USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Church of Our Savior, Protestant Episcopal, in Longwood, Massachusetts > Part 7
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The transept built by her children as a memorial to Sarah E. Lawrence, wife of Amos A. Lawrence, was dedi- cated on the afternoon of June 14, 1893, by Right Rev- erend Mark A. DeWolfe Howe, Bishop of Central Pennsylvania. Addresses were made by Reverend Wil- liam Lawrence, Arthur Lawrence and Reverend Elliott
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D. Tomkins. After the ceremony, tea was served in the Parish House.
On November 1, 1893, the Wardens and Vestry adopted the following resolution :
Whereas the children of the late Mrs. Sarah E. Lawrence have presented to the Church of Our Saviour a transept, choir room and organ chamber as a memorial to their mother, it is resolved that the Wardens and Vestry desire to put upon record their grateful appreciation of this beautiful and munificent gift, which completes the equipment of the Church building, and adds greatly to the working facilities of the Parish.
On January 5, 1894, Mr. Franklin D. Williams resigned the treasureship and Mr. George B. Little was elected to succeed him. On November 11, 1894, the Wardens and Vestry gave official consent to the establishment of the Parish of All Saints at Beaconsfield Terrace. On May 10, 1896, the Wardens and Vestry at a special meeting received an offer from Miss Sarah E. Whittemore of a pair of brass vases for the altar in memory of the first rector, which was referred to the Wardens with full power. On October 4, the same year, another special meeting voted to accept from Miss Eliza C. Cleveland a memorial tablet to her mother to be placed on the South wall. On April 3, 1899, at its last annual meeting in the Nineteenth Century, the corporation voted the Music Committee full power to arrange for the installment of the new organ.
In 1903, Dr. Augustus Thorndike, who had been Junior Warden since the death of Mr. A. P. Howard in 1902, was elected Senior Warden to succeed Mr. F. W. Lawrence, deceased, and Judge Philip S. Parker was chosen Junior Warden. These two Wardens served con-
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tinuously for nearly a quarter of a century, or until 1927, when Dr. Thorndike resigned, and Judge Parker was elected Senior Warden and Colonel Edward B. Richard- son, for many years a vestryman, was chosen Junior Warden. In 1904, Mr. George. F. Hussey, was chosen clerk of the corporation, succeeding Mr. H. G. Wood- worth, resigned, and has served in that capacity for thirty-two years. In 1905 he was elected a vestryman. In 1905, the corporation voted to continue Sunday serv- ices throughout the summer, which custom has been continued until the present time. In 1913, Mr. Henry M. Goodrich, after twenty years service as organist, resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. W. A. Paul, who served until November, 1916. He was succeeded by Mr. E. Rupert Sircom, whose father Frank R. Sircom, sang for many years in the Church choir. He was succeeded in 1924 by Mr. Gardner C. Evans.
In 1913, the first enlargement of the Parish House was made, at a cost of $7,563.09.
In 1914, Dr. Thorndike presented the Church with a beautiful memorial cloister and Mr. Henry Howard gave the memorial door and entrance to the transept.
In 1918, the church steeple, having been declared un- safe, was taken down, the stones therein being used in connection with the second Parish House enlargement in 1922. A new steeple was built in 1934, the cost being met from a fund established by Mrs. Susan Mason Loring, a sister of Bishop Lawrence, for the purpose of meeting the needs of church edifices in the Massachusetts diocese, and elsewhere.
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CHAPTER IX
REVEREND HENRY KNOX SHERRILL RECTOR 1919-1923
ON April 21, 1919, with the approval of the corporation the Wardens and Vestry decided to extend a call to Rev- erend Henry Knox Sherrill to become fourth rector of the Church, effective September 21 of that year. Bishop Lawrence was so notified and approved the decision and on April 23, the Wardens and Vestry formally voted to extend the call, and on May 14, Mr. Sherrill's letter of acceptance was received.
On the Sunday following Easter of that year a service was held in memory of those members of the parish who had made the great sacrifice for humanity in the World War.
