USA > Connecticut > The story of the Diocese of Connecticut : a new branch of the vine (Espiscopal Church) > Part 36
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The Convention was far from satisfied and in 1886 instructed its deputies to submit to the General Convention's Committee on Canons certain amendments intended to strengthen the rules. Next year the conservative reformers won in the Diocese, success- fully recommending an amendment forbidding the transfer of a communicant without presenting certificates of removal and new registration. Parishes were ordered to present annual reports of communicants - meaning only those who had actually received and appeared in the register. These rules inaugurated a distinctly stricter practice and set an example to the whole Church.
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The Church's name was a hotly debated question in General Convention. It was nothing new in Connecticut, and had troubled the Rev. Jeremiah Leaming, the clergy's first choice for bishop. In 1786 he wrote to the Rev. Abraham Beach of New Jersey, protesting against the name "Protestant Episcopal" as an innovation unknown to the Church of England. He preferred a territorial name. "It will be a great pity that we should commit any blunder of this sort, at first setting out, for posterity to laugh at, after we are forgotten for everything but the mistakes which we committed and left behind us as monuments that we wanted proper sagacity."6
Leaming was not alone in his preference, for the Connecticut clergy generally favored a territorial designation like "Church of England." Writing to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in 1783, they repeatedly used "The American Church." In 1784 they employed the same term three times, when addressing their breth- ren of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In 1808 Bishop Jarvis confided to Bishop Claggett of Maryland his preference for the title "Constitution and Canons of the Reformed instead of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. I am confident such a head would be more consistent with correct notions of the Church."7
Seventy-five years later Bishop Brewster was anxious to make the Church's name conform to its real character. In the General Convention of 1883 he was one of the few deputies who voted to strike "Protestant Episcopal" from the title of the Prayer Book. Twenty years later he informed the Diocesan Convention that he had never seen any reason to change his mind.
At that time the matter was agitating the whole Church. The General Convention of 1901 had named a committee of bishops, priests and laymen to secure opinions and to make sug- gestions to the next Convention. After prolonged research and discussion, in 1903 they requested all dioceses and missionary districts to state the name they would prefer. A copy of this query was sent also to every bishop.
The subject was laid before the Connecticut Convention of 1903 in such a way that it could hardly be avoided. Bishop Brewster affirmed that the vote would be only an expression of opinion, and hoped that it would not become "an issue of ecclesi- astical partisanship." He would prefer no change, unless with
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something like unanimity, after it had occurred "in the thought and speech of men." Removing the term "Protestant" should not imply scorn of the Reformation, "that unique reform of the Church of England which carefully maintained her continuity and sacri- ficed nothing essential to Catholic faith and order."8
He would prefer "as little name as possible," and thought that the ideal one would be a territorial designation. Because the proposed substitutes would offend and grieve many, the Bishop would not suggest any alteration at that time. He recommended that the title page of the Prayer Book should read: "The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church." This would make it all the more a missionary for Catholic truth and unity.
These remarks were referred to a Committee on Change of Name, and the Convention adopted the committee's opinion that any change of title would be inexpedient at the time. The Bishop was thanked for his views and requested to have them distributed throughout the Diocese.
Ten years later the controversy threatened to erupt again, and Bishop Brewster deplored any discussion without reference of the matter to the dioceses by the General Convention. "It were a pity for the Church to consume much time in disputing over names when great human and divine causes demand Christian championship and support. It would seem doubtful whether the mind of the Church regarding this question is sufficiently matured to reach a determination which would secure general acceptance."9 The Diocese was disposed to agree, fearing a dangerous disruption over a trifle, and feeling that the Catholic content of the Prayer Book more than counterbalanced a questionable legal title. As Connecticut then thought, so have the General Convention and the Church thought ever since that time.
About the same time Connecticut conservatism gradually accepted the idea of a change in the Church's Constitution. It in- troduced the "Provincial System," with divisions comprising several dioceses, and with synods of bishops and delegates. The proposal had been discussed since 1782, when William White (later Bishop of Pennsylvania) saw the necessity of provinces. Few shared his foresight and the Constitution ignored the idea, but the vast in- crease of dioceses fully verified his prescience.
