USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > Two hundred fifty years, the story of the United Congregational Church of Bridgeport, 1695-1945 > Part 10
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In 1937, in keeping with his avowed purpose to retire from active leadership when he reached the age of seventy, Dr. Day submitted his resignation. He did it with charac- teristic frankness and sincerity. To the Standing Commit- tee he said, in effect, there are three possible courses open to the church. Conceivably, you could elect Mr. Hoskins pastor and me pastor emeritus, a proceeding which would be very pleasant for us but which might not be for the best interest of the church. You may elect Mr. Hoskins pastor, and I shall retire to other fields of service, possibly in con- nection with one of the Congregational Boards. You may choose a new pastor, leaving Mr. Hoskins free to accept the very fine position with another church which is awaiting his decision. We both wish you to do what you believe to be for the best interest of the church, uninfluenced by other considerations.
Careful deliberation followed, first by the Standing Committee and then by successively larger groups. Was it wise to retain both Dr. Day and Mr. Hoskins but in a re- versed relationship? Would it be better to secure a new man who would bring to the church different methods,
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fresh points of view? It was recognized that the United Church was in a position to call some man of wide experi- ence and national prominence. Was it wise to entrust the complete responsibility for a church of more than two thousand members to a man of Mr. Hoskins' youth and comparative inexperience? But as one after another gave testimony to the fineness of his work during almost a dec- ade-to his friendliness, his sincerity, his success with young people, his sympathy and understanding, the in- creasing depth and power of his sermons-the feeling grew that, though he was young, he had already proved himself. Finally the committee presented its recommendation that Mr. Hoskins be invited to become pastor, that Dr. Day be asked to remain as pastor emeritus, and that additional as- sistants trained in the field of religious education and pas- toral work be provided.
The recommendation was accompanied by the follow- ing statement: "The committee makes this report, rejoic- ing in the fact that its acceptance by the church and by Dr. Day and Mr. Hoskins will accomplish a double purpose dear to our hearts.
"It makes possible a continuance of the bond that unites the church to Dr. Day, whose wide vision, broad interests, spiritual leadership, administrative powers, sincere and loving character, have so endeared him to this church that we desire as close a tie and as active a service as may be had.
"It recognizes the nine years during which Mr. Hoskins, loving and being loved, has gone in and out of our homes, has directed and expanded the education of our children, has carried an increasing load of administrative responsi- bility, has added his own thoughtful and interesting ex- pression of truth to the messages from our pulpit, and has by his own level-headed poise, careful thinking, obvious sincerity, and consecrated Christian character won our ad- miration, loyalty, and affection."
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The recommendation was carried almost unanimously.
Characteristically, Dr. Day's last sermon before his re- tirement was upon the subject of unity. "The world is too strong," he said, "for a divided church. . . Against a United Church no foe can prevail. How shall we find the unity without which the church may perish? This is the problem of the church universal."
The summer following his retirement Dr. and Mrs. Day sailed for Europe that he might participate in the Oxford and Edinburgh conferences; and he returned more con- cerned than ever over the baffling conditions of an un- settled world, and still more insistent upon the necessity of a united church as the one hope for the future. In the years that followed, Dr. Day gradually laid down the burden that was becoming too heavy for him but continued much of his pastoral work, preached occasionally, and retained the leadership of the forum. Mr. Hoskins assumed a steadily increasing responsibility, deferring often to the older man as a loyal son would defer to a father whom he loved and respected. His Alma Mater honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. The church grew in num- bers and in influence, and its work expanded in many di- rections.
In December, 1938, Mrs. Elmer Beardsley celebrated her fifty-fifth anniversary as organist and choir director, the longest service of any organist in the state and one of the most distinguished. Mrs. Beardsley was a remarkable woman. With little formal teaching, she had trained her- self by sheer native ability, love of music, and untiring ef- fort. As she herself expressed it, "I am a musician by the grace of God."
