USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts Episcopalians 1607-1957 > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13
-103-
problems to the fore. The Episcopal communicants of Boston lost a third of their numbers between the peak of 1927 and the low of 1957, the greatest city decreases occuring between 1947 and 1957, the years of the Nash episcopate. Though the churches of the immediate suburbs grew greatly, the greater Boston total of 1957 barely exceeded that of 1927, the last year of Bishop Lawrence. While the folk of Anglo-Saxon stock, the principal source of Epis- copal population, grew relatively fewer, Roman Catholics, Jews and Orthodox increased considerably throughout New England as a whole. Thus, in 1930, as witness the following table of Provincial statistics, communicants in New England were 184,041; in 1950, 226,321; in 1957, only 237,536.
--- 104-
PROVINCIAL STATISTICS 1930 - 1950 - 1957
COMMUNICANTS 1930
POPULATION 1930
COMMUNICANT PROPORTION 1930
COMMUNICANTS 1950
POPULATION 1950
COMMUNICANT PROPORTION 1950
1930
CHURCH SCHOOL PUPILS 1950
1957
Province I
184,041
8,165,842
: 45
=
226,321
9,314,453
1 :41
62,082
62,868
93,898
Province II
338,481
16,612,123
1 :49
383,481|
21,465,300
1 :54
112,056
105,518
136,608
Province III
250,169
13,920,444
1 :55
291,304
21,225,428
1 :70
103,925
93,951
130,013
Province IV
121,311|
21,276,582
1 :170
180,177
27,456,836
1 : 105
57,306
66,764
111,545
Province V
168,530
21,319,060
1 : 107
213,816
30,400,368
1 : 104
56,809
60,403
98,521
Province VI
71,811
9,593,290
1 : 103
93,341
10,408,078
1 :101
24,479
23,964
40,967
Province VII
61,833
14,266,371
1 : 201
120,466
16,325,095
1 :103
21,200
37,877
70,170
Province VIII
82,957
9,951,679
1 : 112
154,022
13,822,638
1 :90
34,719
67,985
104,086
Totals
1,261,167|115,105,391
1 :97
1,663,232|150,697,361
1 : 92
472,576
519,327
726,342
-105-
In other words, there was a considerable increase in Episcopal population from 1930 to 1950, with the proportion of communicants to population rising from 1 in 45, to 1 in 41. On the other hand, from 1950 to 1957, increase was very small in New England, though large in other places. The second Province comprising the dioceses in New York and New Jersey even suffered a loss. The most spec- tacular absolute gains were in the Pacific Coast area (Province VIII). From 1930 to 1950, the population there increased over 50%, and the Episcopal proportion rose from 1 in 112 to 1 in 90. This splendid showing is doubtless due in part to the fact that migration to the Pacific Coast followed more or less the pattern of the country, one Roman to four non-Romans. In New England, and in the East generally, immigration proportions were far different, Roman Catholics, Jews and Orthodox largely preponderating. The above table would seem to confirm the thesis of Dr. Walter H. Stowe, the historiographer of the Episcopal Church, that our Communion grows best in settled Nordic soil. Thus, in Province IV (the deep South), the proportion of Episcopalians rose from 1 in 170 to 1 in 105, from 1930 to 1950. In Province VII, the country from Kansas and Missouri south through Texas, where the old stock is relatively the strongest in the country, the rise was even greater, from 1 in 201 in 1930 to 1 in 103 in 1950.
With this much as background, it is explicable that the Church in New England as a whole, and in Massachusetts in particular, should show little growth, absolute or relative, and possibly by 1960, register a small proportionate decline. The New England proportion of 1 in 41, more than double that of the country as a whole, might well be 1 in 42 or 43 in 1960, but probably not a decline as severe as that in Provinces II and III from 1930 to 1950, where communicants in Province II decreased from 1 in 49 to 1 in 54, and in Province III from 1 in 55 to 1 in 70.