Mr. Sherrill, the fourth rector of the Church, was born in Brooklyn, New York, November 6, 1889, the son of Henry William and Maria Knox (Mills) Sherrill. His grandfather, Reverend Goldthwait Sherrill, was a Con- gregational minister and served parishes in Wisconsin and Missouri when those states were really frontiers and the ministry was largely missionary work. His father was an Episcopal church warden and his mother a life- long communicant of the same church body. Young Mr. Sherrill graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Prep- aratory School at the age of fifteen, attended Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, one year, and graduated
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(Photo by the Craftsman Studio, Boston) RIGHT REVEREND HENRY KNOX SHERRILL, D.D., LL.D.
REVEREND HENRY KNOX SHERRILL
from Yale University in 1911, and from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge in 1914. He was or- dained in Trinity Church, Boston, and from the time of his graduation until 1917, was assistant to Reverend Alex- ander Mann, D.D., rector of that Church. In his position as curate, he attracted unusual attention because of his ability as a preacher and his facility in winning the esteem and good-will of men.
In 1917, Mr. Sherrill enlisted as a Chaplain in the Massachusetts General Hospital Unit known as Base Hospital Number 6 of the American Expeditionary Force. A farewell service for this Force was held in Trinity Church, Boston, and it sailed for France on July 11, 1917. Mr. Sherrill served for some eighteen months as Chaplain in Base Hospital Number 6, three miles from Bordeaux, attending the wounded and dying in a hospital having over 4000 beds. At first under Red Cross auspices, he was later commissioned as a United States Army Chaplain with the rank of First Lieutenant. After his long service in Base Hospital Number 6, he was trans- ferred, in January, 1919, to the position of headquarters Chaplain of the First Army at Bar-Sur-Arbe, France, where he remained until March, 1919, when he returned to the United States and was mustered out of the service. On being asked, at one time, why he entered the ministry, Mr. Sherrill replied: "I have always felt that the great need of the world is character such as is revealed in the life of Christ. The ministry offers the best field in which to help make such character possible." Regarding his idea of religion, he said on the same occasion: "Religion is the simple natural sense of companionship with God, who is a Living Father as revealed in the life and teach- ings of Christ,-a personal living relationship, even of
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friendship. If a man believes that God is his Father, and the Father of All, he cannot fail to treat his fellows as true brethren. This applies to industry as to every other way of life. What the world always needs is men and women who can put away petty distinctions and work for the common good. The Church is no club for a few people who live in the neighborhood, but a great mission- ary for men and women who are experiencing a living Christ and are spreading the truth to the ends of the world."
With the coming of Mr. Sherrill as rector, in Sep- tember, 1919, the Church of Our Saviour took on new life. His preaching attracted many young people, both from within and without the parish. On September 23, 1919, Mr. Frederic Cunningham resigned the treasurership of the Church which he had held since April, 1906, and on October 22, Mr. A. K. Gardiner was elected treasurer. Mr. Sherrill was formally instituted on October 5, Bishop Lawrence officiating. At that ceremony the chancel and altars were decorated with white chrysanthemums, in memory of Harold H. Fletcher, a young member of the parish who had passed away in 1912 and whose funeral was held in the Church on July 28 of that year. It was deemed appropriate that, with the coming of a young rector, youth should be so commemorated. Early in October, the Sunday School resumed its sessions under the superintendency of the new rector with sixty-five scholars, the number soon increasing to one hundred and thirty-five. It very soon appeared that the parish house was too small to accommodate the growing Sunday School and it became necessary to use three rooms in the rectory for overflow classes. The subject of enlarging the parish house began to receive consideration and
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REVEREND HENRY KNOX SHERRILL
became increasingly dominant for the ensuing two years.
On the afternoon of November 14, the corporation tendered a reception to the rector's mother, Mrs. Maria Knox Sherrill, and the rector, in the Parish house, some two hundred and seventy-five persons attending.
In the summer of 1920, Mr. Sherrill conducted a two- weeks' camp outing for the choir boys.
In February, 1921, the Warden and Vestry, after dis- cussion, voted to accept with thanks a pair of eucharistic candlesticks, for the altar, from Mr. Paul Hubbard, in memory of his mother, and the custom of using lighted candles upon the altar was adopted.
In 1922, Miss Ethel Amory presented the Church with a set of altar books and a fund for their upkeep in memory. of her brother, Mr. Ingersoll Amory. Also in that year the Women's Organization and the Men's Club were con- solidated into a branch of The Church Service League, a new organization established by the Episcopal Church in the Nation.