One of her earliest memories was of a little girl, Caroline Lattin, who sat in the family pew in the Congregational Church in Huntington, watching with fascination every motion of the organist and longing for an opportunity to
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touch those marvelous keys herself. One Sunday when she was twelve the organist was sick and Caroline's oppor- tunity came. Shortly after, although she had had but five professional lessons, she was engaged to play the little or- gan in the Episcopal Church in Huntington at the munifi- cent salary of ten dollars a year. Mrs. Beardsley would re- call with a smile, in later days, how the salary was increased the second year by the gift of two handkerchiefs, and the third year by the gift of a prayer book and hymnal, for all of which she was sincerely grateful. She then became or- ganist of Christ Church in Stratford. It was there that she discovered that an organ might have pedals as well as keys, and she mastered the pedals one by one.
In 1883 she came to the South Church in Bridgeport. Some years later the little old organ, which had been called good in its day, was removed to the Masonic Temple, and a new organ was installed through the interest and efforts of Mr. Samuel S. Sanford, professor in the Yale School of Music. This organ, built by Ernest Skinner, then with the Hutchings Company, later of the Skinner Organ Com- pany, was considered one of the best in the city, and it was eventually combined with the organ from the North Church and rebuilt in the chancel of the new United Church.
The South Church was the first in the city to hold regu- lar Sunday evening song services, and once a month the choir presented a cantata or an oratorio before a capacity audience. The quartet was often in demand for funerals, sometimes going as far as Greenwich, Redding, or even New Milford-journeys not lightly undertaken in pre- automobile days; and Mrs. Beardsley provided the music for the funeral of P. T. Barnum, which was held in the South Church because it would accommodate a larger au- dience than the Universalist Church of which Mr. Barnum was a member. For twenty-five years she was also organist
MRS. ELMER BEARDSLEY
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in the Park Avenue Temple. As choir director Mrs. Beards- ley was notable, not only for her professional skill, but also for the friendly interest she felt for each member of her choir, and the spirit of loyalty and harmony that resulted. Many well-known singers were at one time or another members of her quartet, the record of long-time member- ship being held by Mrs. May Stickles Hard, who resigned in 1927 after forty-three years of service.
In 1933 Mrs. Beardsley's Golden Jubilee was celebrated with a festival of music at the forum, for which she had been organist from the beginning, and tributes rained in from individuals and organizations. In 1936, the year in which the City of Bridgeport celebrated its centennial, she was presented with a gold medal as one of the citizens who had made an outstanding contribution to the cultural life of the city. Three years later she submitted her resignation.
Mrs. Beardsley died February 21, 1944, at the age of eighty-four. She had been connected with the church for more than sixty years and had directed the music under eight different pastors. Dr. Swain once said of her, "Mrs. Beardsley never strove to be a 'show' organist, nor did she strive for spectacular effects in her choir, but took her mu- sic seriously, tried to interpret it honestly, and prayed that she might render it religiously. She treated both words and music with reverence." And the United Church pastors said of her ministry, "It has been unusual not only in its years, but unique in its power, in its temper of gracious friendliness, heroic spirit, and utter self-forgetting devo- tion."
Mrs. Beardsley's successor was Mr. Wilbur D. Thiel of the School of Music of Union Theological Seminary. At this time a new hymnal was selected, "The New Hymnal of Praise," edited by Dr. Edward Dwight Eaton, President Emeritus of Beloit College, and during the latter years of his life a member of the United Church. In the spring of
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1943, after four years as organist and choir director, Mr. Thiel was called into the army, and Miss Mary Alice Power, also a graduate of the School of Music at Union Theological Seminary, was made Minister of Music.
In the fall of 1941, because of failing health, Dr. Day asked that he might be relieved of all pastoral obligations. The church voted to accept his retirement at the close of his twenty-fifth year of service, making him at that time Pastor Emeritus without active responsibility. A large con- gregation was present on Sunday, February 22, 1942, in honor of his completion of a quarter of a century in the ministry of the United Church. Dr. Day had earnestly hoped that he might preach the anniversary sermon, but he was unable even to be present, and three weeks later he died.