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Few persons knew the problems of the Church's sprawling organization as well as Bishop Williams, who was Presiding Bishop when provinces were proposed in 1892. He spoke strongly in favor of the plan, urging an opportunity for appeal from diocesan courts, short of the General Convention or the House of Bishops, especially in cases of doctrine. He deplored hasty action or doctrinaire schemes, but hoped to see "the first steps taken for a wise and careful treating of this really pressing question."10
Twenty years elapsed before the Church acted upon his appeal to tradition. The General Convention of 1913 created a provincial system and placed Connecticut in the First or New England Province. Although some distrusted "centralization of power," Bishop Brewster did not fear provincial legislation as authoritarian. He believed that the change was justified by the sheer size of the nation, and by the cumbersome workings of the General Convention. Connecticut accordingly adopted the plan and elected deputies to the first New England synod in 1914.
LEADERS IN GENERAL CONVENTION
Connecticut's steadying influence in the General Convention has owed much to the personal services and influence of clergy- men and laymen whose names bcame known throughout the Church. They included several Presiding Bishops who either were natives of the Diocese or at some time were associated with it. The first after the adoption of the Constitution was Bishop Sea- bury, who until Sept. 1792 headed the House of Bishops, which originally consisted of himself and Bishop White of Pennsylvania.
The fourth Presiding Bishop (1838 and 1841) was Alexander Viets Griswold, Bishop (1811-1843) of the Eastern Diocese. He was born, educated, and ordained, and ministered to several parishes in Connecticut.
Griswold's successor was the venerable Philander Chase of Ohio (later of Illinois) who had been rector (1811-1817) of Christ Church, Hartford. He presided at the General Conventions of 1844, 1847, and 1850. Bishop Benjamin B. Smith of Kentucky once recalled that "all men were impressed with the idea that a great branch of the Church of Christ co-extensive with the limits of a Continent, could have found in no human form ... a more fit representative, as its Patriarch."11
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Chase was succeeded by Thomas C. Brownell, his immediate junior in the House of Bishops. He held the office for twelve years, until his death in 1865, when he was the senior bishop of the Anglican Communion. His long illness suggested a sober review of the rule of seniority, which eventually resulted in making the office elective.
In 1887 the presidential office returned to Connecticut, with Bishop John Williams. For the first time in several decades, the Church had a leader less than seventy years old! He felt that the seniority rule was "not only unwise but almost cruel," and hammered upon this point until the General Convention in 1892 declared that any bishop might decline or resign. Although illness forbade him to attend in 1895 or 1898, he had made an impression by his rare ability to preside impartially and to focus a confused debate "by a few unimpassioned and illuminating sentences." At his death in 1899 he was the senior Anglican bishop in the world.
His successor, Thomas March Clark of Rhode Island, was of Massachusetts birth but was graduated from Yale College, and in 1850-1854 was rector of Christ Church, Hartford. His great age precluded attendance at the General Convention, which finally ended an absurd situation by adopting his suggestion to make the office elective. At his death in 1903, he was the oldest bishop of the Anglican Communion, and the last surviving member of the Lambeth Conference of 1867. Another Presiding Bishop with a Connecticut association was James DeWolf Perry (1930-1937) of Rhode Island, who in 1904-1911 was rector of St. Paul's Church, New Haven.
Two Connecticut men have been President of the House of Deputies. The Rev. Abraham Beach spent his parochial ministry in New Jersey and New York, but was a native of Cheshire and an alumnus of Yale. He was elected in 1801, 1804, and 1808. Beach is considered as the originator of the movement to unite the Episcopal churches after the Revolution. The Rev. Eben Edwards Beardsley, historian of the Diocese, presided in 1880 and 1883, and was a deputy to eight General Conventions, 1868-1889. This alumnus of Trinity College served the Diocese as headmaster of the Episcopal Academy, as historiographer, and as rector of St. Thomas's Church, New Haven, 1848-1891.
The office of Secretary of the House of Deputies is the oldest
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in General Convention, and until 1832 was called "Secretary of General Convention." The fifth and seventh terms were filled by the Rev. Ashbel Baldwin. He was one of the first four deacons ordained by Bishop Seabury, and was a native of Litchfield and a graduate of Yale. Baldwin served as a deputy in nine Conventions, 1799-1823, and was Secretary in the regular sessions of 1811-1820, and at a special one in 1821. At the time of his death in 1846 he was the oldest priest of the American Church. Baldwin was a striking personality; small and lame, but surprisingly nimble and businesslike, with a cheerful disposition and a ready wit. He was an expert in church legislation and organization.