Under Mr. Sherrill's direction the Church acquired quite a reputation for the production of Easter and Christmas pageants. The Diocesan Commission on Pageantry requested that it produce a model pageant at the fall meeting of the Sunday School Union which was held in Trinity Church, Boston, October 15, 1921. This request was granted, the religious Old Testament mystery play Rebekah being given on that occasion, under the direction of Miss Dorothy Parker (now Mrs. Wheatland) and Mr. Alfred Johnson, both of this Parish.
In 1921, an unusually happy event for the parish oc- curred in the marriage, in The Church of Our Saviour, of the rector, Mr. Sherrill, and Miss Barbara Harris,
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daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Harris of Brookline.
During 1921, committees appointed for the purpose held several conferences with Mr. Royal Robbins relative to the purchase of his large residential property, just South of the Church on Carlton Street, for use as a parish house and Sunday School rooms. However, it was im- possible to make satisfactory arrangements with Mr. Robbins, and after plans for enlargement of the old parish house as presented by Mr. W. H. Kilham, an architect, who was a member of the corporation, had been discussed at length and revised, the building committee consisting of Dr. Augustus Thorndike, Mr. S. C. Payson and Mr. F. K. Partridge, were authorized to secure bids and pro- ceed with the enlargement which was effected during the year at a total cost of $38,023.46.
During the summer of 1922, the interior of the church edifice was completely redecorated through the generos- ity of Mr. Henry S. Howe, a long-time member of the vestry.
During the year 1922, the subject of changing the method of electing the officers and vestry of the Church was much discussed. The Men's Club voted unanimously in favor of having such officers elected by the Parish in- stead of by the corporation, a self-perpetuating body, as had been the custom since the Church was organized in 1868. In order to effect this change it would be neces- sary to enlarge the corporation to include every member of the Parish. The corporation did not wish to take action without first ascertaining the sentiment of the Parish. Accordingly, a special parish meeting was called to vote upon the question. Only 36 members attended and that number included thirteen members of the corporation. After a most thorough discussion, two votes were taken.
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REVEREND HENRY KNOX SHERRILL
On the first ballot members of the corporation did not vote. This ballot resulted in ten votes in favor of a change and eleven votes against it. Eight persons present did not vote at all on the second ballot when thirteen were recorded in favor of a change and sixteen against it. Thus this Church decided not to adopt the system of government which was becoming rather common in other churches in the diocese. The corporation discussed the subject at two subsequent meetings, but took no definite action and the matter was dropped.
Mr. Sherrill's war experience made a tremendously deep impression upon his sensitive soul. It colored his entire ministry in Longwood. Once while rector of The Church of Our Saviour he recorded the following, in a report of his service in France: "As I write in my quiet Brookline study, there is still with me the picture of those long rows of sufferers, over four thousand of them on Armistice Day. I can in imagination be again at the bedside of some boy who is passing over-so far from home-I can take once more that familiar journey to the cemetery at Jalence. We had many good times. Yet there is through the memory of it all, like a nightmare, the consciousness of the utter loss of war. If we bear testimony, as we should, to the heroism of our men at the front in France, we must also testify out of our experi- ence in a hospital that, when war becomes necessary, then it is the tragedy of the Cross."
Of Mr. Sherrill's service as Chaplain at Base Hospital Number 6, Colonel Frederick A. Washburn, commanding officer of the Massachusetts General Unit, said: "He was a great man in the Unit, universally liked and respected. He looked like a boy when he came to us, but always did a tremendous amount of work. The men in the hos-
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pital all looked up to him. He was no prig but could see a joke; yet, when the time came when his spiritual quali- ties were essential, he was there every time. At one time we had 4300 patients, train-loads of them coming in night and day, straight from the front; a man's job it was and much more than his duty he did always."