The funeral, on March 18, was impressive. The church was filled to overflowing with people from every walk of life. Boy Scouts formed a guard of honor and stood at atten- tion as two hundred honorary pallbearers marched into the church in solemn procession. Tributes of respect and affection poured in. The spirit of them all was summed up in the words of Dr. Hoskins: "He was a preacher of power, a great statesman in the Christian Church, and a pastor with infinite compassion. His spirit of fraternity was never 'cribbed' by any denominational, racial, or national line. To pay adequate tribute to one of his stature is impossible. He was always big in spirit and mind. Tolerance and good will were characteristic virtues. His courage was never daunted by the magnitude of the task. He lived by the be- lief, 'Love never faileth.'"
In the summer of 1939 Dr. Hoskins had the opportunity to go to Europe as a member of the European Seminar con- ducted by Dr. Sherwood Eddy, who was a friend of Dr. Day and for a number of years a member of the United Church. This Seminar had originated some twenty years before
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when Mr. J. J. Mallon, the head of Toynbee Hall in Lon- don, arranged for Dr. Eddy and his companions a series of conferences with prominent leaders in England, of whom Lloyd George was one. The interviews proved so valuable that in succeeding summers Dr. Eddy extended the pro- gram until he was able to arrange conferences with men high in authority in nearly every country in Europe. The Seminar of 1939 came out of Poland just ahead of the Ger- man invasion. No one could go through the experiences of that summer on the eve of the great war, as Dr. Hoskins did, without a deepened understanding of the problems that lay ahead of Europe and of the world.
Coming to Bridgeport a decade after the close of the First World War, Dr. Hoskins held the conviction, as did most of the Christian thinkers of his time, that America must never again be forced into war and that the church must stand as the bulwark of peace. But again the shadow of war crept stealthily onward. Once more the church raised her service flag. This time young women as well as young men, the best that the church had to give, went out to the remotest parts of the earth by land, by sea, and by air. Again the church had shown herself powerless to prevent war; but again, and in even larger measure than in 1917, she could minister to the moral and spiritual need both of those in distant places and of those who remained at home.
For work among the men in service there was an urgent demand for chaplains, men of religious faith, trained for spiritual leadership, and trained also in the conditions of military life. Wayne Van Kirk, with his wife, Mrs. Mary Van Kirk, came to the United Church in the fall of 1939 and they worked together, loyally and effectively, in the de- partment of religious education. Mr. Van Kirk was later ordained and promoted to the position of assistant pastor. He proved himself an able leader, especially in work among the children and young people; but he felt his re-
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sponsibility for those who had gone out at their country's call, and the church regretfully, but with full realization of the importance of the task, released him for that service. He is now a chaplain in the army Air Force with the rank of captain. During the last year the Reverend Jerald Snavely, who was director of religious education for one year, has gone out also as chaplain in the navy.
But it is not only through its personal representatives in distant areas that the church has tried to extend its war- time ministry. As this book goes to press, the stars on our service flag number three hundred forty-five. To each per- son there represented, in whatever part of the world he or she may be, friendly messages go out regularly, bearing the imprint of the United Church. Frequent letters from the pastor, expressing the warmth of his own personality and the inspiration of the Christian spirit, follow them to the uttermost ends of the earth. To many a man or woman serving in distant places the church, through this gospel of friendliness and understanding, has become a new reality.
On the home front as well as on the battle front these war years are years of difficulty and challenge. The normal life of the city has been disrupted. War industries have boomed. Population has fluctuated in numbers and changed in character. Family and civic problems are multi- plied. In the two and a half centuries of its existence there has been no time when a strong, vital church was more needed in Bridgeport than at the present hour. And the United Church is striving to be true to its purpose, true to the vision of those who foresaw the importance of the larger, better equipped church and worked and sacrificed to realize that vision. The Church School, the athletic and recreational program, Pilgrim Fellowship for the high school age, Tau Kappa Phi for the older young people, United Fellowship for the young married group, the Fi- delia Club for business women, the Mothers' Club, the
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Men's Club, the Woman's Guild with its many wartime activities, each has its own place in the design through which the United Church is attempting to interpret the Christian ideal in the modern world.
