USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Trinity church in the city of Boston, Massachusetts : 1733-1933 > Part 9
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One of the first problems to be met by the new rector had to do with St. Andrew's Church, a mission conducted by Trinity in the West End under the leadership of the Rev. Reuben Kidner. For a number of years the population had been changing in character, becoming almost wholly Jewish. After careful thought and consultation with Bishop Lawrence and others, it was decided to give up further maintenance of church services at St. Andrew's. Dr. Mann wrote in his first Year Book, in 1906, these prophetic words: "Among all the changes of church and parish life in this city, the one thing that humanly speaking seems certain is that Trinity Church will remain where it is, and protected by its unique situation will continue to minister not to fewer but to more people as the years go by. In view of this fact it would seem to be the part of wise parish policy to concentrate our energies here and to develop to the utmost the capabilities of the great Church for Christian worship and service." Of course there were many devoted to St. Andrew's who were disappointed at this decision, but looking back from this vantage ground, we can appreciate to the fullest extent the wisdom shown. It is interesting to note that the sale of St. Andrew's, later, made possible the purchase of Trinity House, and still later with the giving up of Trinity House, the remodelling of the parish house, where St. Andrew's Hall testifies to this fact. With the
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change of St. Andrew's, Mr. Kidner became an assistant min- ister of Trinity Church. No one of us can think of these years until his death in 1919 without reference to his unusual and loving ministry. For over forty years he moved in and out of the homes of the people of the parish, losing himself in his affection for them. Truly, in Christlikeness, his was a great ministry. As Dr. Mann wrote in 1919: "His long service went back to the days of Phillips Brooks. What that devoted pas- toral ministry and that gentle sympathetic character meant to the Parish and the community was shown by the great gathering of parishioners and citizens which filled the Church at his burial. His very memory is a benediction."
But to return to the parish of 1906, at once certain changes were made. The industrial and employment agencies were merged and, most important, a parish branch of the Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions was established. The Day Nursery was moved to East Boston after a careful survey had been made of the whole city. The work of Trinity Club for Men was greatly enlarged in scope and in interest. The next year a plot of ground on South Huntington Avenue was pur- chased for a new Trinity Home for the Aged. Also work among the women students in Greater Boston was started. All who know Trinity Church to-day will realize the far-reaching significance of these developments during the first years of Dr. Mann's rectorship.
One of the great occasions in the history of the parish oc- curred on January 22, 1910, when there was held the service of the presentation and unveiling of the Citizen's Memorial to Phillips Brooks. The service was held in the church and was conducted by Bishop Lawrence. There were present in the chancel ministers of nearly all the Christian churches of Boston, and representatives also of the Jewish synagogues, together with a great congregation including the Governor of the Commonwealth, representatives from the City Government and from Harvard University. The address of presentation was
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made by Major Henry L. Higginson, a classmate and lifelong friend of Phillips Brooks, and the address of acceptance by the rector of the parish.
These years witnessed two notable additions to the equip- ment of the parish. On January 3, 1910, the new Trinity Church Home for the Aged (Rachel Allen Memorial ) was formally opened with a brief service of benediction. Within a short time a wing was added by the gift of a generous parish- ioner. Thus was firmly established in a splendid homelike build- ing a work which has been through many years a haven of rest and of peace to many in their declining years.
Early in Dr. Mann's rectorship there had been a plan to acquire club rooms for the use of the boys of the parish. In 1911 came the purchase and equipment of a house on St. James Avenue known as Trinity House. There were club rooms for the men on the second floor, rooms for the boys on the third, a large and beautiful reception room on the first floor, a gym- nasium and a kitchen in the basement, and a most comfortable suite of rooms on the fourth floor for one of the clergy. Cer- tainly Trinity House was a great feature of the life of the par- ish for over a decade. Here met the boys of the parish in many varied groups; students in the many educational institutions found a welcome; the men and women of the parish used the house for meetings and recreation, and it was a home to suc- cessive assistant ministers of the parish. The primary depart- ment of the Church School met in the reception room on Sunday mornings. One great reason for the success of Trinity House was the fact that throughout its entire history Mrs. Harry Hunter was the matron. Known to generations of boys as "Ma" Hunter, with a remarkable combination of effi- ciency, self-sacrificing service, and contagious cheerfulness, she was indeed a vital factor in the whole life of the house. The assistant ministers who lived there will always be grateful for her care and friendship. What memories return at the men- tion of Trinity House-of pool tournaments for the ushers,
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of Sunday evening conferences in which the greatest prob- lems of life were discussed, the noise of over one hundred boys almost lifting the roof, and of New Year's receptions.
