USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > The biography of a church; a brief history of Christ Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts > Part 10
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
served as a director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches and as chairman of the Massachusetts Com- mittee on Displaced Persons and as president of the Har- vard Square Council of Churches. He is also chairman of the Diocesan Committee on Arrangements for General Convention in Boston in 1952.
In the national field he has served for nearly ten years on the Committee on Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches and for several years on the Sub- Committee on Race Relations of the National Council of our Church. In the fall of 1950 he was one of the dele- gates appointed by the Presiding Bishop to represent the Episcopal Church at the formation of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in America and he is now serving as a member of the Executive Committee of its Division on Life and Work.
Throughout his rectorship he has been in constant de- mand for Lenten and other preaching both within and outside of the Diocese. He is a frequent contributor to church magazines and has published several pamphlets, particularly on the subject of church unity and the Church of South India. He is the author of two of the Forward Day by Day booklets. In 1947 the Cloister Press published a volume of his Lenten sermons entitled Can We Believe In God?, and in 1949 Morehouse-Gorham published Old Wine In New Bottles, in which he presents a modern interpretation of the Ten Commandments.
Although for several years on Anniversary Sunday Mr. Day's sermons have dealt with some episode in the earlier life of the parish, the vestry had no inkling of his purpose to compile a complete history until the work was practically finished. He recently confessed that having collected so much material he decided to devote his vaca- tion last summer to putting it all together in permanent form.
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GARDINER M. DAY
The vestry, not content merely to say "Thank you" for the time and effort thus expended "beyond the call of duty" and for the very valuable addition to the parish records, asked Mr. Day's permission to include in the volume itself this word of appreciation of one who has contributed so largely and in so many ways to the life and usefulness of the parish.
The Vestry
James Garfield, Senior Warden
Harding U. Greene
J. Edmund Vincent Robert E. Meyer
Calvert Magruder, Junior Warden
Erwin H. Schell, Clerk
H. S. Payson Rowe Thatcher P. Luquer
Walcott B. Thompson, Treasurer
G. d'Andelot Belin, Jr. John Dry
Manning A. Williams, Ass't. Treasurer
H. Edward MacMahon Edwin H. B. Pratt
Note: When the General Convention met in Boston in 1904 the Chairman of the Diocesan Committee on Arrangements was Mr. Richard H. Dana, and another mem- ber of the Parish, Mr. Stoughton Bell, was Secretary of the Hospitality Committee. Miss Alice Morgan and Miss Josephine Bumstead served as Secretary and Treasurer respectively of the Committee on Arrangements for the Triennial Meeting of the Woman's Auxiliary held at the same time.
CHAPTER XII
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
WHEN A PARISH elects a rector in the Episcopal Church, by Canon Law he is given complete authority over the worship of the church and the use of the church build- ings. Hence, he may behave in his parish like a king in the days when kings were dictators, or he may guide his parish by methods that make it a vital democratic fel- lowship. In any case, the life of a parish is bound to re- flect, as we have clearly seen, the vision, interest and quality of leadership of its rector - or sometimes, un- fortunately, his lack of them. In the story of Christ Church we have observed how splendidly the parish went from strength to strength under the able leadership of Dr. Hoppin and Mr. Evarts and how, on the other hand, it suffered through the want of vital leadership under Dr. Langdon and Dr. Spalding.
At the same time, no parish can go forward without the wholehearted support of lay men and women. Every rector knows that it is the small group of consecrated and devoted souls that compose the true heart of the parish. They are the saints, who, thank God, are found in every parish in every generation. They do the labori- ous routine work that must be done day in and day out if the more conspicuous ministry of worship and service is to be successfully carried on. So it is to them that the rector turns when the parish faces a great task or a serious emergency, knowing that he can count upon them to meet
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THE CHURCH TODAY
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
the challenge. They are often forgotten men and women. Many of them never hold office. Their names are not re- corded for posterity and yet God knows that they were "choice vessels of His grace and the light of the world in their several generations."