If the Diocese of Massachusetts barely held the line in com- municants from 1946 to 1956, the number of baptisms and of Church School youngsters increased greatly. In 1956, for instance, Confirmations (3811) were nearly the highest on record. The year 1957 saw baptisms rise still more, from 4122 to 4395, and confirma- tions from 3811 to 3924. The 60% increase in Church School popu- lation which took place in the Diocese between 1946 and 1957, from 19,996 to 33,227, was beginning to make itself felt. The accompany- phenomenon of a little decline in communicants from 1956 to 1957, from 80,745 down to 79,805, despite nearly 4,000 confirmations, shows the other aspect of the statistical tide. Many Episcopalians are leaving the State to find better economic opportunities else- where, while Episcopal families are growing larger. How these two contrary movements will work out in the years to come must be left to some future statistician to record.
Financially, the Diocese prospered from 1946 to 1956, the rise in receipts from $3,273,198 to $4,977,148 being greater than the
-106-
rise in the price index in the same period. In the nine years of the Nash episcopate the Diocese moved forward somewhat, if only a little in communicant gains, very much in baptisms, confirmations, contributions, new building and Church School enrollment.
In 1954, with the retirement of Bishop Heron as suffragan, Bishop Nash called for a coadjutor to be his own successor erelong. Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr., rector of St. Bartholomew's Church in New York city, was the final choice in the fifth ballot, the early leading contenders, the Rev. Gardiner M. Day of Christ Church, Cambridge, and the Rev. Samuel Whitney Hale of the Church of the Advent, Boston, never coming within 70% of a majority in either Order. Father Hale withdrew his name after the fourth ballot, most of his votes evidently going to Dr. Stokes. The final ballot showed 65 clerical and 53 lay votes for Dr. Day, Dr. Stokes polling 102 and 85.
On November 1, 1956, shortly after his sixty-eighth birthday, Bishop Nash resigned his jurisdiction to his coadjutor. Two days after his retirement, Bishop Sherrill appointed him to the oversight of the American Episcopal congregations on the continent of Europe, in which post he served for some three years, making his main residence in Cambridge.
Bishop Stokes, like his Yale predecessor, Henry Sherrill, seemed destined by heredity, capacity and varied experience for the epis- copate. His father, Anson Phelps Stokes, a scion of a wealthy New York family, graduated from Yale and E. T. S. For most of his working life he served as Secretary of Yale University, becoming in time an authority on the history of Church-State relations. He has written a substantial and authoritative volume in this field, as well as numerous other publications.
Bishop Stokes was born in New Haven on January 11, 1905. After graduation from St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, he spent the year of 1922-23 at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England. Then came the four years at Yale, with a subsequent year there as Y.M.C.A. secretary. After one year at E. T. S. he spent another year travelling in Russia, Japan, China, India and Palestine, graduating from the Cambridge Seminary in 1932.
The Bishop's pastoral experience has been in widely scattered places. After four years of religious work in New Haven, Boston and Cambridge in connection with his theological studies, he was curate and associate rector in St. Mark's parish, Shreveport, Louisiana. Thence he was called to the important parish of Trinity Church, Columbus, Ohio, where he stayed from 1937 to 1945. His marriage to Miss Hope Procter, of the well-known Procter family of Cincinnati, took place in July 1, 1943. From 1945 to 1950 he was rector of the Cathedral parish of St. Andrew's in Honolulu. When one of the great parishes of the Church, St. Bartholomew's, New York City, was looking for a new rector, the choice fell on him. The
-107-
new surge of life he gave the old and wealthy parish brought him to the attention of dioceses looking for a bishop. In 1952, he de- clined to have his name used in the Episcopal election in Rhode Island. Four years later, he was persuaded to allow his name to be entered in Massachusetts. On December 4, 1954, he was consecrated coadjutor, becoming diocesan two years later.
Bishop Sherrill as Presiding Bishop was Chief Consecrator. The co-consecrators were the diocesan, Bishop Nash, and a former diocesan, Bishop Hobson of Southern Ohio. The preacher was Bishop Donegan of New York. Four other bishops, likewise grad- uates of Cambridge, took part in the service, while seven others were in the procession.
Six months later, at the 1955 Convention, Bishop Nash had this to say concerning his coadjutor, with whom he shared the work of the Diocese on a more or less equal basis: "Since the inspiring Consecration Service on December 4, 1954, his friendliness, keen- ness, good sense and zest have commended him to us all as he has gone about the Diocese. He has proved himself an invaluable helper, and I have great confidence in the leadership he will give when he becomes the Diocesan authority." The verdict after six months remains the same after six years.
