USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The story of the Second Church in Boston, the original Old North; including the Old North Church mystery > Part 5
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In 1914 a simple statement of the underlying belief of the church began to appear on the front page of the printed weekly calendars: "This church accepts the religion of Jesus, holding, in accordance with his teachings, that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to man."
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A view toward the west gallery of the church
Samuel Raymond Maxwell's conception of religion was emphat- ically traditional, symbolic and liturgical, grounded in the cross of Christianity. He proceeded at once to deepen the Episcopal flavor and form of the worship services. The use of Psalms in a separate book was abandoned in favor of a new prayer book that drew heavily from orthodox sources and lightly from a few nine- teenth-century Unitarian writers. Kneeling-benches for prayers were placed among the pews. The members of the choir were brought down from the gallery and, dressed in vestments, opened and closed the services in processional and recessional marches. They were led to and from special choir stalls in the chancel by a crucifer and acolyte bearing, respectively, a high cross and the American flag. Altar candles were ceremoniously lighted and extinguished at the start and finish of each Sabbath service. Messrs. Cram and Maxwell designed a giant Maltese cross to be suspended high in the peak of the chancel entrance, emulating the great cross in the Cathedral of Milan.
At the time of the First World War, the many rooming houses and apartments that now surround the church were single resi- dences for upper class, proper Bostonians. Mr. Maxwell, an ex- cellent preacher and beloved minister, drew a large number of these families. Unfortunately the congregation gained a reputa- tion for being somewhat exclusive and snobbish. This impression was enhanced by the Sunday morning ushers, who wore morning
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A NEW SPIRE ON BEACON STREET
clothes and gray gloves and carried silk top hats. Many a poten- tial member is said to have glanced inside the door and then fled in terror at the sight of the regal gathering within! During the week, however, the church carried on extensive activities in be- half of soldiers, sufferers and refugees overseas.
Mr. Maxwell served as chaplain of several Masonic and I.O.O.F. lodges and was in demand as a speaker for various colleges. He became a trustee of his own alma mater, The Meadville Theo- logical School, from which, following a short career in teaching, he had graduated in 1906.
Samuel Raymond Maxwell wished to create a church attractive to the neighborhood rather than a pulpit offering strong liberal leadership for Greater Boston. Consequently the services, ser- mons and programs reflected a conservative, priestly religion. This did not foster in the church an adequate zeal for social serv- ice or attract leaders in metropolitan Boston's educational, hu- manitarian and political life. Religious liberals of the day tended to wend their way into more progressive churches. When Mr. Maxwell terminated his ministry in 1919, a considerable number of persons, feeling no especial attachment to any abiding "cause" or distinctive "faith" represented and upheld by the Second Church, quietly withdrew. In playing down a wider commitment to Unitarianism and its dynamic principles, the congregation had failed to develop a cohesive center of larger loyalty, one that would be more enduring than either the pastor or the parish.
Chapter Nine IN OUR LIFETIME
The Second Church in Boston became known far and wide as the home of brilliant religious pageants during the next ten-year period under the leadership of a tall, knightly man named Eugene Rodman Shippen. On occasion these dramatic festivals so packed every seat in the church and adjoining halls that hundreds had to be turned away.
Born January 30, 1865, the son of a distinguished Unitarian minister, Dr. Shippen was educated at Harvard and Oxford and was McQuaker Trust Lecturer in Scotland during 1908. During an eight-year pastorate in the Unitarian Church in Detroit, Michi- gan, just prior to coming to the Second Church, he had been ac- tive in suffrage and social hygiene movements and had initiated the Citizens' Committee that resulted in the clean-up and re- organization of the Detroit House of Correction.
A parish letter of September 20, 1920, at the start of his Bos- ton ministry, indicates that he was serving, either as a trustee or a director, the Meadville Theological School, Tuckerman School, Benevolent Fraternity of Unitarian Churches, Norfolk House Cen- ter, Unitarian Historical Society and other institutions. He was the founder and first president (in 1922) of the Religious Arts Guild, an organization engaged in promoting the interests of the fine arts in their relation to public worship. Early in the century he had been among the first Protestants in America to work in- fluentially in this field. During and after his ministry, he repre- sented the American Unitarian Association on special missions to Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Palestine, and the Philippines.