Christ Church has been extremely fortunate in the large number of devoted lay men and women who have been enthusiastic and valued members of the parish. Would that it were possible to tell the story of all of them and of their countless contributions to the parish, but that story can never be written, because the records are too scanty, and because the chief records of the parish, the minutes of the vestry and annual meetings, give an ac- count of the financial and material changes in the parish, but tell little of its spiritual development. The saints who become parish officers are recorded, but the saints who never hold office but in other ways make unique contributions to the life of the parish are not mentioned.
For example, who would deny that the credit for the major portion of the work of most parishes is due to the women. Dr. Hoppin knew, to his sorrow, who really ran the parish when a group of women pushed the vestry into demanding his resignation. The vestry acquiesced, but it was the women who took the initiative and forced the issue.
Yet in the records of the stated meetings, women as a rule are only mentioned in the case of an acknowledgment of a gift, as the recipient of a letter of condolence, or as the author of a letter to the vestry. Furthermore, they held no elective offices in the parish until 1922, when Miss Mary Deane Dexter was the first woman to be elected as a delegate to represent the parish at the Archdeaconry meetings. Since then, many of our delegates to Arch- deaconry Conventions have been women; and, both in 1929 and 1940, women were elected to serve on the parish
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THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
committee to nominate the new rector, as well as to other important committees.
In Samuel F. Batchelder's history of the parish from 1759 to 1893, he mentioned only four women by name, one because she gave the church its first Bible, a second because she gave a silver baptismal bowl, a third because she gave an alms basin, and the fourth because in the early years of the parish's existence, she owned the pew nearest the pulpit. Only in one sentence does Mr. Batch- elder mention women: "The women of the Parish, in the year 1820, subscribed and collected the sum of $420.96 as a fund toward the support of a settled minister." What is in our day a small sum represented a titanic ef- fort on the part of the women of the parish to save its life in what Mr. Batchelder himself calls "the darkest hour of the Parish's history." The parish was so poverty stricken that it could not afford a lay reader every Sunday. Be it noted in passing that the fund given by the women was the beginning of the endowment fund, now of vital importance in the life and work of the parish.
Who can tell how much the life of the parish in its first years was dependent upon the devotion of those who bought pews when the church building was first opened. Some of their names are found in the list of officers of the parish and a few we have had occasion to mention in the narrative, but we have no way of even surmising the contribution to the parish of the others who have re- mained simply as names on the treasurer's books, for example, to mention but a few: Thomas Apthorp (one of the brothers of the first rector); Benjamin Faneuil (brother of Peter of Faneuil Hall fame); Brigadier-General Isaac Royall (founder of the Royall Professorship of Law in Harvard); or Madame Mehitabel Temple and her son Robert, who had the distinction of owning the small side pews closest to the pulpit.
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
Can we more appropriately pay tribute to such unsung members and friends of the parish in each generation than by quoting here the memorial minute of the vestry on the passing of one of its members, Mr. William E. Wall, who had an amazing record for service to the parish on the vestry and in the choir and yet is barely mentioned in our brief history.
"William E. Wall, a Christian gentleman, passed away suddenly on Thursday, March 8, 1934. He was on his way home from the funeral of a friend at which he had been officiating.
"Throughout his life Mr. Wall was a deeply religious man. His family do not remember a day that he left his home without first reading a passage of scripture and dropping on his knees to say a prayer. As a lad, before his voice had changed, he sang in the first boy choir, and he faithfully continued ever since. He was a member of the choir of this church for 48 consecutive years, never missing a service, no matter how bad the weather, except for sickness or absence from the city. His membership on the Vestry of this church was almost as long and just as faithful.
"Mr. Wall gave unstintingly of himself to whatever he had to do, whether in his chosen field - that of a painter and grainer - and in this he stood at the head, and as such held high office, both locally and nationally - or in those evening classes for boys not so well situated as he; whether as a teacher for many years in the church school or as chairman of the property committee of the Vestry. His devotion to his duties in the latter capacity is typical of all he did. During many of the years of his chairmanship the Parish had no funds with which to make repairs. Mr. Wall made them himself. When the ball on the spire had nearly rotted away, he rebuilt it, and regilded it with gold leaf that he himself supplied. Paint he was always provid- ing. He loved Christ Church and gave it his loving care. We loved his quiet, direct manner. We shall miss him."
