USA > Connecticut > The story of the Diocese of Connecticut : a new branch of the vine (Espiscopal Church) > Part 20
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After the financial burden of war had passed, Bishop Brewster joyfully proposed to the Convention his plans to make Christ Church appear more like a cathedral. It would welcome the throngs in the street and offer them services of "simple state- liness" to elevate the standard of reverence, worship, and devotion. The Bishop appealed to his people to give their generous support, by increasing the endowment and making bequests and memorial gifts.2
The first Dean, Samuel R. Colladay, had been rector of Christ Church. During seventeen crowded years of service (1919- 1936) he guided the Cathedral's government and ministry along the lines they have since followed. He devoted his entire energies to fulfilling Bishop Brewster's dream of a center for broad spiritual influence, social service, diocesan unity, and civic betterment. The Cathedral became an ever-open house of prayer and worship, with Holy Communion every morning. The Dean established a per- petual cycle of prayer, with an intercession for some parish or mission every day at the altar. And yet he contrived to preserve the old parochial tradition of sympathetic pastoral care for the regular congregation.
Dean Colladay encouraged ministrations in hospitals, and in surrounding small parishes and missions. He made the Cathedral speak in the name of the Bishop and of the Diocese, and integrated it with the diocesan administration. The Cathedral began to play host to the Diocesan Convention, and to innumerable special re- ligious and secular meetings. The ritual assumed stateliness without pomp, and splendid music and choral singing flourished under the auspices of Arthur Priest, the organist and choirmaster for over thirty years.
More and more the Cathedral participated in social service and relief work, especially in the grim depression of the early 1930's. A noble standard was set by Mrs. Frieda Melville, who administered practical and spiritual help in collaboration with various social agencies and the Hartford Hospital.
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Dean Colladay was succeeded by Walter H. Gray, who had been Dean of the Cathedral in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He served until his consecration as the Suffragan Bishop of Connecticut in 1940. During his administration the Cathedral made remarkable progress in membership, attendance at services, and financial sup- port. Dean Gray insisted especially upon the renovation of the buildings. The Cathedral extended its usefulness to the Diocese and the city by welcoming many more clergy conferences and secular meetings. Its crowded life set a challenging example in generous missionary giving, social work, religious education, and many active guilds and clubs.
Guidance of the complex organization through the many wracking strains of war fell upon the broad shoulders of Dean Arthur F. McKenny. His intense devotion undoubtedly contributed to his tragically early and sudden death in December, 1945. It grieved many within and without the congregation, who had come to love the warm-hearted man with friendly eyes, warm smile, and the general air of a wholesome spiritual athlete. The Catholic spirit of his governance was foretold at his installation, by the presence of many ministers of other faiths. They regarded the Cathedral as the symbol of a transcendant religious life.
During the war it fulfilled their highest expectations. The Dean established a shrine for people who came in from the street to pray for peace or for loved ones in the armed services. Perhaps this habit explains the sentiment of a reference in his last report, to "this hospitable House of God ... set within the reach of folk of many faiths who turn to it with hope."3 The Cathedral House became the busy workshop of many wartime relief agencies. The church welcomed throngs of all creeds who poured in for such memorable services as those for "D-Day" (June 6, 1944), the funeral of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in April, 1945, the vic- tory of the Allies in Europe, and the surrender of Japan, (August 14, 1945).
Beneath the abounding activities, urgent and expensive material considerations were pushing to the surface. The old church was beginning to show wear and tear, and its construction did not comply with the building and fire ordinances. Closing of parts of the galleries hampered arrangements for great services. The hurricane of September, 1944 caused costly repairs, and the
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resulting inspection revealed an alarming deterioration of the stonework.
The burden of keeping the fabric in a worthy condition and of meeting other problems has fallen upon the three postwar Deans: Louis N. Hirshson, 1946-1956; John H. Esquirol, 1956-1958; and Robert S. Beecher, 1958 -. During the interval after Dean McKenny's death, it was carried by Canon Sidney W. Wallace. He died in 1950, after fourteen years as a beloved pastor who courageously bore increasing infirmity and pain.
