USA > Massachusetts > The Diocese of Western Massachusetts, 1901-1951 > Part 4
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than would have been possible in the original location.
Also in 1933, the Trustees for the Diocese received from Preston Player of New York, a member of All Saints Church during the rector- ate of Bishop Davies, a generous legacy of up- ward of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The income from this Susan Preston Player Fund is administered at the discretion of the Trustees for the Diocese and, though its use is not restricted, the donor indicated that he wished the income to be expended for the use of the clergy of the Diocese, the members of their families, and the families of deceased clergymen of the Diocese who "shall be in need thereof for support, by reason of sickness, ill health, infirmity, or old age." The Susan Pres- ton Player Fund has had an important part to play in relieving the needs of the clergy and their families in sickness and old age. The Dio- cese could make use of more funds for the same purpose.
On October 18, 1936, Bishop Davies would have served the Diocese for twenty-five years. His health had been uncertain for some time, but his diary shows that his days were well filled with activities for the welfare of the Church. Feeling, however, that some relief might soon be necessary, he asked the Convention of 1936 to call a special meeting on September 30 for
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the election of a Coadjutor Bishop. The Con- vention agreed and also approved the appoint- ment of a committee to bring in nominations. There had been no intimation that the Bishop's health was seriously impaired, and the expecta- tion was that he would continue in office for some years to come.
Three months after the Convention, on August 25, 1936, Bishop Davies died at his home in Lenox. On August 28, the office for the Burial of the Dead was read in Christ Church Cathedral, Springfield, by the Very Rev. Percy T. Edrop, Dean, and Canon Marshall E. Mott. The interment was in Lenox.
Thomas Frederick Davies was a man of very real ability. It was only six years after he was graduated from the General Theological Semi- nary that he was called to be Rector of All Saints Church, Worcester, the largest parish in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. He was then thirty-one years old. In another eight years he was chosen to be the second Bishop of the Diocese. Men saw in him the qualities of leadership which the Christian world so sadly needs. In his dealings with his clergy, he will ever be remembered for his kindliness and con- sideration. He was an inspiring preacher, one whose sermons were carefully prepared and beautifully delivered. His command and use of the English language were a joy to all dis-
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criminating listeners. Some of his brief writings have been published; among them are "Priestly Potentialities," "Personal Progress in Religion,' "The Charm of Trees," and "After Confirma- tion, What?" In these brochures, choice phrases and apt illustrations run like musical accompaniments through the text.
To evaluate the life of any man is difficult. No record of things done by Bishop Davies can tell the whole story. Yet for the sake of those to whom he was personally unknown, it may be well to list the advances which the Diocese of Western Massachusetts made during the twen- ty-five years of his leadership: the endowment fund of the Diocese was doubled; twelve mis- sions were founded; ten new mission churches built; twelve parish and mission churches con- secrated; provision made for an archdeacon to supervise the work of the missions; a chancellor added to the list of diocesan officers; Bucksteep Manor devoted to the Girls' Friendly Society work of the Diocese; a new Bishop's House bought; and Christ Church became the Cathe- dral Church of the Diocese. In all these varied activities Bishop Davies was the guide and in- spiration. A grateful people may truthfully say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
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THE RT. REV. WILLIAM APPLETON LAWRENCE Bishop of Western Massachusetts, 1937 -
BISHOP LAWRENCE
HE special meeting of the Conven- tion for the election of a Coadjutor Bishop for the Diocese of Western Massachusetts was called for September 30, 1936. Because of the death of Bishop Davies, the meeting was post- poned until October 21, and the committee elected to bring in nominations for a Coadjutor Bishop was continued by vote of the Standing Committee and instructed to bring in nomina- tions for a Bishop.
This Special Convention met in the Parish House of Christ Church Cathedral and elected as president the Rev. Marshall E. Mott. The nominating committee then presented three names for consideration, one of which was with- drawn before the ballots were cast. Five other clergymen were nominated from the floor, four of them from the Diocese. On the first ballot the Rev. William Appleton Lawrence lacked two clerical votes and one lay vote of the neces- sary majority for election. On the second bal- lot, Dr. Lawrence received not only the required majority but more than the total of all the other
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votes cast. It was quite evident that the Con- vention was overwhelmingly in favor of Dr. Lawrence and thus gave strong promise of a well-supported episcopal administration.