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THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
The name would be different, the deeds not the same, but this minute is aptly descriptive of each of the many faithful lay men and women who have been active mem- bers of the fellowship of Christ Church Parish.
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER
THE CHURCH BUILDING
THE ORIGINAL BUILDING was forty-five feet wide and sixty feet long. The exact height of the original tower is uncertain, but its present height is sixty-eight feet. In 1857, in order to enlarge the building, it was cut in two. The chancel and one pillar on each side were moved back, making possible an enlargement of twenty-three feet in length, providing two additional windows on each side of the church and two intercolumnar spaces. It is in- teresting to note that when this was done, it was found that the timbers of the church had been jointed with that intention, so that the committee ninety-eight years later was following the architect's original surmise that some day an enlargement would be needed. Oak was largely but not exclusively used in the building. The pillars were white pine felled on the upper reaches of the Charles and floated down to Cambridge. They were bored to prevent warping-cracks and then turned with machinery set up in a shop which stood until 1795 at the corner of what is now Waterhouse Street and Concord Avenue.
When it was necessary to find four new columns in 1857, the builders finally resorted to using masts of ships. These added columns may be readily recognized, for their finish is smoother than the hand hewn columns of the original building. The Ionic capitals were added in 1825. In the original building there were four windows on the west wall, one on either side of the altar on the
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THE CHURCH BUILDING
apsal walls, and one at the end of each side aisle (on one side where the organ pipes now are, and the other side where we find the pulpit and organ console). A place was left over the altar for a painting. The treasurer's
"COME UNTO ME ALL YE THAT LABOUR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST."
accounts indicate that the painting was brought from Rhode Island, but there is no record of its ever having been put in place. In 1768 a committee of the proprietors waited upon Mr. Joseph John Apthorp to thank him for his offer of an altar piece. No trace of this can be found. Mr. Apthorp was afterwards lost at sea on a passage from New York to North Carolina, and probably he was not able to fulfill his intention of giving an altar piece. The
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
apsal windows on either side of the altar were all elimi- nated in the repairs made in 1825. The central window over the altar (now hidden by the dossal curtain) was probably cut into the wall in 1825 as a plain window. In 1860, a stained glass window was given by Mr. Rufus Freeman. a devoted member of the parish at that time.
In the original building the interior walls were white and the shutters were green. The ceilings over the aisles and apse were flat, while that over the nave was vaulted as it is now. The central vaulted section was painted a chalky blue similar to that used by Peter Harrison in the synagogue in Newport of which he was the architect. The final form of the exterior was not roughcast but was laid down as wide planking. The deep entablature and cornice, much like that of the redwood library in Newport, and the bold returned moldings over the win- dow heads were the only external ornament that could be afforded. The original floor extended on one level from one end of the building to the other, the chancel and altar platforms being added later.
The floor of the nave was divided into box pews, forty- four in number, most of them being five feet by five feet six inches, and all of them being of the old-fashioned, square high-backed type. The pews were placed on either side of the six foot center aisle. In the central bay of the nave, on the left side of the middle aisle, was originally the Governor's pew, occupying the entire space between the two center columns. Records show that the pew had the customary canopy and a parapet. The parapet was evidently eliminated prior to the Revolution. On the west wall was a pew twice the length of the others which was occupied by Lieutenant Governor Thomas Oliver, a devoted pre-Revolutionary member of the congregation. The pews in the original building were sold to the owners, giving way later to rented pews and eventually to free
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THE CHURCH BUILDING
pews. In the extensive repairs made in 1825, the box pews in the nave were changed to single rows of long slip pews, and in 1850-1855 the box pews were entirely elimi- nated and all available space was filled with pews similar to those we have today. It is interesting to note that in the changing of the pews as much of the wood of the original pews was used as possible. This, apparently, meant that very little new wood had to be used.