His successor, the Rev. John Churchill Rudd, had been Baldwin's assistant in three Conventions. He was associated mostly with New Jersey and New York, and represented them as a deputy, but was born and educated in Connecticut. He had the unusual distinction of editing two religious periodicals, the Churchman's Magazine and the Gospel Messenger.
The Rev. William Cooper Mead, a native of Greenwich, was elected in 1841 and held the office at three meetings. He was the only Secretary ever to attend fifteen consecutive Conventions, and was rector of St. Paul's Church in Norwalk for forty-three years (1836-1879) and Chairman of the General Convention's Com- mittee on Canons for twenty-one (1853-1874). Mead was a tre- mendous worker, even when he became the senior deputy, hailed by resolution as "the venerable and revered Nestor of this House." The Churchman declared, "Probably no man living has had so large a part in the Church's councils or greater influence in her legislation."12
The office of Secretary of the House of Bishops, between 1811 and 1949, was held by seven men who were associated with Connecticut. In 1811 the house elected the Rev. Philo Shelton, rector of Trinity Church in Fairfield and of St. John's, Bridgeport. Born in Huntington, he was graduated from Yale and was one of the first four deacons ordained by Bishop Seabury. The Rev. Jackson Kemper, who served in 1814, later became rector of St. Paul's Church in Norwalk. The Rev. Jonathan Mayhew Wain- wright of New York, a deputy from 1841 to 1853, had been rector of Christ Church, Hartford (1818-1819). The Rev. William Tatlock, rector of St. John's in Stamford (1866-1896) served as Assistant
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Secretary in six Conventions before his election as Secretary in 1883, and served with distinction in the next three sessions.
For fifty-seven years (1892-1949) the Secretaries were all Connecticut men. The Rev. Samuel Hart, a native son, served longer than any other Secretary, from 1892 until 1916. His dignity and unruffled good humor perfectly fitted him for the office. He immediately restored the former impressive procedure of conveying messages to the Deputies. Some of them said that it was worth coming to Convention, merely to see him perform the ceremony. Doctor Hart cheerfully handled endless routine details that would have bored most men intolerably. He served also as a professor at Trinity College and the Berkeley Divinity School, as Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer, and as Registrar and His- toriographer of General Convention.
In 1920 occurred the first recorded contest for the office, between the Rev. Charles Laban Pardee and the Assistant Secretary, the Rev. John F. Plumb, both of Connecticut. Plumb withdrew in favor of his rival, who at once appointed him as his assistant. Pardee resigned in 1939, with thanks for "his unfailing courtesy, his accuracy in keeping the records of the House, and genial manner."13 Born in New Haven, he had the Yale and Berkeley training that often has been the road to high office. Few men in the Church ever have borne such a burden of work, for he served also as secretary of the American Church Building Fund Commission, Registrar of General Convention, and Secretary-treasurer of the Clergymen's Retirement Fund Society.
From 1928 until 1939 Pardee's assistant was the Rev. John H. Fitzgerald, who succeeded him as Secretary and Registrar until 1949. He was born in Milford, represented the Yale-Berkeley tradition, and had served as a parochial minister.
These men were surpassed in length of service by Con- necticut's Treasurer of General Convention, William W. Skiddy of Stamford. He was elected to his tenth term in 1928, at the age of eighty-three, having served twenty-eight years - longer than any of his predecessors. Mr. Skiddy, an alumnus of Yale, was a manufacturer and banker, well known in Connecticut and New York. He was a vestryman of St. John's Church, Stamford, and a delegate to Diocesan Convention for forty years. One of his many accomplishments was the General Convention Endowment Fund.