Mr. Sherrill's service as rector continued for nearly four years, the period being marked by a steady growth of the Church in all departments. In the winter of 1923 he received a call to become rector of St. Paul's Church, Rochester, New York, and also a call to a church in Chicago. He visited each city to confer with the vestries that had called him, but finally declined both calls. In March of that year he accepted a call to become rector of Trinity Church, Boston, to succeed Reverend Alex- ander Mann, D.D., who had been elected Bishop of the Pittsburgh diocese. It was a little less than nine years from the time he began his ministry in Trinity Church under Dr. Mann until he became rector of that great parish as Dr. Mann's successor. The ceremony of insti- tution was held May 27, Bishop Lawrence preaching the sermon. He had preached his farewell sermon in the Church of Our Saviour on May 20, one week earlier. On March 25, Bishop Slattery, preaching in Trinity Church spoke of Mr. Sherrill as one who would come to Trinity with earnestness of purpose and as a worthy successor of the great churchmen who had served as rectors of that great parish.
At the time of his call to Trinity Church, Mr. Sherrill was asked for his views concerning the Church and its prospects, and, in answer to numerous questions, ex- pressed himself as follows:
"The Church is stronger today than ever. Two genera-
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REVEREND HENRY KNOX SHERRILL
tions ago a man who wanted any public office, or ex- pected to be honored in his community, would have to go to Church whether he wanted to or not. This resulted in a certain measure of compulsory attendance and lip service. Today people go to Church for the sole reason that they believe in doing so. This is the more significant when one considers how many distractions there are for Sunday. People always crave religion. In the last anal- ysis they find it absolutely necessary. At the bottom of every man is the religious instinct which will not let him be happy when he knows he isn't obeying what is best in him. He knows that God alone gives his life meaning, significance. God has given him an inalienable instinct to look up and not down. That is religion. I am not bothering about whether this world is worse today than it was two hundred years ago. The great fact is that the Kingdom of God hasn't come, that we are in desperate need of its coming and that there is an enormous amount to be accomplished by all of us before it can possibly arrive. The thing is not to waste time lamenting but to work for truth and life.
"The scientists who say that the Church is too dogmatic and behind the times, have been saying that ever since there were scientists and a Church. They are wrong. Science and religion are not incompatible. They are simply not the same and should never be confounded. They cannot conflict because they do not occupy the same sphere. Science is the study of life as it is. Religion concerns itself with the ultimate realities.
"The Bible is the revelation of truth as it appeared to different ages. In this wondrous book we find the spirit- ual conceptions, the visions and revelations received by man through his whole moral development from the
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nomadic period of society, when an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was his idea of obligation to his fellow- man, to the Sermon on the Mount and all it has meant for humanity in its difficult and toilsome progress toward the light. There isn't room for doubt and there isn't time for it. There are things to be done. It isn't a ques- tion of 'Can you.' It is a question of 'Will you.' The man who troubles too much about his own unworthiness is thinking of himself and not of his job."
Relative to the social side of Church work, Mr. Sherrill said in the same interview: "The Church should extend its work into the practical life of the community as far as is necessary for its moral welfare. Where there isn't milk for babies the Church should assist in getting it. Where boys and girls need healthy and decent amuse- ment, the Church can be of incalculable assistance. The Church, retaining the fundamental purpose and purity of its ideals, must make itself as adaptable as possible to the needs of its community. The strength of a Church lies less in the numbers of its congregations than in the spirit within it. Hence artificial methods of attracting attendants are most undesirable. If those who are active in the service of the Church have their heart in their work and feel bound together by deep and lasting convictions in a great cause, there need be no fear of the life and effectiveness of its service."
On May 3, 1929, Mr. Sherrill was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, which sent a strong delegation to Boston to urge his acceptance, but, after due consideration, he declined the election, even though that diocese is considered second only to New York in rank and importance in the Protestant Epis- copal Church. After the declination, Mr. Sherrill, in a
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REVEREND HENRY KNOX SHERRILL
discourse in Trinity Church, gave what were assumed to be his reasons for remaining with that Church. He said: "The primary purpose of the Church in general, and for any parish in particular, is to touch men with the spirit of the Living God. It is easy to feel that the main pur- pose of the Church is social service, important as that may be, or that the Church is a place where lectures may be given on current events. It seems as if, in the thought of the present generation, the main purpose of the Church is to give entertainment. We are here for the purpose of worshipping God, Sunday after Sunday, through a series of services, and it is our purpose and our opportunity to bring together men and women, boys and girls, from all walks of life, that in this place, dedi- cated to the worship of Almighty God, they may feel the power of the Spirit, and go out into ordinary walks of life transfigured, inspired, strengthened. I can conceive that within a short time we shall have a chance to have full services of worship every day of the week. I see great throngs passing this Church every day and I long for the time when congregations will be worshipping in this Church every day, and I hope that some day we may have a chapel seating from 150 to 200 people, wherein a more intimate atmosphere may be established than is possible in a great Church. More and more I hope that the people of this community will observe that the doors of this Church are always open and that they may come in at any time and practise the presence of God. If this Church should be filled five times a day I would not dare be satisfied while I think of the hundreds of thousands of people who are outside of any Christian Church, yet who are children of God and religious at heart."