The original pulpit was a high wineglass shaped pulpit covered by a canopy. By the middle of the nineteenth century a "handsomely ornamented sounding board" had replaced the canopy. This pulpit has been replaced more than once, the present pulpit having been given by Mary Deane Dexter in 1940 in memory of Mr. and Mrs. George Dexter.
Apparently the original altar was a pine chest. Period chairs were used in the chancel until the present stalls were given in 1941 in memory of Sydney McKenna. There were no choir stalls in the nave of the church until 1880, when the first three pews on either side of the aisle were removed in order to make room for a choir of men and boys. Christ Church has the distinction of having had one of the first boys' choirs in New England. The present choir stalls were given in 1940 in memory of the Rev. and Mrs. Ernest Joseph Dennen and in gratitude for the ministry of Dr. Glenn.
In the original church building the pulpit and reading desk stood near the first column on the southerly side, in front of the chancel. The former had a sounding board above it, handsomely ornamented. In 1825 the pulpit and desk were moved within the chancel rails, the pulpit being on the south side and the desk on the north. In the Victorian redecoration in 1883 the desk was replaced by a brass eagle lectern typical of the period. This, hap- pily, was removed in 1942 when the present desk was
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
given by the Women's Social Club and other friends in memory of Alice Manton Morgan, who was for many years an enthusiastic member of the parish.
No one knows exactly what the original chandelier looked like but careful investigation made by Mr. John P. Brown some years ago convinced him that there was a chandelier, probably of a wooden core type with twelve wire arms, suspended from the ceiling by an iron chain. The church records indicate that the iron chain was sold for three dollars in 1859 when the oil lamps were sup- planted by gas fixtures. The advent of the gas fixtures also marked the beginning of the regular evening services. Electricity replaced gas in 1918. The present beautiful crystal chandeliers were given in 1935 by Mr. Francis B. Sayre, junior warden, in memory of Jessie Woodrow Sayre.
The interior portico formed by the gallery with its balustrade, entablature, four columns and repeating pilasters is a particularly striking feature of the church. The large round-headed central door flanked by the two shorter square-headed ones distinctly add to the beauty of the church.
The back wall of the gallery is now flush with the rear wall of the church. Originally, however, when the organ was in the gallery, the organ loft extended back into the tower. The original organ was built by John Snetzler of London, England, the most eminent organ builder of his day, through the liberality of East Apthorp's brother-in- law, Barlow Trecothnick, Alderman, and later Lord Mayor of London. It was placed in the gallery of the church in 1764. This was the organ which was made famous by the fact that its pipes were melted for rifle bullets during the Revolution. It was partially restored in 1790 and replaced in 1844. A new organ was installed in 1861, another in 1883, and finally in 1940 a unique
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THE CHURCH BUILDING
organ of classical design typical of 18th century organ building was given by the Toppan family in memory of Sarah Moody Cushing Toppan.
In 1878 the organ was taken from the gallery and placed in the chancel with the console at the head of the right aisle near where the present organ pipes are. In
DETAIL OF INTERIOR - SIDE AISLE AND SHUTTERS
1940 the console was removed to its present position be- hind the pulpit.
Originally, even before the organ had been put in place, a fifteen hundred pound bell, the gift of Captain Edward Cahill of London, arrived from England. The original bell was recast in 1858, becoming the third bell in the carillon of thirteen bells which were given primarily through the efforts of three Harvard students, among whom was Richard Henry Dana of Two Years Before the
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
Mast fame.1 The present belfry, according to Dr. Nicholas Hoppin, was added in 1766. John P. Brown suggested that the belfry may not have been added until 1790. This seems unlikely, first because there are no pictures
EXIT
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THE PARISH LIBRARY
extant showing the church tower without the belfry, and secondly because the Diocesan Journal states that the repairs in 1790 were "slight and temporary." The addition of a belfry could hardly be considered a slight and temporary repair.