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An account of all contributions of other Connecticut priests and laymen to the General Convention would require a separate book. A few appear as especially eminent, like the Rev. Doctor William Smith of Norwalk, who in the early 1800's brought a more sophisticated appreciation of church music. The Rev. Doctor Samuel Farmer Jarvis of Middletown served on the Missionary Board in the 1830's, and under the auspices of the General Con- vention gathered materials for a complete history of the Christian Church. The Rev. Dr. Frederick Harriman gained a reputation for his services to the Committee on the State of the Church. Ernest deF. Miel was a member of the Committee for the Ad- mission of New Dioceses, and of the Board of Missions, and was elected as a trustee of the General Theological Seminary. He was constantly consulted in matters relating to social service. Doctor Samuel Hart, on top of all his other duties, was a leader in the Commission on Prayer Book Enrichment. John N. Lewis, rector of St. John's in Waterbury, was prominent in missionary affairs, especially in conferences on social service and foreigners.
Among the lay deputies, Burton Mansfield became a na- tionally known expert in canon law, and served on numerous com- mittees and the Commission on Faith and Order. In 1913, having honestly admitted a change of mind, he was a most earnest ad- vocate of the proposed "Provincial System." Charles Pease of St. John's, Hartford, was a stalwart in the Commission on the Nation- wide Preaching Mission. Harry H. Heminway became secretary of the Church Pension Fund Commission, and was a delegate to the General Synod of the Church in Canada. For fifteen years (1940-1955) the House of Deputies was indebted to the devoted, courteous, considerate, and efficient services of Anson T. McCook, as chairman of the Committee on Dispatch of Business.
Connecticut's type of service is well described by a com- ment on the General Convention of 1916, in the Connecticut Churchman. "While the influence of our men in the Convention is largely a quiet one, one feels that this Diocese contributes in terms of actual usefulness and service a valuable part in the activities . . . "14
THE CHURCH CONGRESS; CLUBS
In various other organizations Connecticut leaders have made their influence felt throughout the American Church. One
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effective channel for their opinions has been the unofficial Church Congress. It was founded in the early 1870's, with the support of Bishop Williams and of the Rev. Edwin Harwood, rector of Trinity Church, New Haven. The Congress has existed con- tinuously, excepting five years during World War II. Its records abound in references to the part of Connecticut Churchmen in its addresses and enlightening, lively discussions. The topics have ranged over the broad field of the Church's interests. With as- tonishing accuracy they have reflected its changing attitude toward social, national, moral, intellectual, and religious problems.
In 1932 Connecticut played host to a Congress meeting in Hartford. Fifteen years later, under the presidency of Bishop Gray, the Congress published a report, Episcopalians United, with a foreword by the Bishop and including the topic, "Authority and Freedom." Over the years Connecticut has been represented by many of its best clerical and lay leaders, including eminent pro- fessors of Yale University and Trinity College. The Diocese has given to the meetings the cream of its intellectual crop, and the effect upon the Church's thought has been incalculably great.
A less obvious but quietly effective influence has proceeded from participation in the Conference of Diocesan Church Clubs. The organization has flourished since 1892, with a noticeable effect in unifying the thought and action of lay leaders. Connecticut sometimes has been host to the Conference. In 1915 delegates came to Hartford representing over five thousand members, and dioceses as far away as Louisiana and Minnesota. The Conference was no mere social club and devoted its time to addresses and discussions of such topics as the value of church clubs to parishes and dioceses. Bishop Brewster spoke on democracy in the Church and the spirit of brotherhood. The Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Secretary of Yale, appealed for support of the Commission on Faith and Order, the Board of Missions, the Board of Religious Education, and the Commission on Social Service.
CONNECTICUT AND CHURCH JOURNALISM
The Episcopal Church in America is indebted to the Diocese of Connecticut for the origin of one of its most effective agencies of evangelism - church magazines and newspapers. In January, 1804 the Churchman's Monthly Magazine of New Haven began
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its varied career. It was the private enterprise of several prominent priests, with the support of Bishop Jarvis, and soon became a semi- official journal. The tiny magazine, at first only sixteen pages, was ably written and edited and covered all religious interests. Like most church periodicals, it wrestled with the difficulties of printers and editorial policy, and it led a precarious and migratory life in New Haven, New York, and Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
For years this magazine was practically the only Episcopal periodical in America and had an extensive circulation outside Connecticut. It died and rose twice before 1821, when Bishop Brownell became the editor and the Diocesan Convention decided to sponsor it. After another collapse, it was revived by the Rev. Tillotson Bronson, who increased its circulation and gave it con- siderable prestige. His death practically killed it.