Dr. Shippen imported from Oxford its May Day Festival and the Tournament of the Golden Rose. With the aid of his gifted wife he wrote and produced, according to religious arts authority Von Ogden Vogt, "perhaps the most beautiful Nativity pageant in America." For one of his Memorial Day services the church presented as speaker Calvin Coolidge, the Governor of the Commonwealth.
Protests within the church over the lengthy and conservative form of the monthly Communion service inspired the minister to introduce in November, 1928, a symbolic observance, making the
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ceremony almost entirely spiritual. The bread and wine remained in view on the altar table but were no longer passed to the con- gregation. As the pastor partook of the elements in behalf of those gathered together, he spoke of the spiritual communion through which love passes to the worshipers. At last, one century after Ralph Waldo Emerson's resignation over this important doctrinal point, the reform that he had sought was instituted in his own church.
The unremitting pressures of a difficult city church caused Dr. Shippen to go into retirement on November 12, 1929. Many older families were dying out or moving their residences into the sub- urbs. The stock market crash was soon to begin its insidious work on the financial affairs of Americans everywhere. A new era of struggle was dawning in the life of the Second Church in Boston.
An energetic pulpit committee swiftly examined a number of leading ministerial candidates. On April 1, 1930, less than five months after the retirement of Dr. Shippen, Mr. Dudley Hays Ferrell was at work in the parish. A graduate of Princeton Theological School, he had entered the Presbyterian ministry only to discover that his views were too liberal for that denomination. After serv- ing Unitarian churches in Brockton, Montreal and Lynn, he gave full time to Masonic work for three years. Like Paul Revere, he served several years as Grand Master of the Masons of Massachu- setts.
Prior to Mr. Ferrell's arrival at the Second Church he was Re- lief Commissioner of the Grand Lodge, Director of the Service Department, Director of Education and Director of the Masonic Home at Charlton, Massachusetts. For many years a prodigious worker, he seems to have burned himself out, for on September 15, 1932, in his Swampscott home, he died at the age of fifty- three. His pastorate had been of a quiet, conservative nature with little change in the church's life.
After a year of guest preachers, the pulpit was filled by Mr. DuBois LeFevre on October 1, 1933. A graduate of Rutgers in 1914, and the Union Theological Seminary in 1917, he had served the Dutch Reform Church until his theological views found their
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true denominational alignment. Unitarian parishes in Newburgh, New York; Meadville, Pennsylvania; and Youngstown, Ohio, pre- ceded his call to Boston.
In a time of difficult economic conditions, Mr. LeFevre tried to democratize the church and make it more congenial to people in the immediate neighborhood. A Tuesday Evening Club was organized for women who worked in the daytime. He omitted the "Statement of Faith" from the morning service, feeling that it had no place in a creedless church. Typical sermon topics of the thirties included: "Hitler - Messiah or Madman?" "When the Wicked Triumph What Will the Righteous Do?" "The Price of Progress" and "Can Religion Save Democracy?"
A bronze tablet to the memory of Dr. and Mrs. Edward Augustus Horton was placed on a wall of the sanctuary in 1935. It joined other plaques dedicated to Dr. and Mrs. Chandler Robbins, Dr. Henry Ware, Jr., Frederick Walker Lincoln, Frank Norman North, Lamont Giddings Burnham, Ellen Sophia Brown and General Wilmon Whilldin Blackmar, who, at his death, was Commander- in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.
The country was emerging from the depression and moving toward the most terrible war in history when Mr. LeFevre termi- nated his ministry in the spring of 1940. Prominent clergymen again answered an appeal for help, supplying the pulpit during the next fifteen, leaderless months. Among the casualties of this interim period was the famed annual Pageant of the Nativity. After twenty years of uninterrupted presentations it quietly died out. No one can calculate the harmful effects upon the church's strength of the long gaps allowed to develop between pastorates. Parishioners expired, moved away or lost interest and were re- placed by a mere trickle of newcomers. The neighborhood was witnessing a conversion of its well-to-do private homes into apartment houses occupied by a semi-transient population. To sustain its strength in the face of steady losses, the church needed to maintain unrelenting pressure in every aspect of its work.