History records the names only of those who have oc- cupied positions of leadership in any given undertaking. Churches, likewise, preserve the record of few except those in official places, for they cannot enumerate the countless numbers of people who have served under the leaders and made their work possible. The present history, too, must omit the names of hundreds of men and women whose loy- alty and faithfulness have been woven into the fabric which is the United Church. Today, as in the two-and-a- half centuries that have passed, it is their loyalty, their de- votion, their willingness to serve in whatever capacity their service is needed most, that constitute the true measure of effectiveness with which the church can meet the chal- lenge of its time.
The story closes while the great and terrible war, the an- tithesis of all for which the church stands, is still in prog- ress; and when the war is over, the period of adjustment and reconstruction will be fraught with problems and diffi- culties greater, perhaps, than any that have ever before confronted the Christian Church. But war does not vitiate the teachings of the gospel; rather it provides a back- ground against which those teachings stand out in bold re- lief. On a June Sabbath in 1695 the Church of Christ in Stratfield was gathered in a house of logs to minister to a little band of settlers in a primitive community. Today, two-and-a-half centuries later, The United Church stands in the midst of a great city, looking out upon a world that is totally different from the world our forefathers saw. But the faith of our fathers is living still. The church remains undismayed, the symbol of peace, justice, and brother- hood; its spire points steadily upward; its bell rings out the
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message engraved upon its portals, "This House Shall Be a House of Prayer for All Peoples." May the achievement of the past and the aspiration of the present be a prophecy that shall reach complete fulfillment in the centuries that are to come.
THE PASTOR'S MESSAGE
"Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the highway, even the way by which thou wentest. . . . "-Jeremiah 31:21.
T IO read the pages of this book is to become aware of hearts affectionately set toward the highway along which the old Church of Christ in Stratfield has traveled. To be sure, the highway has not always been smooth or straight; for that matter, it has not always been clearly recognized; but it has ever been a noble way.
A wise churchman has said that every generation must make a major sacrifice for its church, else the church will die. This statement is amply authenticated in the story of this old New England church. As we have followed it we have come to a new appreciation of the interplay of the re- ligious convictions and the political, economic, and social aspirations of those who have preceded us. For the reader there has been a cumulative effect. This effect I know no word to describe, but it is the mingled pride, gratitude, and humility that we feel for the faith of our fathers which has not flagged in two-and-one-half centuries, and for the persistence of our forebears that enabled them to over- come difficulties before which I fear we should quail. It is the combination of pride and gratitude and humility that we feel, too, for the wisdom of our spiritual benefactors. We come to the end of the story with full hearts recogniz- ing that we have entered into an inheritance at once noble and great.
It is not invidious for us of this generation, who pick up the threads of the fabric so soon after he has laid them down, to feel and bespeak a special indebtedness for Doc- tor William Horace Day. His sense of beauty has been be- queathed to us in a magnificent church building; his sense
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of friendliness, in a community now indelibly stamped with that mark; his sense of fraternity, in churches so ce- mented into the United Church that even the lines of union cannot be discerned; his sense of responsibility, in a church program that functions day and night for the wel- fare of people of all classes, all races, and all creeds; his sense of tolerance, in the Bridgeport Sunday Evening Community Forum, a monument to active, buoyant, pur- poseful good will; his sense of God in cultivated habits of worship by those who came under his influence.
At the end of two hundred fifty years the members of this church look with pride upon a membership now grown to more than twenty-three hundred. It is a fellow- ship of Christians made up of a cross section of the people of this cosmopolitan community. People from every walk of life, from many nations, from many religious back- grounds, with varying economic conditions, and with most widely differing political and social views make up the membership. We look at the staff of the United Church with satisfaction. Some of them have been in the service of the church for many years; all of them are devoted, effi- cient, friendly workers. The church building is an instru- ment fitted to a community service as well as to the needs of a local congregation.
"And Jehovah said unto Moses, 'Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.' "-Exodus 14:15.