William Appleton Lawrence, son of the Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, retired Bishop of Mas- sachusetts, was born in Cambridge on May 29, 1889. A graduate of Harvard, he attended Union Seminary in New York, and later the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge. For two years he served as curate in Grace Church, Lawrence; for ten years as Rector of St. Stephen's Memorial Church, Lynn; and for ten years as Rector of Grace Church, Provi- dence. The total communicant membership of these three churches is 6,725, as of present date. Dr. Lawrence's entire ministry was spent in managing the affairs of organizations far larger than falls to the lot of most clergymen. Un- doubtedly the ability displayed in his twenty- two years of parochial activity had much to do with his election as Bishop of Western Massa- chusetts. A bishop has to be an efficient execu- tive. True, he should also be a capable and in- spiring leader, but leadership minus executive ability will, in the long run, wreck any organiza- tion. Dr. Lawrence's leadership has been fully recognized during these first fourteen years of his episcopate, and his ability as an executive has encouraged and stimulated both clergy and
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laity to greater effort for the Kingdom of God and the Church of Jesus Christ.
The Consecration Service for the third Bish- op of Western Massachusetts was held in Christ Church Cathedral, Springfield, on January 13, 1937. The Consecrator and Preacher was the Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, retired Bishop of Massachusetts. The Co-Consecrators were the Rt. Rev. James DeWolf Perry, Presiding Bishop and the Rt. Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill, Bishop of Massachusetts. The Epistoler was the Rt. Rev. John T. Dallas, Bishop of New Hampshire and the Gospeler was the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Brewster, Bishop of Maine. The Presenting Bishops were the Rt. Rev. Samuel G. Babcock, Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts and the Rt. Rev. Arthur W. Moulton, Bishop of Utah. The attending Presbyters were the Rev. Frederic C. Lawrence, Rector of St. Paul's Church, Brookline, and the Rev. Robert R. Carmichael, Assistant at Grace Church, Providence. The Litany was read by the Rt. Rev. Philip Cook, Bishop of Delaware.
Never before in the history of the American Church has a father, who already had been the officiating clergyman at the baptism, confirma- tion, and ordinations of his son to the diaconate and priesthood, also been chosen to consecrate him as a Bishop in the Church of God. Never before had the son's diocese been a portion of
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the diocese over which his father had served as bishop. To the normal and natural solemnity of any consecration to the episcopate was added the touching relationship of father to son and son to father. The venerable William Law- rence, retired Bishop of Massachusetts, then in his eighty-seventh year, preached an inspiring sermon, filled with the confidence and the for- ward look of a youth at the beginning of his ministry. Some of his words should never be forgotten by the people of the Diocese of West- ern Massachusetts.
Under the leadership of your first Bishop, Alexan- der Hamilton Vinton, and by his pastoral work among the clergy and laity, the young Diocese "found itself" and took definite steps forward. By the gracious bearing and administration of your second Bishop, Thomas Frederick Davies, these steps have been made firm, and the Diocese knit closely together in mutual confidence and strength.
As we now meet for the consecration of your third Bishop, a representative of another generation, our look is forward, forward not only for another thirty- five years but towards a century fraught with such changes as will test the bases of civilization and the Christian faith; for while the Diocese has been thriv- ing like an infant in this little, happy corner of a country of wondrous prosperity and vitality, the world has been passing through a period marked by radical and revolutionary changes in philosophical thought and in material, political and social struc- ture. God has indeed "put down the mighty from
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their seat, and exalted them of low degree" in such a literal and startling way as to cause tremors to pass through us all as we lie awake in the night and work and talk throughout the day, "and no man knoweth the end thereof."
My hope this morning is to suggest, and no more than suggest, the existence of a power, latent, limit- less, but if rightly grasped, more effective than any other that is at hand today. Its note is struck in these four words, "Quickened by the spirit." Every- one of us who has been in a struggle, a race, a battle of life, knows what that is-call it a new impulse, fresh resolution, a something vital, mysterious, a 'quickening of the spirit," and we have fresh power.