The Standing Committee boldly faced the problem of regaining vitality in two ways. It knew that the Church of the Disciples,
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founded by James Freeman Clarke nearly a century earlier, at nearby Peterborough and Jersey Streets, was closing its doors forever. An amalgamation of its congregation and assets with those of the Second Church would solve a number of immediate mutual problems. Although a few members did transfer to this church, the negotiations ended a year later when the Church of the Disciples decided to join the less liturgical and more liberal Arlington Street Church. A grain of consolation was left in the thought that, although merger negotiations had also failed earlier with the Church of the Unity and the South Congregational Church, the Second Church had outlived them all.
The sanctuary: Doric columns, wall memorials
Undaunted, the Standing Committee then decided to experiment, borrowing fifteen thousand dollars in order to make an offer that might attract a pulpit orator capable of restoring the church to its former power and influence. Its call was accepted by the Rev.
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Walton E. Cole, who in nine years had built up a major congre- gation in Toledo, achieved fame by vigorous radio messages and several inspirational books, and been active in civic, educational and social work. His studies had taken him through the University of Chicago and the Chicago Theological Seminary. On September 1, 1941, he started his work in the Second Church.
Emphasizing the pulpit ministry, Dr. Cole's sermons received an unprecedented amount of space in the public press. Respond- ing to the challenge of the war years, he dealt frequently with patriotism, fascism, defeatism and prejudice, warning that the war could be won only if the values of the altar were combined with the power of the arsenal.
Selected by King's Chapel and the First Church in Boston to deliver the 1942 Minns Lectures, he later prepared the six talks for publications as a book, Realistic Courage. Another volume, Standing Up To Life appeared during his Boston pastorate. The reputation and message of the Second Church were further spread across New England by Dr. Cole's Saturday evening radio broad- casts over WMEX. During the summers he substituted on Dr. Carl Heath Kopf's popular "Window on Beacon Street" radio broadcasts. Overflow crowds assembled on six consecutive Sun- day evenings during the Fall of 1944 to hear lectures based upon the most recent and authoritative books designed to help people "Know Your Allies." Documentary motion picture films accom- panied each presentation.
Garland Junior College, Wheelock College, the Boston School of Occupational Therapy, and similar institutions began to hold their annual commencement exercises in the church edifice.
In April 1945, Dr. Cole announced that he was terminating his ministry at the end of the summer in order to accept a call to the First Congregational Church in Detroit, Michigan.
Sunday congregations had grown markedly, but the problem of building up the church itself had not been solved. The commend- able experiment had introduced a receptiveness to more vigorous methods of publicity and churchmanship, and it had taught one effective lesson. A strong pulpit figure must remain with his church long enough to consolidate any gains and, at the same
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time, succeed in securing from newcomers a genuine commitment to the institution itself. Otherwise the values inherent in the church as an enduring force in the community can not be preserved.
Much of the impetus given to the church's progress by Walton E. Cole was lost as a result of an eighteen-month interval before the nineteenth minister arrived on January 1, 1947. The Rev. G. Ernest Lynch was one of a remarkable group of men who have worked as ministers of education in the Second Church while studying in Boston theological schools. Well-known present-day Unitarian clergymen in this coterie include John R. Baker, Robert Raible, Waitstill H. Sharp, Kenneth C. Walker, and Edwin H. Wilson.
Mr. Lynch had received degrees from Duke University in 1934 and Harvard Divinity School in 1937. Eight years' leadership of the First Parish (Unitarian) in Portland, Maine, had brought him national recognition for a weekly young people's radio program he had conducted for the Maine Council of Churches.
After being in the brilliant glow of newspaper headlines during Dr. Cole's ministry, the Second Church in Boston suddenly moved into twilight. Its activities no longer seemed to excite the press; congregations dwindled; and a deep conservatism settled over the worship services. Even the four-day tercentenary observance of the church's founding failed to stir the city. The minister added a silver pectoral cross to the raiment worn by the crucifer. A valuable paten veil made in 1825 and originally used at the ca- thedral in Milan was given to the church to cover the communion bread and wine. Perhaps some inkling of what was happening within Mr. Lynch's mind could have been detected in his sermons on: "The Mother of Jesus", "The Holy Family," and "In the Beginning, God."