In June, 1929, Yale University, his alma mater, con-
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ferred upon Mr. Sherrill the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
In a previous Chapter, allusion was made to the fact that in the early life of this Church a young parishioner received from its officers a certificate endorsing him for Holy Orders, thus beginning a career in the Episcopal Church ministry of one of the Church's greatest bishops, the Right Reverend William Lawrence, D.D. This Church also has the satisfaction of having had as its fourth rector a clergyman who went straight on to the high office of bishop, for on May 8, 1930, Dr. Sherrill was elected ninth bishop of Massachusetts, on the first ballot, at the 145th annual convention of the diocese, being nominated by Reverend Edward T. Sullivan, D.D., rector of Trinity Church, Newton Centre, the nomination being seconded by Judge Philip S. Parker, senior warden of The Church of Our Saviour of Longwood. He received 171 clerical votes out of 189, and 109 lay votes out of 113 cast. The votes showed a very remarkable, possibly an unprecedented unanimity. In his nominating address Dr. Sullivan said: "It is my privilege to name to you for the high office of bishop of this diocese esteemed presby- ter Reverend Henry Knox Sherrill, rector of Trinity Church in the City of Boston. He is an indefatigable rector, a friendly brother to every layman who has had the opportunity of knowing him. As rector of a great parish he has lived in a house by the side of the road and has been a friend of men. In all his contacts with people, he carries about with him a mental shock absorber, a genial and friendly spirit. Other dioceses have sought him for their bishop. Massachusetts now has the oppor- tunity to secure for her own the leadership and personal- ity that is so much coveted by other great dioceses of the
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Church." In seconding the nomination Judge Parker said: "It is a pleasant duty to me to second the nomina- tion of a personal friend. I am sure that he will be a proper bishop for this diocese. Reverend Dr. Sherrill is young in years but mature in experience. He is a man of our own diocese; he is a scholar, a leader, wise in ad- ministration, gentle in personality, sound and orthodox in theology, a christian, an able man. What more do you want than that?"
On June 19, 1930, Boston University conferred upon the new bishop the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
The consecration of Dr. Sherrill as bishop took place in Trinity Church, Boston, October 14, 1930, in the presence of many bishops, the clergy of the Massachusetts diocese and many other dioceses and other communions. The ceremony was conducted by the presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Right Reverend James DeWolf Perry, D.D., of Rhode Island, with the assistance of Bishop William Lawrence and Bishop Co- adjutor Samuel G. Babcock of the Massachusetts Diocese and Bishop Alexander Mann of Pittsburgh. Bishop Lawrence preached the consecration sermon. Other bishops in attendance were the Right Reverends Ben- jamin Brewster of Maine, John T. Dallas of New Hamp- shire, Thomas F. Davies of Western Massachusetts, J. L. B. Larned and Ernest M. Stires of Long Island, Francis M. Taitt of Southern Ohio, Philip M. Rhinelander, formerly of Pennsylvania, Robert L. Paddock (retired) formerly of Oregon, Logan H. Roots missionary bishop of Hankow, China, and Bishop William F. Anderson of the Methodist Episcopal Church, New England area. The presenting bishops were Dr. Babcock and Right Rev- erend Julius W. Atwood. In the great congregation were
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three college presidents-Reverend Daniel L. Marsh, D.D., of Boston University, Miss Ada L. Comstock of Radcliffe College and Miss Ellen F. Pendleton of Wellesley College. The service was followed by a lunch- eon in the Copley Plaza Hotel. In the evening, Bishop and Mrs. Sherrill and other church leaders were accorded a reception in the Museum of Fine Arts which was at- tended by several thousand people without regard to religious or church affiliation.
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