Think of it, you, every pastor, every layman, wom- an, boy, and girl in Western Massachusetts, the mill worker, the farmer, the student and the profes- sor, the shopkeeper, doctor, and lawyer; I emphasize the vestryman; think of it, what it would mean to church and nation if this Diocese could be singled out as a Diocese where the "quickening of the spirit" is at its highest and keenest, where every member of every parish is known through his town as a thorough-going Christian.
I believe that the time has come for all the Churches, and I am sure that the time has come for our Church, to rethink its emphases of expenditure in material fabric and the unessentials of worship and administration; to modify its emphasis on num- bers of communicants as against the quality of their faith, loyality, and life; to adapt its formulas of faith and worship to meet more vitally the understanding and spiritual needs of the younger people; to see to it that the standard of Christian life be raised and
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put into practice; that the spirit of brotherhood and of glad sacrifice be regained. The call of today be- fore us is for a "quickening of the spirit."
To the first Convention of his episcopate in 1937, Bishop Lawrence proposed that pensions be provided for salaried church lay workers and a committee was appointed to investigate the possibility. The committee reported to the next Convention its conviction that salaried lay workers should be pensioned but was equally convinced that the provision for pensions was the business of the individual parish, since "in this Church, parishes have a wide range of free- dom in regulating their local affairs." The truth seems to be that pensions for a small group of lay employees meant a burden far too expen- sive for most of the parishes to assume. The Diocese accepted the principle of lay pensions but was unable to devise an acceptable method for meeting the cost of such a system. Some few parishes did give allowances to their retired employees but these were granted because of the known need of the employee and not as of right. Though the matter was kept alive by sporadic questions in the Convention, it was not until 1950 that a second committee on lay pensions was appointed. The earlier difficult question, where the money for the pensions was to come from, had already been solved for this committee. On January 1, 1951, those
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parishes and missions which elected to do so registered their lay employees for pensions ac- cording to the provisions of the enlarged Social Security Act of the Federal Government. It had taken thirteen years to provide for these lay employees of the Church a similar security granted to employees in other walks of life. If this appears to be a long time, it should be re- membered that, though the Church recognized the justice of lay pensions, it was without the authority to enforce them upon the parishes and missions of the Diocese. It is still without that authority.
It was also in the Convention of 1937 that a committee was appointed to consider the pos- sibility of reopening Bucksteep Manor for the purpose of training the youth of the Diocese for leadership in the Church. It was not long before the Manor was fully in use again during the summer months, partly by a series of con- ferences but largely by the developing work of the diocesan youth organizations. Under the leadership of the Rev. and Mrs. John Brett Fort and their successor, the Rev. William E. Arnold, Bucksteep Manor is filled to overflowing with young people who find the application of Chris- tian living to daily life an inspiring and satisfy- ing affair. The thoughts of many young men have been turned towards the ministry, and from this peaceful house on the top of Washing-
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ton Mountain, Bucksteep youth, both men and women, have spread forth an influence that has already colored, and will continue to color, the spiritual life of the Diocese. Already the man- or house is outgrown; a barn serves to house the boys, and for the girls a new dormitory was built in 1949. Much more needs to be done before the physical property will be adequate for the excellent work in spiritual guidance that is now going on at Bucksteep. In years to come it may be recognized that Mr. George F. Crane's gift was one of the most valuable the Diocese has ever received.
It was in the Convention of 1938 that the Diocese finally accepted a canon creating a Di- ocesan Council. Bishop Davies first suggested such a council in 1921, but the Diocese would have nothing to do with it. It struggled along with an appointed council which had no legal existence. By 1931, the members of the Con- vention began to see that a council established by law could make the business of the Diocese easier to understand and to carry out. In the following years a succession of committees pro- duced a succession of canons, none of which was accepted by the Convention. It was not until 1938, seventeen years after the original proposal, that the Convention finally agreed upon a Canon creating a Diocesan Council. In the years since, the Canon has been subjected
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to numerous changes, mostly in unimportant details. There is some hope that it may have now been remodeled into an effective working instrument. The inclusion of an incorporated body (the Board of Missions) as a department in an unincorporated body (the Diocesan Coun- cil) left plenty of room for differences of opin- ion and questions of jurisdiction. Such conflicts are being slowly overcome, and the Council has earned the respect and trust of the Diocese for its wisdom and moderation.