The first postwar year was distinguished by aid in solving the difficult problems of many service men and women. They gratefully remember the ministry of three ex-chaplains, the Rev. Messrs. Carter S. Gillis, Alfred B. Seccombe, and Jack Leather. The shortage of clergy compelled the staff to assume many serv- ices at Grace Church in Newington, the Newington Veterans' Hospital, Forestville, Glastonbury, South Glastonbury, and the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury.
Care of the deteriorating buildings could not be long post- poned, and Dean Hirshson devoted his heart and soul to it. The Diocesan Convention requested annual offerings from all parishes and missions. Bishop Budlong earnestly pleaded for more rec- ognition of support for the Cathedral as a common responsibility, and pointed out that the congregation paid all the ordinary running expenses. The Cathedral aroused interest by publishing a hand- some illustrated brochure, Your Cathedral Beautiful, revealing the urgent need of renovation. The community showed its affection by contributing to the One Hundred and Twentieth Anniversary Fund for repairs, to which the congregation subscribed about seventy- five thousand dollars.
The fund was an amazing success, and within a few years made it possible to conform to the fire regulations, redecorate the Cathedral House, waterproof and repair all stonework, rebuild the organ, and replace much of the old sanctuary and choir furniture. The transformation is described in Dean Hirshson's readable re- ports, sometimes with a humorous touch. Some parishes raised funds to replace the auxiliary bishop's chair, and the Dean com- mented: "In a way we shall miss this (the old) chair, as it has been a source of uncertainty to its occupant and of merriment to the rest of us."4
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His witticisms were missed, when he left in the summer of 1956 to be president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. One of his notable accomplishments was the acquisition of a canon's residence and a new Deanery. The Cathedral had no official Dean's House for many years after the Russell mansion on Farmington Avenue became the Diocesan House in 1939.
Numerous improvements have demanded a vast outlay of money, and yet the Cathedral's financial structure has stood the heavy strain and is in better condition than ever before. The debt has been greatly reduced. Many small endowment funds have been consolidated, and the yield has been increased. The congregation matches the income with its own gifts, and always provides a solid backlog of benevolence funds for missions, needy parishes, Trinity College, the Berkeley Divinity School, many social services and charities, and the adoption of war orphans.
The personal motive of this generosity keeps the Cathedral from being too "institutional," and preserves the atmosphere of a large and yet fairly intimate and friendly parish. A score of parochial organizations meet frequently, and their entire member- ship amounts to many hundreds. All work together to promote the annual Cathedral Fair.
Intimacy has been maintained by home study groups and the Parish Life Conferences, in which the church did pioneer work. Members of the congregation, at the seven to eight hundred ser- vices during the year, make up most of the attendance, which may reach fifty thousand or more, with some fifteen thousand receptions of the Holy Communion.
While many downtown churches consider their Sunday schools with justified apprehension, the Cathedral's continues to grow and has won the premier award of the Diocese. The increase has been especially gratifying in the critical high school years. Youth work flourishes, reflecting the interest of Dean Hirshson, who appointed the Rev. Clinton R. Jones to take charge of it.
The careful administration that keeps these enterprises running smoothly has been studied as a model. It even attained national publicity in City Church, issued by the urban division of the National Council of churches. The office has received many letters from all over the country requesting information.
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While retaining its parochial ministry, the Cathedral has preferred Bishop Brewster's ideal of a cathedral: a church serving the entire community. Social service, regardless of religious faith, ranges from providing layettes for mothers to cooperation with the Juvenile Court and the Housing Authority. Far out of proportion to their numbers, members of the staff and the congregation are represented in many interchurch and community organizations. Cathedral house is the meeting place of numerous secular groups, from the Gold Star Mothers to the sessions of the Hartford Chess Club, or the orchestra of the Hartford School of Music in rehearsal.
In his report of 1956 Dean Hirshson said: "The Cathedral is to a degree the standard by which the Diocese is judged and measured, both by our own churchmen and by the religious com- munity as a whole. It is conceivable that a cathedral might fulfill all legal and customary responsibilities to a diocese and yet fail to live up to its high estate through failure to seek that excellence in its inner life and among its own members which that high calling indicates and rightly expects. In short, it could serve its diocese well and its own people poorly!"5
The characteristic of Christ Church Cathedral is that it serves the Diocese, the congregation, and the community, as Bishop Brewster hoped it would. The Cathedral's intense and many-sided activities display many riches of devotion gained during the development of church life from its earlier parochialism to the ideal of this Diocese as one religious family.
