library, compiled reports on church records. The Diocese partly financed the publication of the Survey's inventory of its records.
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The Survey helped to attract attention to the inaccessibility of the Archives in an attic and a basement vault at Christ Church Cathedral. By 1946 the special Committee on Housing Diocesan Archives had gathered them at Diocesan House on Farmington Avenue. That proved to be only a makeshift, because the staff needed all the available space.
A satisfactory solution was found through the keen interest of the Rev. Arthur Adams, chairman of the Permanent Committee on Parochial Archives and librarian of Trinity College. He was a trustee of the Watkinson Library, which by his recommendation was moved in 1952 from the Wadsworth Athenaeum to the college's new fireproof library.
Doctor Adams had persuaded his close friend, Doctor Beardsley, to donate his library to Trinity College. It included packages of priceless historical papers inscribed "For the Archives of the Diocese," which suggested to Doctor Adams the removal of the Archives to the new library. The college agreed with the Diocese to reserve a section of the Watkinson Library book stacks for the Archives. The collections were deposited there in 1952, and on November 8 were dedicated by Bishop Gray.
In 1951 Bishop Gray appointed the Rev. Dr. Kenneth W. Cameron, of the faculty of Trinity College, as Archivist and Historiographer, and as chairman of the Permanent Commission on Parochial Archives. Under his administration, for the first time the Archives have been efficiently classified, arranged in steel filing cabinets, and made available to scholars.
They are an indispensable source of information for the history of the Diocese, and an important source for the history of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Among the printed holdings are files of the journals of dioceses and missionary dis- tricts, diocesan and parish histories, pamphlets, sermons, and tracts. The manuscripts include records of diocesan organizations, papers of the bishops, minutes of clerical associations, Episcopal Academy records, parish registers and histories, large collections of clergy- men's letters, sermons, and personal records.
The arrangement and administration of this huge collection have entailed incredible labor by Doctor Cameron, an already busy teacher, author, and priest. His program to increase the holdings and to preserve records stands as a model for other
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diocesan archives. He compiles the quarterly Historiographer of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, a periodical supported by subscriptions and devoted to the publication of documents, check lists of collections, news of accessions, appeals for deposits, and lists of duplicated records.
One of Doctor Cameron's most estimable labors is his in- cessant urging of parishes to take advantage of the duplicating service offered by the Connecticut State Library and financed by the Colonial Dames. This includes the photostating of parochial records to avoid loss by having copies for the parish and the Library. In accordance with this policy, the Archives attempts to scatter its own duplicated records, and to microfilm large quantities of precious early letters and other documents.
Preservation of parochial history is encouraged by appeals to churches to deposit yearbooks and bulletins, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, programs, pictures of activities, and other records. Each parish has a folder to be filled with materials. The Archivist assists parish historians by preparing suggestions for procedure, method, and sources. He has started interlibrary loans for duplicate books not readily obtainable in local libraries, and a photostatic service for unique documents and letters.
DIOCESAN COAT OF ARMS
The rise of interest in records suggested that the Diocese should follow the tradition of Anglican dioceses by adopting a correct coat of arms. In 1921 Bishop Brewster appointed a com- mittee to prepare a design. Upon the recommendation of Ralph Adams Cram, the noted architect, they procured one from a master in heraldry. The Convention did not approve it and the committee consulted its new member, Mr. Robert H. Symonds of St. John's Church in East Windsor, an expert in church heraldry.
The revised design was almost entirely his work and was adopted in 1923, and later was confirmed by letters patent from the Heralds' College of England. Mr. Symonds paid the expenses and received formal thanks from the Convention. He also pre- sented the great seal of the Diocese, which was adopted in 1926.
The coat of arms represents the Scottish origin of the Con- necticut episcopate by a large silver cross or saltire of Saint Andrew upon an azure background. Two swords, saltire-wise,
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symbolize the Diocese of London which had jurisdiction over the colonial church. The key and crozier on a black ground stand for Bishop Seabury's arms or seal. Three vines on a ground of gold represent Connecticut's seal and flag, and the surmounting mitre shows that the arms belong to a bishopric. In a real sense, the coat of arms and the seal represent the intimacy of the Diocese with the life of the Connecticut community. And the adoption of these symbols coincided with the creation of the Cathedral, which Bishop Brewster considered as the expression of that relationship.