On Easter Day, 1939, the tenth anniversary of Christ Church's existence as the Cathedral Church of the Diocese, a Bishop's Chair with adjacent Canons' Stalls was added to the fur- nishings of the Cathedral chancel. The Chair stands as a symbol that the Cathedral is "the official seat and spiritual home of the Bishop" and also as a memorial to Henry M. Morgan, long a faithful servant of the Cathedral and Diocese.
In the Convention of 1940, the Rev. Mar- shall E. Mott announced that he was not a can- didate for reelection as Secretary of the Con- vention, in which office he had served for thirty-three years. In 1937 he had resigned as Archdeacon. In 1938 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of New Brunswick. Dr. Mott was, at this time, in the middle seventies, but in thus withdrawing
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from official duties had no intention of ceasing his active service in the ministry. He continued to "speak, exhort and rebuke" almost to the very day of his death on January 2, 1947, at the age of eighty-one.
The Rev. Marshall E. Mott, LL.D., is with- out question the outstanding priest of the first fifty years of the Diocese of Western Massachu- setts. In the Convention of 1948, Bishop Law- rence said of him: "His common sense, his clear thinking and speaking, his forthright courage, his keen appreciation of good work and con- demnation of poor work, his enthusiastic mis- sionary spirit, led to significant developments in the missionary work of the Diocese."
The Rev. Rush W. D. Smith was elected Secretary of the Convention, succeeding Dr. Mott. The post of Archdeacon was not filled, but the Convention created a new office, that of Canon to the Ordinary, to which the Rev. Ray- mond H. Kendrick was elected.
In World War II, the Diocese of Western Massachusetts bore its full share in supplying upward of four thousand men and women to the armed forces of the United States. Western Massachusetts also records in honor fifteen of its clergy, connected with the Diocese at one time or another since the beginning of Bishop Lawrence's episcopate: Sherman W. Andrews, Stephen F. Bayne, Jr., Robert L. Curry, Ray-
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mond S. Hall, Gordon Hutchins, Jr., Donald W. Mayberry, George R. Metcalf, Robert G. Met- ters, Clinton L. Morrill, Grant A. Morrill, H. Maunsell Richardson, Kirby Webster, John H. Parke, Robert S. S. Whitman, A. Grant Noble -all of whom were commissioned as chaplains in World War II.
In 1945 a new mission, the Mission of St. Simon the Cyrenian, was authorized by the Board of Missions. It began as a twelve-week experiment, with those interested worshipping in the Chapel of the Cathedral House. The congregation displayed a high enthusiasm which it has maintained to the present time. The Diocese was fortunate in securing as Vicar, the Rev. Donald O. Wilson, a graduate of the General Theological Seminary, and under his careful guidance the Mission is now firmly established and prepared to take its part in the life of the Diocese. Bishop Lawrence reported to the Convention of 1949 the progress of this new Mission: "Through a grant made by the Trustees for the Diocese, the Mission of St. Simon the Cyrenian, Springfield, has been able to buy the Bethesda Lutheran Church which, until 1907, was our own St. Peter's Church. Since last fall, both congregations have been worshipping and working in harmony in the same building. This cooperative relationship presents, it seems to me, a most amazing and
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noteworthy example of Christian fellowship. Here we have not only two parishes working in the same building-a difficult arrangement at best-but people of two different Communions and of two different races. This is one of the most thrilling experiments and experiences in which it has been my privilege to be a part, and represents to me a spirit of Christian fellowship which I would like to see permeate some parish organizations which sometimes seem more con- cerned about the maintenance of their rights, in terms of a special room or time in the Parish House, or even the use of their dishes, than about the cause of Christ."
It is within the bounds of possibility that a similar joint use of church property by two con- gregations might help in the solution of the fi- nancial difficulties of small missions in country towns and yet preserve the identity of each church without obliging them to retreat into that last resort of diminishing congregations, the Federated Church.