Thus it has always been. The luxury of sitting down to enjoy former accomplishments can be but for a fleeting moment. If the United Church has any significance for the members or the community or the Christian world, it is not in what it has done in the past but in what it does today and in what it will do tomorrow. Even as I write, the future has been opening the door.
The sobering fact settles upon us that never in the two
THE REVEREND FRED HOSKINS, D.D.
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hundred fifty years have the members of this church looked into the face of a more disquieting and disturbing future. There are now nearly three hundred fifty of our men and women engaged directly in the business of war and the life of every other member is made uncertain. The business of the whole world today is war.
The end of the war will come. Whether or not peace will be established is yet to be seen. What the nature of the post- war period will be, none can describe. We know that we shall be living on a reduced earth but in an enlarged world. At first we are thrilled and then we are disturbed at what the scientists tell us about the future developments in com- munication. And what shall we say of the developments in transportation which will extend the range of man from the very few miles of our fathers' day through the few hun- dred miles of our automobile age to the thousands of miles of the air age? In the air, apparently, people are going to live, speak, move, and have their being.
Presumably the church that is alert will employ not only radio and motion pictures but television and many other products of science, for the old law of the "first fruits" is still applicable. The first fruits of science ought to be used to the glory of God. How we are to do it we do not yet know, but that we must do it, we are certain.
We are sure of this. The task of the church is not com- pleted nor has it been taken over by other agencies. The church has never had so challenging a time in which to serve. Whatever the development may be from the view- point of science, political considerations, or social arrange- ments, we know that men will need still to be reconciled to one another. There are still frontiers for the members of the old Church of Christ in Stratfield to face. It will re- quire more courage and wisdom to meet the prejudices of tomorrow, the threats of war, the economic and political battles, than it did for our predecessors to overcome the
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obstacles of pioneer life or deal with the Indians on Golden Hill.
Whatever may be revealed as the door of the future is opened, of this we are sure: that men will still need to be reconciled to God. So with appreciation of the highway built and followed by our revered ancestors, and with full recognition of the magnitude of the problems we face to- day, but with complete trust in God, we go forward with the confidence of Pastor Robinson-that the Lord has more truth and light yet to break forth out of his Holy Word.
December, 1944.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ORIGINAL CHURCH RECORDS.
ORCUTT, SAMUEL. History of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport. Fairfield County Historical Society, 1886.
DANNENBERG, ELSIE NICHOLAS. The story of Bridgeport 1836-1936. Bridgeport Centennial Association, 1936.
WEIGLE, LUTHER A. American idealism. In: Pageant of America, vol. X. The Yale University Press, 1928.
KELLER, CHARLES ROY. The second great awakening in Connecti- cut. The Yale University Press, 1942.
Pamphlets prepared by the Committee on Historical Publications, Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut. The Yale University Press, 1936:
DUTCHER, GEORGE MATTHEW. George Washington and Con- necticut in war and peace. Pamphlet No. 8.
PORTER, NOAH. The New England meeting house. Pamphlet No. 18.
MITCHELL, MARY H. The great awakening and other revivals in the religious life of Connecticut. Pamphlet No. 26.
WELD, RALPH FOSTER. Slavery in Connecticut. Pamphlet No. 37. BALDWIN, ALICE MARY. The clergy in Connecticut in revolution- ary days. Pamphlet No. 56.
COONS, PAUL WAKEMAN. The achievement of religious liberty in Connecticut. Pamphlet No. 60.
STRONG, WILLIAM E. The story of The American Board. The Pil- grim Press, 1910.
THE records of the General Association of ye colony of Connecti- cut, 1738-1789. Case, Lockwood, Brainard Co., 1888.
COGSWELL, RICHARD B. Historical review of First Congregational Society of Bridgeport, 1791-1898. (Compiled from records of the Society.)
HAWLEY, EDMUND S. Historical sketch. Prepared for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the South Church.
PALMER, CHARLES RAY. The bicentennial celebration of the First Congregational Church. Tuttle, Morehouse, and Taylor, 1895.