The new episcopate still has the same problems that arose in that of Bishop Nash, those of suburban expansion and of city re- cession. Since the proportion of Churchmen to population is twice as large in Massachusetts as in the country as a whole, Episcopalians leaving Massachusetts are bound to be more numerous than those who come in. Again, the suburban exodus puts the Episcopalians in a new environment, where they are likely to go to whatever Church in which they make friends or the children make friends. These last two factors help to account for the leakage of communi- cants of which Bishop Nash complained. It would seem that it is only the larger Episcopal family that to-day keeps the communicant number up in Massachusetts.
The city recession, however, is a major problem. Boston lost a third of its Episcopal communicant numbers from 1927 to 1957, a greater loss than in any other New England city. With only three or four exceptions, the proportion of communicants to people has fallen in every New England city of any size, even when the com- municant list still retains its former total.
The situation in Boston, as in other large American cities is high-lighted by a recent article in the Christian Century (Sept. 1959) by G. Norman Eddy, entitled "The Challenge of the Store- Front Church." Speaking of Boston, Eddy says that he found thirty such congregations within a mile of a large Protestant Church. This must have been a largely non-Roman neighborhood, for Eddy asserts that the store-front church does not get far in a Roman neighborhood. When he asked one member of such a con-
-108-
gregation why he did not go to the big church nearby, his answer was: "What would I be there?" In other words, a sense of belong- ing and of status, reinforced by all sorts of titles and medals, is found in such a store-front church, with often the promise of a superior status in the hereafter.
The Diocese, is keenly aware of these two problems, and is making far-reaching plans for a solution. Thus, recently, a thorough survey, headed by an expert from the National Council, was made of the Diocese and of possible openings and opportunities. The recommendation was that new work be started in twenty-five more communities in the Diocese. Likewise, the Diocese is planning to raise $250,000, to do more effective work among the unchurched in the cities, particularly Boston.
-109 -
III.
Epilogue by BISHOP STOKES
Due to the indefatigable energy of Dr. Tyng, this volume has presented a picture of the general lines of growth and development of the diocese of Massachusetts. As one seeks to sketch contem- porary developments and future hopes, it is sometimes harder to keep a perspective. Living close as we do to the very real personal problems of the diocese and the great over-arching problems of our contemporary world, we are perhaps less inclined to be either en- couraged or discouraged by statistics. We are aware of moral and spiritual needs. What can we say of the present and of the future, particularly of the 1960s on which we are launched ?
To pick up for a moment the matter of statistics where they were left by Dr. Tyng, we can say that the diocese is making slow (painfully slow) but steady growth. We are now, in the matter of baptized persons, the largest diocese in the Church, trailing only New York and Pennsylvania in the matter of communicants. How- ever, younger dioceses are far exceeding us in the matter of growth, and in the statistics representing new life. These are such places as Michigan, Los Angeles, and even some nearer home where imag- inative leadership, the growth of population, or other factors are producing marked increases. We stood at the end of 1959 with 82,097 communicants and 143,884 baptized persons and 35,123 church school pupils. Interestingly enough. in this latter category we seem to be staying ahead of both New York and Pennsylvania, although Los Angeles is exceeding us.
Rather than dwell on statistics, it is more profitable to look at particular areas and at the ways in which the diocese is meeting or seeking to meet their particular needs. Very exciting situations are, of course, those in rapidly growing areas. Starting with St. John's in Westwood in 1953, there seems to have been a surge in new churches: St. Paul's, Bedford was organized in 1955. Trinity, Topsfield-Boxford, St. Peter's, South Dartmouth and St. Luke's, Scituate were all started in 1957. Good Shepherd, Acton and St. Mark's, Burlington began in 1958, and St. Michael's, Holliston in in 1959. Significantly, each of these churches is within the commut- ing area of Boston lately opened up by Route 128, with the exception of St. Peter's, South Dartmouth, which is just outside of New Bedford.