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LEASE OF PEWS. 1822
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OF Billions 9000
James Ward 15.00
Jas M.Goodwin- 1200
VI Elliott 1500
Sund. Belcher 1.500
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Samt Tuttle $ 1950
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Thos: Mord 2.200
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Chris Sanders /' 39
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Mr. Hicksted 21:50
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Ed. P. Terry.MD.2159
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6 Jna T. Peters 1150
P.B.Goodseit 10:20 51 1. Nichols 2400
Eli Told MLD. 2180
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Ch.Brainard 1.300
Gev. Beach 2200
James Rose 1850
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Dudley Buck 44400
Peter Fort 140 35
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G.Summer . M.V. 199 Nathan Morgan 150
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Jerrun Hoadls 1650
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Parsons Rose 1000
India hove 130
Jno. W. Bull 1.400
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J. Sanford 1000
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Tim. Hatch. 1000
67
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57 58
Hugli Gourter 500
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65 66239
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123 12 Jensen $50
Richa Flint 800
64
Enoch Powers 900
J. F. Hart. 7x
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Gico. Prall 500
63
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Jos Prall 600
Edad Bar 400
19
S. Ellsworth 500
62
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Jona Ramsey 500
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Chactually 8400 Machenerad $ 500 Barwick Bruce 000 . Martha Murray 400
Rapidoalwin 400 Chris Sounders 400
Asier Newton 5,00
22 23
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F. Hitchcock 900
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Horice Wirdsworth $.00 30
T' Wolcott 9.00
18
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Isaac Tourer 10.00
36 37
TYPICAL EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY FLOOR PLAN OF A CHURCH. Christ Church, Hartford, 1822. (From Gurdon W. Russell, History of the Parish of Christ Church, Hartford.)
tem nu St Andrews hunch Kent
ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, KENT, was erected in 1826. An early example of the Gothic Revival Architecture. (Sketch by John Warner Barber, for his Connecticut Historical Collections, 1836. Original in Connecticut Historical Society. )
,
when view of the Congregational and Chiveopal Churches in Huntington, a.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, HUNTINGTON, was erected in 1812. Illustrates the use of round-headed windows to distinguish the Episcopal Church. (Sketch by John Warner Barber, for his Connecticut Historical Collections, 1836. Original in Connecticut Historical Society. )
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100
TRINITY CHURCH, PORTLAND, was erected in 1832. Illustrates the Classical Revival style of church. (Sketch by John Warner Bar- ber, for his Connecticut Historical Collections, 1836. Original in Connecticut Historical Society. )
+
Commenational and Bluesal Churches
Gast Haven
CHRIST CHURCH, EAST HAVEN (right) was erected in 1789. Dis- plays the earliest style of Episcopal churches in Connecticut. (Sketch by John Warner Barber, for his Connecticut Historical Collections, 1836. Original in Connecticut Historical Society. )
Western view of the Episcopal Academy Cheshire Com!
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY, CHESHIRE. First building erected in 1796. (Sketch by John Warner Barber, for his Connecticut Historical Collections, 1836. Original in Connecticut Historical Society.)
PART THREE
THE INNER LIFE
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
PARISH LIFE IN THE 1800's
THE PARISH AND ITS CHURCH
D URING most of the century after 1800, Connecticut church life was almost intensely parochial. This is understandable, because diocesan societies were voluntary and diocesan govern- ment was comparatively simple. Parishes were reminded of the bishop's office mostly by his infrequent visits for confirmation. Some even neglected to elect delegates to the Diocesan Convention or to make reports, and most of them calmly went their own way.
This independent attitude was inherited from the colonial period when parish government conformed to the half secular "ecclesiastical society" of the established Congregational church. Church of England canons regulating parish administration could not be fully applied, and Episcopalians became used to calling their parishes "societies."
For many years after the diocese was organized, it had no detailed canons regarding the establishment of parishes and tacitly accepted the "society" system. It was customary to organize a parish by a written legal agreement signed by the heads of families. Typical was the one signed by the thirty-seven founders of Trinity Church, Chatham (now Portland) in 1788. They promised for a year to attend Sunday services "after the manner of the Episcopal Church," and to pay the minister a salary to be fixed by majority vote. Anyone could withdraw after a year but few did, and many of the signers' descendants are still active in the parish.