HINCKS, WILLIAM B. Bridgeport and vicinity in the Revolution and the War of 1812. Pamphlet printed in Bridgeport, July 4, 1876.
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BLATCHFORD, ELIPHALET WICKES. Blatchford memorial, vol. II-A. Privately printed, 1912.
CHILD, FRANK SAMUEL, D.D. An old New England church. Fairfield Historical Society.
IVES, REV. JOEL S. The quarto-millennial anniversary of the Con- gregational Church of Stratford, Connecticut, 1889.
SHERMAN, REV. STEPHEN FISH, JR. (ed.). One hundred seventy-fifth anniversary of St. John's. Bridgeport, 1923.
WOOSTER, JOHN S. The story of a church: History of Park Street Congregational Church, 1938.
ADDITIONAL material has been obtained from clippings and other documents in the Henry A. Bishop Historical Room of the Bridge- port Public Library. Mrs. Clara B. Pierce, Head of the Historical Room, has given valuable assistance.
PASTORS OF THE CHURCH
THE FIRST CHURCH
CHARLES CHAUNCEY, 1695-1714
SAMUEL COOKE, 1715-1747
LYMAN HALL, 1749-1751 ROBERT ROSS, 1753-1796
SAMUEL BLATCHFORD, D.D., 1797-1804 ELIJAH WATERMAN, 1806-1825 FRANKLIN Y. VAIL, 1826-1828
JOHN BLATCHFORD, 1830-1836
JOHN WOODBRIDGE, D.D., 1837-1838
JOHN H. HUNTER, 1839-1845
BENJAMIN ST. JOHN PAGE, 1847-1853 JOSEPH H. TOWNE, 1854-1858 MATSON MEIER SMITH, 1859-1865
GEORGE RICHARDS, 1866-1870
CHARLES RAY PALMER, D.D., 1872-1895 Pastor Emeritus, 1895-1914 JOHN DEPEU, 1897-1912 HERBERT D. GALLAUDET, 1912-1916
THE SECOND CHURCH
NATHANIEL HEWITT, D.D., 1830-1853
ASAHEL L. BROOKS, 1854-1856 BENJAMIN L. SWAN, Acting Pastor, 1856-1858 ALEXANDER R. THOMPSON, 1859-1862
FRANCIS LOBDELL, 1863-1865 DANIEL LORD, 1865-1869 EDWARD JOHNSON, 1870-1876 R. G. S. McNEILLE, 1877-1893 FRANK RUSSELL, D.D., 1895-1901 WILLIAM H. SALLMON, 1902 HENRY HALLAM TWEEDY, D.D., 1903-1909 RICHARD LARUE SWAIN, PH.D., 1910-1916
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THE UNITED CHURCH
WILLIAM HORACE DAY, D.D., 1917-1937 Pastor Emeritus, 1937-1942 FRED HOSKINS, D.D., 1937-
ASSISTANT PASTORS AND DIRECTORS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
C. B. LOOMIS, 1917-1918 FREDERICK M. ARMSTRONG, 1919-1920
EDWARD UPSON COWLES, 1920-1922
WILLIAM B. BARTLETT, 1923-1924 FORREST LAMAR KNAPP, 1924-1926 ACTON E. MIDDLEBROOKS, 1927 FRED HOSKINS, 1928-1937
RIVAL J. HAWKINS, 1937-1939
WAYNE VAN KIRK, 1939-1943
JERALD HOOD SNAVELY, 1943-1944
W. FRED CAMPBELL, 1944-
THE CHURCH STAFF, 1945
FRED HOSKINS, D.D., Pastor
W. FRED CAMPBELL, B.D., Assistant Pastor and Director of Re- ligious Education
MRS. MARY VAN KIRK, M.A., Pastor's Secretary
MRS. HELEN VAN VALKENBURGH, Pastor's Assistant
GRACE L. WEST, General Assistant
MRS. MILDRED B. ORELUP, Office Secretary
MARY ALICE POWER, M.M., Organist and Choir Director
LEWIS L. MELANCON, Superintendent of the Building FRED HAMMOND, Assistant Superintendent
CHURCH MISSIONARIES
REVEREND and MRS. WILLIAM SAGE WOOLWORTH, Tarsus, Turkey SYLVIA T. EDDY, R.N., Talus, Turkey
LAVINIA SCOTT, Inanda Seminary, Inanda, South Africa
OFFICE BEARERS OF THE CHURCH, 1945
Clerk William K. Skolfield
Treasurer Leroy F. Sanford
Financial Secretary Peter P. Morrell
Auditors
Kenneth J. Griffin
Board of Senior Deacons
Henry D. Simonds, Life Deacon
Wilmot T. Fiske
Albert S. Anderson
William E. Hatheway
H. Austin Cook
Hubert C. Morfey
Stanley C. Burritt
Leslie R. Mathews
William P. Little
Board of Junior Deacons
Arthur N. Hale
Austin C. Kidder
James H. Halsey
Hobart L. Smith
Elnathan Mitchell
John O. Carlton
J. Earl Williamson Herbert Axman
W. J. A. Raeburn
Robert J. Linley
Bertram A. Carstensen (deceased)
George A. Vincent, Jr.