However, the establishment of these new churches, two of which have already become self-supporting parishes, does not tell the whole story in areas of growth. Many small town churches which
-110-
previously in some cases had only part-time leadership and which in many cases barely continued to hold their own or were even slipping in membership, now find themselves the centers of new growth. They are not new missions in the literal sense. Some indeed are parishes. They have plants in varying degrees of adequacy, but they are mushrooming into new activity, requiring the adjustment of the old parishioners to the new concept of a growing church, as well as the adjustment of the old plants and the old budgets to the new influx. In a few cases we have full-time resident clergy for the first time, often with diocesan assistance, such as St. John's, Sand- wich, Our Saviour, Somerset, Trinity, Marshfield (a very old church which has sprung to new life and been relocated in a new building), Christ Church, Medway, St. Paul's, Millis, St. Mary's, Rockport, St. John's, Holbrook, and many others. Many of them have required financial assistance from the diocese. Some, however, were strong missions or parishes which have simply become stronger and more crowded - such as those at Lynnfield, Peabody, Lexington, Need- ham and countless others.
. To guide this whole development in growing areas, the Arch- deacons of New Bedford and Lowell have been put on full-time basis and are increasingly helping the bishops not only with the establish- ment of new missions and the guidance of missions churches, but in the guidance of all growing churches, whether they be missions or parishes. The Department of Missions is seeking to make careful studies of needs for new churches and is finding very helpful the research and strategy services of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, which enables careful and objective surveys to be made. Our regular loan funds, which now amount to about $100,000, are pushed to the fullest capacity. A further fund of $100,000 for that purpose is being set up out of a legacy and a further $150,000, from the same generous source (given in 1959) to be used for grants. Grants are made particularly for the purchase of land as well as for capital expenditures. We are increasingly aware that we must be forehanded in securing the right ocations. The people of Massa- chusetts are moving to new areas and the Church must be there to meet them. There are now only two or three churches which can in any sense be called really rural churches. Almost all our "country churches" are acquiring some of the characteristics of suburbia in greater or less degree. To meet the challenge will probably require considerable thought and financing, probably from diocesan funds.
Another area stressed in the recent Diocesan Survey is the unusually strategic opportunity of the inner city. Our old parish- ioners may have moved away, but there are more people in the neighborhood of our city churches than ever before - they simply are not the kind who were normally expected to be Episcopalians in the old days! Here is another challenge for the immediate future. Some of these areas, particularly in the city of Boston, are definitely depressed areas, with crowding and all the problems of changing and often decaying community life. Here it is the privilege of the
-111-
Episcopal Church to minister. For one reason or another we have not moved away. We are there and can extend a helping and wel- coming hand. The new populations represent people of many racial strains. In many cases they are Negroes, and many parishes which once were all White are now mixed White and Negro and there are instances in which the church schools and youth groups are chiefly Negro in composition. In some areas Puerto Ricans and others are moving in. These are "the ports of entry" to our cities. It was in these teeming areas that Roman Catholicism made its first impact which resulted in its great present influence in the state. Many of these people "take to" the Episcopal Church naturally. The beauty of our liturgy gives brightness to their drab lives and churches are seeking to meet their social and spiritual needs.
A new "sense of mission" has come to the "urban priests." The Archdeacon of Boston is devoting full-time to guiding this work and to the Episcopal City Mission, so closely related to it. The clergy are in many instances meeting together for worship and planning and mutual encouragement. They have a sense of vocation such as those who first discovered the opportunities of "college work" had a generation ago. It is a new frontier of the Church. In Boston many of our clergy are living in these areas. In the mill towns similar problems have often developed. The inner city is one of our greatest opportunities demanding spiritual reality (for people will not come to church for less worthy reasons), social insight, com- munity leadership, and general missionary dedication. We are now engaged in a campaign for capital funds to equip more adequately some of those churches. Continuing budgetary help will be needed also, because many of these churches will not, in the foreseeable future, be self-supporting. Missionary work work must continue to be missionary in every sense of the word here.