Another interesting experiment in the rural missionary field was begun in 1945 in the pleas- ant little town of Ashfield among the Berkshire hills. This village has a population of some- what less than one thousand persons. It also has but two churches; an Episcopal Church founded in 1820, and a Congregational Church of even earlier date. In 1945 both churches
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were without a minister. Bishop Lawrence en- deavored to find a man for St. John's Church who would also be acceptable to the Congrega- tional Church. The choice fell upon the Rev. Philip H. Steinmetz who was examined and elected by the Congregational Church as its pastor and appointed by Bishop Lawrence to St. John's Church as its vicar. The value of such combined ministration is manifest. Mr. Steinmetz says of his work: "I consider the arrangement satisfactory. It makes possible really complete pastoral coverage of the entire population of the town. It makes for peace and a sense of common cause on the part of the people. It makes sense financially. It main- tains the distinctive witness of both groups while linking them in all possible common tasks." Such a solution of the rural missionary problem may not be possible in all places, but wherever it can be effected it will offer a rich field for Christian ministration and develop- ment.
In 1946 the Diocese received a legacy which has eventually grown to nearly two million dol- lars. Miss Mary E. Bement, an occasional resi- dent of Stockbridge, and great-granddaughter of Asa Bement, an early selectman of the town, was the donor of this most generous sum. She left the residue of her estate to the Trustees for the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, the in-
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come to be expended for the "religious, chari- table and educational work of the Diocese." The fund is named for Miss Bement's parents, "The Charles Russell Bement and Mary Charlotte Ruby Bement Foundation." The legacy came as a complete surprise, as Miss Bement was un- known to the Bishop or to any of the Trustees.
In the brief time that the Diocese has en- joyed the use of this income, it has proved of great aid in the development of the "religious, charitable and educational work of the Dio- cese." Some two hundred acres of woods and fields have been purchased in the town of Charl- ton, where a summer camp for younger boys and girls is already in operation under the lead- ership of the Rev. Kenneth R. Robinson, Vicar of Christ Church, Rochdale. The buildings and equipment of Bement Center have also proved useful for diocesan and parochial con- ferences, both lay and clerical. The cost of a new dormitory for girls at Bucksteep has been met from the Bement Foundation. The same source has added strength to Christian work in colleges, with which the Diocese of Western Massachusetts is generously supplied. Scholar- ships in preparatory schools and colleges are offered to boys and girls of exceptional ability and leadership who might otherwise be depriv- ed of educational opportunities. The Bement Foundation has also come to the aid of the
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Board of Missions by providing assistance for repairs to mission buildings in places where the mission itself is unable to meet their cost. The purchase of a building for the Church of St. Simon the Cyrenian was made possible by a subsidy from the Bement Foundation. As the years go on, the richness and variety of the pos- sible uses of this fund for "religious, charitable and educational" purposes within the Diocese will be increasingly recognized. Miss Bement has begun a work of which the material advan- tage can easily be seen. No one can estimate the spiritual advantage which will accrue to the Diocese from the boys and girls, the young men and young women, for whom she has opened the way to Christian living and Christian serv- ice.
Bishop Lawrence has now guided the Dio- cese of Western Massachusetts both materially and spiritually for fourteen years. He will con- tinue to do so, God willing, for ten years longer, at which time he will have reached the canoni- cal age of compulsory retirement. It is no easy matter to assess the achievements of any man before his work is done and the coming decade may require the revision of any estimate made in these median years of his episcopate. Possi- bly, even probably, that for which Bishop Law- rence will be most widely remembered still lies in the unknown future. His father was in his
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sixty-seventh year when he carried the Church Pension Fund through to success.
The Diocese of Western Massachusetts is now fifty years old. It has grown from small beginnings into a successful and complicated organization. These adjectives are used ad- visedly and intentionally. The Diocese is a successful enterprise. It began with fifty-four clergymen, forty-eight parishes and missions, and diocesan funds to the amount of $141,016. Now, in 1951, there are seventy-eight clergy- men, sixty-eight parishes, chapels and missions, and diocesan funds in the sum of $2,732,509. By every material standard the Diocese is a go- ing concern. There is no need to feel ashamed of the progress that has been made.
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