This proceeding seems secular. Indeed, until into the 1800's most parishes had no religious names. The founders of Christ Church in Hartford in 1786 associated as "a Religious Society, by the Style & Title of the Episcopal Society of the City of Hartford."1 This "free & voluntary Association" elected a moderator, a clerk, two wardens, and four vestrymen, and made no reference to any diocesan canon. The parish in Portland was "The Episcopal
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Church in the First Society of Chatham," and was not legally named "Trinity" until 1833.
The parish meeting reflected the half secular spirit of the society and often was called the "general vestry," according to English usage. The modern application of the term "vestry" to a smaller elective group is distinctly American. The calling of an annual parish meeting required much legal business, and now seems very formal. A justice of the peace issued a warrant and the notice was served by the constable on all members and was read from the pulpit. Christ Church, Hartford, followed this custom for many years.
Many parishes found this legalism irksome and by the 1830's it was generally considered enough to post notices on the church and schoolhouse doors. It became the custom to hold the annual meeting on Easter Monday, and to let the wardens and vestrymen be the "Society's Committee," as required by state law. Following a request from Christ Church in Hartford, the Diocesan Con- vention in 1812 passed a canon authorizing parishes to hold annual meetings on Easter Monday without further notice.
RECORDS
The legal formalities of parish business would seem to suggest that the records were scrupulously kept. But, alas, that was not the case. Even in such an important parish as Christ Church, Hartford, the minutes were meagre long after its founding. Some parishes did not even have registers until well after 1800. Registers were considered the private property of the rector, or might even be kept by one of the wardens.
SUPPORT. PEW RENT
The minutes of early meetings are very dull reading for usually they are devoted mostly to the vexing problems of financial support. The most common solution was to divide the floor of the church into large square pews and rent them, according to a time- honored English custom.
The pew appeared in most English churches because the Reformation had stressed long instructional sermons, which were hard on the feet. The longing for comfort prevailed over the pro- tests that the pew denied the perfect equality of all worshippers
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and favored the rich, in contradiction to the Epistle of James 2: 1-9. English churches generally were seatless as late as the 1500's, and people could walk about freely - which so shocked Bishop Bentham of Lichfield that he forbade it. In the Middle Ages sit- ting was a mark of social or ecclesiastical distinction, or a tender concession to the old and weak. They might occupy low benches or stools, which were piled in a corner near the entrance. Sitting was even considered somewhat irreverent, and a book called The Parish Priest, published about 1450, declared kneeling to be the proper posture. Even as late as the reign of Charles I (1625-49), Archbishop Laud peremptorily ordered seats for the laity out of Salisbury Cathedral, and his royal master nodded approval.
Church seats were regarded as private property and could even be bequeathed by will. That led to the development of the pew, which began when the worshipper was allowed to add a rail or a back to the bench, at his own expense. This simple expedient gradually was elaborated into the high-backed, walled pew, which without much exaggeration could be called a "closet." It appeared first in the center of the church, where the ground had all been used for burials and the aisle had been paved. The custom of "pewing" the center of New England meeting houses and churches probably was a survival of this custom.
The high, box-like pew was favored by the Puritans, perhaps - as some shrewdly guessed - to conceal their neglect to bow at the name of Jesus or to the altar, or to stand at the Gloria. Maybe this explains Bishop Wren's inquiry, in 1636, whether pews were so high that the occupants could avoid the gaze of their fellow wor- shippers. But Bishop Burnet of Salisbury is said to have persuaded "Good Queen Anne" that high pews would thwart the design of court ladies to ogle each other rather than the preacher.
Pews at first were capriciously located and caused quarrels and even law suits - a foretaste of the heartburnings in New England over "seating" the meeting house. In time, they became more and more exclusive and luxurious, with curtains, lattices, numbers, and doors with locks - which sometimes embarrassed the sexton or verger by refusing to open, while the owner fumed in the aisle. The family pew, which was practically a private room, ap- peared in the 1500's, and later became an almost sacred contrivance in American places of worship, especially Episcopal churches. It
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had seats along the sides and at the end, upon one of which the baby could sleep. Pew-holders even indulged in the mild ex- travagance of brass or silver name plates on the doors.