In connection with both the areas mentioned above, a hearten- ing development has been the sense of responsibility with which well established churches are helping in the establishment of new churches and in the development of the work in the inner city. Both St. Mary's, Barnstable and St. Barnabas', Falmouth, helped make possible a full-time resident priest at Sandwich. Orleans has helped make possible a resident priest at Provincetown. St. Andrew's, Wellesley, has helped the work at St. John's, Roxbury Crossing. St. John's, Beverly Farms is making possible the securing of an assis- tant at St. James', Roxbury. Trinity, Concord helped get the missions at Acton and Bedford started. Christ Church, Hamilton helped launch the church at Topsfield. Grace Church, Newton, is helping to provide a ministry at St. Margaret's, Brighton. Countless other examples could be sighted of an encouraging cross-fertilization between churches in differing situations all over the diocese, leading to a greater consciousness of our common membership in one Church.
While it is easy to pick out the rapidly growing areas and the inner city as a striking example of challenging opportunities, it is
-112-
important to remember that these are not the only challenging areas. People need the Church's ministrations wherever they are. Equally important are some of the churches which are neither in growing nor in shrinking areas. Some of them are great metro- politan churches barely holding their own numerically as they reach new people, train them in the faith and then see them move out. Others are in small pockets untouched particularly by trends of pop- ulation, where just a few old families hang on but need the ministry. Others are in some older suburbs like Newton, where Jewish and Roman Catholic people are moving in. Often, though many faithful parishioners move away yet there is still a group of people to be ministered to and many who are unchurched. The needs of people are the same everywhere, and matters even of physical growth are determined to an amazing degree not by the circumstances of pop- ulation trends of the area, but by the vision and energy of the parish and its clerical leadership. Some areas which have no signs of the problems of growth on the one hand and yet are not areas of great social problems on the other, are nevertheless the areas where the ministry is most demanding of imagination, devotion and ability. Being an old diocese, we have many static areas. They represent a real challenge. People must be won there by a definite appeal. They will not "pour in" because they are newcomers looking for a church home nor will they be drawn to us by ghastly problems of their environment. In many such areas our clergy are finding new op- portunities to serve institutions, nursing homes, etc., and are giving themselves to community enterprises often in an ecumenical ap- proach. They may have the opportunity to go more deeply in their ministrations than do the overly-pressed clergy in suburbs or in areas of social need.
All this means there must be a new emphasis on the life of our churches. The diocesan survey not only gave us general information and strategic lines along which to work. In this diocese it was made relevant to every situation by special diocesan recommendations made up with the help of the departments and applicable to each particular parish, dealing with program, participation by the laity, Christian education, evangelism, etc. As a result, "follow-up com- mittees" in many churches of all types and kinds have implemented the recommendations of the survey, having been stirred to a new consciousness of their own needs by the process of the survey itself. We are now about to launch in 1961 on a management survey, recog- nizing that our diocesan organization itself must minister more helpfully and effectively in the 1960s to the growing needs of the parishes around us.
The task of the Church is not, however, only one of organization and program. In the 1960s it will be a task of faith, vision, and courage. In the 1950s, as people began to realize the awful impli- cations of the atomic age, there was a "return to religion." We cannot take such a return to religion for granted in the 1960s. Some of those who returned to their old churches have not been satisfied.
-113-
Some returned only out of momentary fear. Some of them have have found no real relevance in the Church to the situation in which they live today. A new spirit and approach must be made. In the past decade in the area of Christian education our National Council led us into a new emphasis on the corporate life of the Church. This has been well implemented in the diocese of Massachusetts. We are coming to realize that the Church is part of the gospel and its life is relevant to its message. We still have much to do to make Church life one in which there is a really redemptive process. Per- haps the next decade will find us reaching beyond the parish boundaries to make sure that Christian people are concerned for the world around them. We cannot merely comfort men amidst the problems of today. The challenge before us is to strengthen them within the Church, that then they may go forth from the Church to give meaning and new direction to the life of our present age. The real growth of the Church cannot be measured statistically alone. It must increasingly lie in terms of parish life, the conviction and commitment of people and the relationship tof what we say and do and are to the situations in which we are called to live and work. To this we are called as a diocese. Yet we are not alone. We must work, as we are led, with the spiritual forces in our Commonwealth as well as express the deepest heritage of our particular communion as it has come to us in this place and from our world-wide and age- old heritage. Our future depends on our fidelity to God.
Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. August 1960
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.