Board of Trustees
Mrs. James G. Ludlum Edwin S. Petersen
Jonathan S. Randle John K. Williamson Mrs. Emile C. Canning Sidney H. Challenger
Samuel T. Hewlett Lewis M. Lucas D. Wheeler Clark
Samuel W. Hawley
Theodore I. Wilkinson
Mrs. Lucien T. Warner
William B. Hawley Gordon J. Morrow
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Board of Benevolences
Mrs. Fred E. Lacey
Elliott R. Casey
Joseph M. Dearborn
Mrs. George A. Buckhout
Winton A. Hoffman
Howard L. Haag
Grace R. Sterling
Agnes O. Hibbert
Mary D. Auchincloss
Mrs. Howard C. Flewellyn
Paul S. Baker
Sanford W. Smith
Board of Religious Education
Robert L. Baldwin
Earle R. Minton
Mrs. F. Judson Barnes
David B. Simmons
Marion M. Chapin
Edward R. Coutant
H. Chester Greene
Howard C. Flewellyn
Mrs. William S. Coley
Ruth W. Jessee
Mrs. Leslie R. Mathews
Helen Warren
Board of Music and Drama
F. Harold Dart
H. Reginald Horton
Mrs. R. Paul Hine
Frank M. Porter
E. Belle Mckinney
Paul F. Goulding
Ralph A. Turner
Leslie R. Mathews
Mrs. Sargent F. Eaton
Mrs. Samuel P. Senior, Jr.
Mrs. James Douglas Gold
Wilhelm A. Wintter
Standing Committee
Pastors, Chairmen of Boards,
Mrs. George Holmes Edwards
Departments and Committees Mrs. Burton E. Turney
Committee on Arts and Memorials
Richard S. Swain
Mrs. A. M. Wooster
Mrs. C. N. Worthen Frederick B. Curtis
C. D. S. Miller
Mrs. John K. Williamson
Ushers
Hubert C. Morfey
Earl H. Orelup
Charles W. Oviatt
Benjamin L. Worthen
Delegates to the General Conference of Congregational Churches in Connecticut
Richard C. Wakeman Robert E. Wheeler
The Pastors Horace A. Smith
Mrs. Lawrence B. Walker
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TWO HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS Delegates to the Fairfield County Association The Pastors Richard I. Neithercut
Mrs. David C. O'Brien
Delegates to the Congregational Union
The Pastors
Helen E. Grumman
Mrs. William D. Holcomb Christian L. Kost
Every Member Canvass Committee
Harry S. Irons Louis M. Nichols
Mrs. L. B. Alling
Richard G. Demarest, Jr. W. Parker Seeley Peter P. Morrell
Nominating Committee
Woodruff Burr Mrs. Sidney H. Challenger
Bessie H. Marigold I. H. West
Thomas Davis
PRIVATELY PRINTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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