With the purchase of Trinity House the boys' work of the parish became splendidly established. This was due to the in- terest and enthusiasm of the Rev. Edwin Van Etten, who came to the parish just before Trinity House was opened, and of Mr. Richard Ranger, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who while engaged in the printing business in Boston for many years gave remarkable service to the par- ish in leadership of the boys. A number of active clubs were formed, finally combining into a chapter of the Knights of King Arthur. During the previous summer for the first time the boys were taken away for a camping experience, a camp at East Gloucester having been secured.
Dr. Mann's introduction to the Year Book of 1912 gives a picture of the parish at this period. "During the past year the same large congregations at the Sunday services, both morn- ing and afternoon, have cheered and stimulated your clergy. The obligations of the Parish for charitable and missionary work at home and abroad have been promptly and fully met. The same fine spirit pervades our Church School, and the work is being carefully done. The School is graded and promotions are made according to the results of the semi-annual exam- inations. Our Home for the Aged has finished another year of quiet service to the one class of people most commonly disregarded today." Then follows a statement which reveals Dr. Mann's ability in selecting helpers. All who know of Mrs. Van de Carr's work through many years will recognize the truth of what Dr. Mann wrote a year after Mrs. Van de Carr became matron. "And here let me pay a deserved tribute to our Matron, Mrs. Van de Carr, to whom, above all, the credit be- longs. Mrs. Van de Carr has become a recognized power for good in East Boston. Working in thorough harmony with other charitable agencies, she is the wise and helpful friend of
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many poor mothers. Under her guidance the Nursery is be- coming much more than a nursery; it has become a 'neigh- borhood house' and its friendly activities radiate in various directions."
In this same Year Book, mention is made of the formation of the Trinity League, a means of uniting all the women of the parish in one effective organization. This League was a fore- runner of our Church Service League-another indication of the deep foundations laid during Dr. Mann's rectorship. .
As one reads over the records of the parish, it is to realize how Trinity touched the great events and people of the day. There was an annual service for peace with addresses by Bishop Lawrence, the Hon. Samuel J. Elder, and Dean Henry Wade Rogers of the Yale Law School; a memorial service for those who were lost on the Titanic; successive baccalaureate serv- ices for the graduating class of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; a service to commemorate the three-hundredth anniversary ofthe King James Translation of the Bible; the in- auguration of President Murlin of Boston University ; services for the American Church Institute for Negroes, the Church Temperance Society, Atlanta University, the Greater Boston Federation of Churches, Tuskegee Institute with addresses by Bishop Lawrence and Booker T. Washington; the conse- crations of Bishops Atwood, Babcock, and Slattery; annual services for women students addressed by Hamilton Wright Mabie, the author, Winston Churchill, Professor Bliss Perry, President Faunce of Brown, and others, and sermons by distin- guished visitors such as Bishop Boyd-Carpenter, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Mitchell, D.D., Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, and the then Canon Hensley Henson.
For a number of years Dr. Mann, in company with many others in the parish, had felt the need of a symbol of wor- ship in the chancel. So in 1914 a model of a baldachino was erected, designed by Mr. Charles A. Coolidge of the vestry. Dr. Mann wrote, "By the erection of this model it has been
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made possible to test the design and the color scheme under the actual conditions which the finished work must meet. One thing is already clear and that is that the interior of the Church now 'culminates' as it never did before, and culminates also where it should, in the symbol of worship."
The next years in the history of the parish, as of the whole world, were to be shadowed by the experience of the War. In 1914 Dr. Mann wrote: "There is no room left for easy self- complacency. We have come to recognize something of the tremendous power of those spiritual forces of pride, hatred, envy, and covetousness that contend with the Spirit of Christ for the control of human life." There was in the autumn of 1914 a notable peace service with addresses by Bishop Law- rence, the Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D., minister of the New Old South Church, and the Hon. Samuel J. Elder, with a con- gregation crowding the church to the doors, eager to pray for the peace of the world.