Abruptly, in the summer of 1949, G. Ernest Lynch resigned, announcing that he was going into the Trinitarian ministry of the Episcopal Church. Although several pastors of the Second Church had come to its pulpit after giving up earlier careers in other faiths, two men in succession had now departed this church for more orthodox denominations.
Fortunately a vigorous eight-year ministry under the Rev.
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Clayton Brooks Hale was launched on January 1, 1950. Energetic in body and poetic in spirit, the youthful Mr. Hale breathed a challenging sense of opportunity into the parish. The new pastor had studied at Tufts University, Crane Theological School, and the Andover-Newton Seminary. Enlisting with the Royal Air Force, he flew night missions until 1943, when he received a medical discharge. His unusually productive work at the Channing Church in Rockland, Massachusetts, from 1944 to 1949 drew him to the attention of the Boston Pulpit Committee.
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A service in the Children's Chapel
Soon after his arrival, the Franklin H. Raymond Memorial Chapel in the basement was completed by the Men's Club. Excellent con- gregations responded to his unusual sermon titles and colorful advertising methods. Mr. Hale was an advocate of conservative Channing Unitarianism while maintaining earnestly the liturgical service and symbols introduced by his predecessors across the preceding century.
As part of his community work, Mr. Hale was a trustee of Gar- land Junior College, a director of the Religious Arts Guild, an executive committeeman with the National Association for the
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Advancement of Colored People, and served two terms as presi- dent of the Boston Council of Churches. He was a constant fight- er for Negro rights and much honored by that section of the popu- lation for his influence and work.
Newspapers and magazines from coast to coast front-paged the tragically unworthy reaction of a small segment of the congrega- tion when he announced, during a 1956 sermon, that he proposed to engage a Negro assistant minister the following Fall. Threats of withdrawals and financial boycott followed. But the Standing Committee, despite strong pressure, backed him by ten votes to three. Many members of the vocal minority resigned from the church undermining some of the progress that had been made. The parish, as a whole, however, had proudly remained true to its highest ideals. It is generally believed that, had the appointment been quietly prepared ahead of time and then made without fan- fare, no more than a slight reaction would have occurred.
Under the inspiration of Mr. Hale, six young men of the church resolved to enter the Unitarian ministry: Peter Arthur Baldwin, Victor Howard Carpenter, Jack Currie, Randall Lee Gibson, Todd James Taylor and Robert Wrigley. This was a high tribute to the Second Church pastor's ability to demonstrate the attractiveness of the ministry as a career and the distinctive contribution a man can make to human society by dedicating his life to its service. Clayton Brooks Hale resigned his pastorate on December 31, 1957, to accept the call of a church near his home in Maine.
Although the relentless demands and pressures of a big city church were causing pastorates to become increasingly shorter, the historic Old North Church had still been led by only twenty senior ministers in the 308 years of its existence.
Chapter Ten THE OLD NORTH IN A NEW AGE
On a beautiful, sunny August 1, 1958, the present minister of the Second Church in Boston moved his personal library into the colonial edifice and began his work. (See Appendix D for biogra- phy.) A number of major problems in finance, membership, in- fluence and organization confronted the church which the Standing Committee agreed must be boldly met. The changes in the form of worship and the nature of the pulpit ministry recommended by the minister understandably caused significant emotional up- heavals among some of the older, honored parishioners. But the trustees gave their cooperation and the parish as a whole ac- cepted the innovations.
The main project facing the church lay in the area of worship. New England Unitarianism has long been regarded (though not always accurately) as theologically conservative, socially snob- bish and, on public issues, moderately quiet. Today the ministry of the Second Church is attempting to confront this often staid tradition with a universal theological position, a thoroughly demo- cratic church life and a commitment to meet boldly the key prob- lems of our time. A prophetic pulpit is vital to the present re- surgence of Unitarian power. In recent months, preaching on social, political and economic inadequacies in the community and the nation has dealt specifically with war mongering, the United Nations, separation of church and state, bloated and inefficient government, excessive taxation and authoritarian religious pres- sures. While making its voice heard on important public issues, the pulpit is trying not to neglect the hunger in peoples' hearts for strength, assurance and helpful insights in meeting the prob- lems of daily living.