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CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD, CHANCEL, 1892, After Remodeling. (From Gurdon W. Russell, History of the Parish of Christ Church, Hartford.)
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ORGANIZATION OF AN "EPISCOPAL SOCIETY," 1786, for what is now Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford. (Original in the Diocesan Archives. )
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE CATHEDRAL
I NCREASING administrative effectiveness gradually drew the diocesan federation of parishes into closer unity. But Bishop Brewster believed that it was not generally recognized that the diocese, rather than the parish, is the real unit of church life. He was convinced that the most effective spiritual tie would be a cathedral.
Other dioceses already had realized his ideal. Albany had established a cathedral in the episcopate of William Croswell Doane, the former rector of St. John's, Hartford. New York began the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in the 1870's, and Washington created a cathedral foundation about twenty-five years later. Massachusetts and Rhode Island converted stately parish churches into cathedrals.
The cathedral project was being discussed when Bishop Brewster became diocesan in 1899. In his own mind he had even selected a site in Hartford, opposite the Capital, where the State Library now stands. Because the difficulty of raising funds for a new building seemed too burdensome, in 1910 he suggested designating a large and worthy parish church as a cathedral. He did not want a merely nominal one of sublime size and architecture, to entice people from other churches, or a mere copy of the tra- ditional English cathedral. He contemplated a working center, a house of prayer for all people, continually open and ministering to human needs in the city's heart. Its worship would center in the Holy Communion, not for a few intensely devout souls, but as a dignified and popular service.
The Bishop's thoughts continually turned to Christ Church in Hartford as the finest expression of his ideal. It was the only downtown Episcopal parish, after St. John's moved to West Hart- ford in 1907-1909, and as a cathedral would not draw people from any other parish. For many years it had been engaged in a
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cathedral-like social ministry to the poor, the Negro, the deaf-mutes, and the homeless at the Open Hearth Mission. As a cathedral, it might include a diocesan house as a memorial to Bishop Williams.
In 1912 Bishop Brewster presented his matured ideas to the Diocesan Convention. Upon the motion of Mr. Burton Mansfield, a committee was designated to consider a location, a cathedral foundation, and the constitution for a chapter. After hearing their report, the Convention accepted the Bishop's suggestion, without selecting any location, and instructed the committee to form a plan of organization.
They reported acceptably and the Convention resolved to secure a charter, which was granted by the General Assembly in 1913 for "The Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Connecticut." Christ Church was selected in 1917, with the Convention's approval, and in 1921 the name was changed to "Christ Church Cathedral." At that time the charter was amended to merge the parish with the corporation, which assumed ownership of its property and funds, while the Chapter replaced the wardens and vestrymen. The Cathedral became a completely diocesan institution, governed by a corporation consisting of diocesan officers, and elected representatives of the Convention and the Cathedral Congregation.
The old corporation, "The Trustees of the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Connecticut," held its first meeting in New Haven on December 24, 1913. The trustees instructed a committee to draft a constitution and statutes, which the Convention accepted in 1919. Years were required to perfect the organization and to adjust it to the Diocese. Bishop Brewster was not in a hurry. Because of the financial pressure of World War I, he rejected the idea of a "drive" for endowment. He allowed plenty of time for the Diocese to grasp his philosophy: The Cathedral can be made a truly American institution, in close touch with all the higher in- terests of the Commonwealth as well as with things ecclesiastical . . . "What will I trust commend itself to your judgment generally is the use of the Cathedral idea as a means of securing, step by step, more of administrative unity in our Missionary and other Di- ocesan work."1
On Easter Monday, 1919, the parish accepted the invitation to become a diocesan church, and on the following Trinity Sunday Bishop Brewster formally declared the building to be a cathedral.
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The event was splendidly celebrated at a special service in January, 1920. Next year the Convention placed the capstone upon the organization, by adopting a canon granting to the cathedral the rights, privileges, and obligations of an ordinary parish, and de- voting to its support all offerings made at episcopal visitations.
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