In a discussion of the tower in an unpublished manu- script entitled One Hundred Eighty-Five Years of Christ Church, Mr. John Sonneland writes:
1 For a detailed description of the bells, see Appendix D.
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THE CHURCH BUILDING
"Mr. John P. Brown believes that (before the belfry was added) there was a balustrade around the roof of the tower, and that the balusters from the balustrade might possibly be on Judge Joseph Lee's house on Brattle Street. He also thinks that there were louvres on the lower tower and that the round windows replaced the louvres only in the re- pairs of 1790.
"Mr. John Brown found, in 1933, that by removing the boards and rotten beams on the east side of the tower just under the round window, he could see two dowel cuts spac- ing the tower in three parts, which thus proved the exist- ence of cross beams running east and west at that level. This fact and the fact that the horizontal sheathing of the vestibule runs up to this beam shows that this was the orig- inal floor of the second stage of the tower. Mr. Brown notes that the carpenters verified the fact that the tympanum over the vestibule doors were originally part of the lower doors and all three doorways had originally arched tops. He notes that the doors originally opened inward and two iron hooks inside the main door were placed so as to hold a cross brace .... It is interesting to go through the belfry and notice the heavy timbers used in the early structure. We see here the early dowel joints, the mortise and tenon joints. Each tenon is held into the mortises by means of a wooden peg driven through the mortise. The same form of great, heavy beams are seen supporting the roof. Standing in the attic the forms of the truncated roof seem almost as though shaped after the ribs of a ship's hull. Perhaps a knowledge of ship construction was carried over into the form of the roof's support in 1761."
The church was unheated save for a charcoal stove placed in the vestry room, which then was the room which is now the sacristy. Three or four thicknesses of flooring boards were used in the church to protect the congregation from excessively cold feet. The present vestry room on the southern corner of the church was not added until 1910.
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
A water color of the church painted in 1793 by Samuel Farrar, a Harvard student, shows that the exterior of the church was gray with white trim and red doors as at present.
APPENDIX A
LETTER WRITTEN BY DR. H. CANER, RECTOR OF KING'S CHAPEL TO DR. THOMAS SECKER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
To the most Reverend Father in God,
Thomas, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury :
Boston, New Eng., 7 April, 1759
May it please Your Grace:
Nothing less than the interest of Religion, and the advance- ment of that Church over which you worthily preside, could have given me the confidence of this address. With a view of promoting these good Ends, I have presumed to mention to your Grace a petition now to be laid before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, requesting their settling a Mission at Cambridge in New England. I should not have taken the Liberty of asking your Grace's interest in favor of it, if I did not apprehend a Mission in that place to be of great conse- quence to the interest of Christianity in general, as well as to that of the Church of England in particular. The College, my Lord, is placed in that town; it is the only seminary of Learn- ing for this Province. Socinianism, Deism, and other bad principles find too much countenance among us. To prevent these and the like errors from poisoning the fountain of edu- cation, it will undoubtedly be of great service to erect a Church there, agreeable to the desire of many of the inhabitants; and to entrust the conduct of it with a gentleman, who by his doctrine and good example may give a right turn to the Youth who are educated there. Mr. Apthorp, a gentleman now in orders, and who had his Education at the University of Cam- bridge in England, of the same College with my Lord Bishop
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APPENDIX A
of Bristol, and particularly favoured by his Lordship, and who is also a Member of the Society, offers himself to this service. This gentleman appears to be every way qualified to under- take such a mission with success, and at the request of the peo- ple has promised to accept it, if the Society shall think fit to establish one in that place. They have promised a house and glebe, and £20 pr. ann., to which if the Society are pleased to add what will give Mr. A. an honourable support, I persuade myself it will be very usefully bestowed: and your Grace's influence in promoting this design will be gratefully received by that people, & humbly acknowledged by your Grace's most dutiful, &c.
Batchelder, ibid., p. 8.
H. Caner
APPENDIX B
THE PRAYER USED BY THE FIRST RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH,
THE REV. EAST APTHORP, ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1761, AT THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH
Eternal God, Parent and Sustainer of all things, Infinite in wisdom and power, justice and mercy, most humbly we adore Thy Divine Majesty, approaching Thy throne with our prayers for the Catholic Church, the whole congregation of Christians over all the earth, more especially for the reformed churches of these realms and nations.
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