In a not always complimentary manner, the Second Church in Boston had long been designated nationally as the "High Church of Unitarianism." A glance at the Sunday Service would have explained why. At the start and close of worship, a vested choir led by a boy crucifer properly surpliced and bearing aloft a cross moved slowly to and from the mahogany stalls in the chancel. On the altar rested two kneeling angels of metal each supporting a bar of burning candles. These flanked an open Bible, while be-
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hind stood a small cross of brass. Two giant blazing candles stood like book ends beside the altar. The officiating clergy wore reversed collars and knelt on benches during fervent prayers. The core of the liturgical service was found in small prayer books similar in form to the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer. Look- ing down solemnly upon this scene from behind the altar was a life-sized mosaic figure that most visitors took for the Virgin Mary or a mantled Jesus. This completed an almost orthodox setting for the services.
It was clear that marked reactions of horror and perhaps even anger would result from changing any of the liturgy, symbols and practices, some of which had become deeply ingrained by over a century of custom. But it was equally apparent that the church was suffering unnecessarily by retaining worship patterns taken from orthodox denominations whose theology and thinking were exceedingly remote from those of the Second Church.
Ritualistic practice associated with religions of authoritarian, Trinitarian or parochial outlook not only are inappropriate in a free, liberal church but also raise disastrous emotional prejudices in the minds of many newcomers. Better no symbols than the wrong ones - for materalism can suffocate the spirit; clutter can confuse the mind; and mechanical liturgy can lull the senses. Today's liberal church must have a form of worship that is honest in its theology, nourishing in terms of emotional needs and up- lifting in its aesthetic standards.
Thus, in 1958-59, the most radical changes in 106 years of worship began. The transformation has been occurring by degrees. The presiding clergymen no longer reverse their collars and now stand at the lectern to lead the worship service. The prayer books have not been restored to the pews; their place has been taken by freshly-created readings less laden with archaic lan- guage and more firmly grounded in contemporary allusions. After clearing the altar of its profusion of candles, its brass cross and Bible, a simple centerpiece of fresh flowers has become the focal point. In place of a vested choir of uneven musical quality, a superb quartet has been placed in the west gallery. The Episco- pal-oriented crucifer, introduced during the First World War, no
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longer marches into the sanctuary. The beautiful simplicity and naturalness of the fundamental elements of worship have become discernible in the service. The new form is truer to the church's earlier liberal heritage; it would please Ralph Waldo Emerson. How ardently he had hoped that religious worship would not be- come frozen into mechanical ritual, symbolism and terminology.
Another project has been to democratize the government of the church. To change the outmoded arrangement whereby trustees had held unlimited, sometimes almost life-time, tenure of office, a revolving Standing Committee has been established. The gov- erning board now consists of nine members, elected for three years, three of whom go on the committee each year as three others leave. A self-perpetuating investment committee is being changed.
The educational functions and policies of the church were next approached. A fresh structure and revised curriculum have been developed for the School of Religion. For the adults, a Fireside Forum, Evening Alli- ance and Sunday Morning Adult Discussion Group have been established. The Parish House is now open for meetings and activities of worthwhile com- munity groups.
JOHN NICHOLLS BOOTH Twenty-first minister
The church's relationship to the national Unitarian move- ment has come under considera- tion. The affiliation had al- ways been maintained but with- out much notice or commitment. To correct this, the name "Uni- tarian" has been placed on all printed literature and added to the outside bulletin boards. Financial campaigns have been officially instituted in support of the Unitarian Service Com-
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mittee and the United Unitarian Appeal.
Rising costs of rent and the housing shortage have made im- perative some action for a church-owned parsonage. Not for 150 years, when Dr. John Lathrop lived in North Square, had the Second Church possessed its own official residence for its senior ministers. A beautiful red-brick home has been purchased at 33 Euston Street in one of Brookline's choice residential areas, a gift by the founder of the Wentworth Institute, Arthur L. Williston, in memory of his first wife. A well-appointed wing behind the building has been converted into a small dormitory for three uni- versity students.
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