Unless a parish enjoyed an endowment or had lands, it was practically forced to rely upon the sale or annual rent of pews. Some parishes charitably provided a few free pews for the poor and for strangers, but until well after 1850 there were few churches with entirely free seats.
In Connecticut pew rent had a long life, with quaint local variations and often with quite unabashed obeisance to social status. Nobody seriously questioned the right of a parish to allot pews according to the size of subscriptions to the rector's salary. Some- times, heads of families were permitted to "build" pews or seats under the inspection of a committee. One parish typically divided the church floor into equal spaces assigned to members, who were expected to erect square pews within a year. The society reserved some center seats for itself, assigned four to the singers, and allotted the rest.
A surprising number of parishes tolerated selling the pews at public auction, sometimes reserving the right to redeem them after a number of years and then rent them annually. The auction commonly occurred on Easter Monday, and the most desirable pews were knocked down to the high bidders on a landlord and tenant plan. Some of the clergy were disgusted by such com- mercialism. William Croswell Doane of St. John's, Hartford, called it "an indecent and unchurchly transaction," and got rid of it by threatening to resign.2 Thereafter the pews were simply "assessed." Christ Church, Hartford, tried to make the "transaction" seem more fair by ordering the auctioneer to draw numbers from a box and sell pews in that order.
Minutes about pews occupy an almost incredible amount of space in parish records, and some of them are quaintly worded. Christ Church, Guilford, once split the northeast corner pew be- tween the rector and Dr. John Redfield - provided that building it would not cost the society anything. Another pew was reserved for widows who, one hopes, could endure each other's company Sunday after Sunday. A parish meeting in Portland ordered the wardens to give deeds of title to pew-owners and their heirs as long as they should attend services. Collecting rents sometimes
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was embarrassing, and the parish would forbid anyone to sit in a pew until he could present a receipt to the treasurer. Strangers did not rate very high, and it was considered a special favor to appoint a committee to seat them.
TAXATION AND COLLECTIONS
When pew rents fell short of meeting expenses, a parish could resort to laying a tax upon each member's share of the town's grand levy. The assessment usually was only a few mills on the dollar, and customarily was used to pay the rector or to build, finish or repair the church. Early parish records abound in ref- erences to levying taxes, or to appointing collectors who functioned like the town collectors. Sometimes, members who voluntarily gave more than their assessed "rate" were rewarded by exemption from the tax. In Chatham anyone who brought the rector a cord of fire- wood would get $3.50 knocked off his tax, if he could show a re- ceipt duly signed by the rector. The parish promised the parson to add £5 more to the tax if he would get himself a wife.
The tax was not regarded with enthusiasm and some parishes used it only as a last resort. Anyone who objected had to sign a certificate of withdrawal from the society, which was familiarly called "signing off." The last recorded tax in Christ Church, Hart- ford, came as late as 1844, and was two cents on the dollar. A more agreeable expedient was to circulate subscription papers, a favorite way to meet special expenses, like the organist's salary. Church collections, before the envelope system, were surprisingly small, and the monthly "Collection Sunday" was likely to give the treasurer a long face. Vestrymen and wardens sometimes had to pay deficits from their own pockets - a custom not yet completely extinct.
FREE CHURCHES
All these methods finally became unsatisfactory. Sub- scriptions and occasional collections were ineffective, taxes caused resentment, and pew rent offended the consciences of many who felt that it was wrong to make church attendance an economic privilege. By the 1850's, pew rent was under an increasing fire of criticism from advocates of the "free church" with voluntary giving. They pointed to the example set by the Rev. Henry Muhlenberg,
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who had introduced free seats at the Church of the Holy Com- munion, New York.
The movement found an uncompromising leader in the Rev. Joseph Brewster of Christ Church, New Haven, the father of Bishop Brewster. At Epiphany, 1859, he boldly asserted "that a Free Church did not necessarily imply inferiority or dependence. Neither was it a church for the poor exclusively, nor a mere per- sonal convenience for such as would avoid a proper share of pe- cuniary responsibility; but a Church which, recognizing no human ownership, no worldly distinctions, and depending on no worldly motives of pride and fashion for its revenue, gives equal privileges to all. . "3 He blamed the pew-rent system for the growing urban infidelity and indifference, and the alienation of the poor.
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