The clergy found it intolerable to be without a magazine, and in 1827 sponsored the weekly Episcopal Watchman of Hart- ford. Its title apparently was inspired by the militant, short-lived Watchman published at New Haven in 1819 to answer attacks upon the Church. Bishop Brownell superintended the new venture, which undertook an ambitious and comprehensive program - "the increase of useful knowledge, the promotion of virtue, and the dissemination of pure and undefiled religion." The Watchman vigorously defended and explained Episcopal doctrine, discipline, and worship. The profits, if any, were devoted to the Christian Knowledge Society.
The Watchman was more "newsy" than its predecessor, and more attractive, with a fine little engraving of Washington (Trinity) College on the title page. The editors were George W. Doane (later Bishop of New Jersey) and William Croswell, a poet of some rep- utation. The magazine soon began to droop, for Doane went to Boston and Croswell found editorship so irksome that he for- sook it for the parochial ministry. Financial support languished and in 1833 the Watchman was absorbed by the Churchman of New York.
Connecticut Churchmen were not easily discouraged and in 1837 started the Chronicle of the Church in New Haven. This was the first general Episcopal weekly with a lay editor, the lawyer Alonzo B. Chapin, who later was ordained. Although prospects in the "panic" year of 1837 must have looked very bleak, the magazine
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(under several names) flourished under Chapin's care until 1845. It was then merged into the Hartford Calendar, which became the official diocesan paper, generally believed to express the views of Bishop Brownell. Later it became the Connecticut Calendar and the Connecticut Churchman of Hartford until 1865. It then merged with the Churchman of New York, which flourished in 1831-1861, was revived after the Civil War, and in 1868-1871 was published in Hartford. The present Connecticut Churchman, established in 1906, has no connection with the previous magazine except the name, and is almost purely diocesan.
A Connecticut Churchman, Joseph Salkeld of New Haven, in 1844-1847 edited one of the most interesting periodicals in the history of American religious journalism. His family magazine, The Evergreen, aimed to reach a wide audience and was attractively printed and "embellished" with fine engravings. Its standard evidently was too lofty for general taste and it expired after only four years. Today it is a valuable source of information about church life and literary interests, with many portraits and bio- graphies of leaders, and illustrations of historic churches.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH AND THE WORLD
SOCIAL QUESTIONS
T HE early experience of Episcopalians with Connecticut's secu- lar order was unhappy. Previous to the adoption of the new Constitution in 1818, the government was openly hostile to them. They therefore lined up in the ranks of reform because they wanted complete religious freedom. They were strongly inclined to political and social conservatism, and their break with the Federalist Party arose simply from disapproval of its alliance with the state church.
After Congregational Federalism was dethroned, Epis- copalians divided their political allegiance between the two major parties. The powerful Seymour family and Senator Isaac Toucey were consistent Democrats. Senator James Dixon was a Whig, and Gideon Welles became an independent Democrat and eventually a founder of the Republican Party.
When reformers began to criticize the social and economic order, Churchmen took opposite sides. Many stood aghast at the reforms demanded by radical Democrats and labor parties, while others smote economic "monopoly" and social privilege. Welles in his youth was an ardent Jacksonian and opposed the "monster" Bank of the United States and the high protective tariff. Dixon considered them eminently respectable.
The slavery problem provoked an acrimonious controversy. Some accused those ardent Democrats, Toucey and the Seymours, of subserviency to the "Slave Power," and grumbled that the Mexican War was a plot to get "more pens to cram slaves in." Gideon Welles deserted the Democrats after the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, which threatened to open the Western territories to slavery. But the inflammatory question was not permitted to dis- rupt the Diocesan Convention. Its resolutions include no defiances of slavery like those of the Congregational Church.
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During the Civil War most Episcopalians followed Dixon and Welles into the Union camp. They reprobated a few fire- brands, who publicly sympathized with the Southern Secessionists. Some Churchmen were anti-war Democrats, for "peace at any price." Others earnestly supported the government, enlisted in the armed forces, bought bonds, and gave generously for the comfort and welfare of the "Boys in Blue."
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