When this country entered the War, the parish took her full share of responsibility. The service flag carried one hun- dred and sixty stars. Five who lost their lives are commem- orated by a tablet in the front vestibule. Bishop Lawrence, coming for confirmation just after the declaration of war, requested the parish to furnish equipment for a regimental chaplain and at once two such equipments were given. Long before we had entered the War a chapter of the American Red Cross had been working in the parish house. Now the work was greatly increased in scope. A farewell service for Base Hospital No. 6 was held in the church with addresses by Bishop Lawrence and the chaplain. Arrangements were made at once to enroll the members of the parish in effec- tive service for the Red Cross. In many ways the weekly cal- endars of these years of the War reveal the spirit of the par- ish. Constant offerings for the Red Cross, for boxes to be sent to Base Hospital No. 6, for the expenses of the War Com- mission of the general Church, organized and directed by
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Bishop Lawrence, the closing of the parish house to save fuel, a great service at which the preacher was the Rt. Honorable and Most Reverend Cosmo Gordon Lang, D.D., Archbishop of York. So the details might be extended to great length. Best of all, as one looks back, in a period of excitement and hate, the emphasis from the pulpit of Trinity Church was always Christian, Dr. Mann revealing his own broad and sym- pathetic nature.
During these years of Dr. Mann's leadership, Trinity Church always took her full share and responsibility in the work of the general Church, never once in all this time failing to reach the apportionment asked, even when, under the impetus of the Nationwide Campaign, the figure quadrupled to the neighbor- hood of $40,000. At first only special offerings were taken at stated intervals, then came the offering at every Sunday service, until finally the weekly pledge envelope was introduced with the every member canvass, and with the installation of the de- voted and efficient Miss Elsie B. Gillies as parish secretary. But in addition to the regular budget for the work of the general Church and the parish, including such parish charities as the Home for the Aged and the Day Nursery and Neighborhood House, Trinity responded to many notable special appeals. When Bishop Lawrence established the Church Pension Fund and appealed to the whole Church, Trinity responded with a gift of over $141,000. As the pages of the weekly calendars are turned, there are found the names of the great missionary heroes of the Church, coming to tell of their work and going on their way encouraged by the response of the parish: Bishop Rowe from Alaska, Bishop Roots from China, Bishop Brent from the Philippines-to mention but a few. There were the annual appeals for diocesan causes, for the Episcopal City Mis- sion, and there were many requests for the aid of various com- munity projects. One such occurred during a period of eco- nomic depression when, at the beginning of a Sunday morn- ing service, some few hundred unemployed men appeared
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unexpectedly with the demand that the rector preach on "Unemployment," and that the offering for the day be given to the unemployed. That Sunday happened to be the desig- nated time for the annual appeal for Foreign Missions. Dr. Mann welcomed the men most cordially to the service ; prom- ised to take an offering the next Sunday for the needy, to be distributed by a well-known social agency, the Boston Provi- dent Association; and then preached a very able sermon on "Foreign Missions of To-day." In this way, what might have been a difficult situation was met with wisdom, understand- ing, and good will.
Certainly one of Dr. Mann's greatest services to the parish was the establishing of the Phillips Brooks Memorial Endow- ment Fund. Dr. Donald had referred constantly to the need of an adequate endowment. Both Bishop Lawrence and Dr. Mann had written and spoken of the absolute necessity of securing an increase in the permanent funds of the church. A great service had been held commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Phillips Brooks, with Dr. Leighton Parks as the preacher. With the inspiration of this service as a background, and with the War over, Dr. Mann, the wardens, and vestry set out to raise $ 250,000 as the Phillips Brooks Memorial Endow- ment Fund. As a result, approximately $120,000 was secured in cash and about $130,000 in pledges and bequests. There were many helpful workers in this campaign, but I am certain that all will agree that the result was made possible only by the un- selfish and indefatigable labor of the rector, who wrote count- less personal letters and made any number of calls. To-day this endowment has been increased, and it must continue, if the parish is to do her great work in the long future. The great initial response was made possible through the leadership of Dr. Mann.
Reference has been made to the camp rented for boys at East Gloucester. This camp was moved to a farm on the shores of Bow Lake, Strafford, New Hampshire. After this place had
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been leased for several summers, in 1920, sixty-five acres on the shore of this beautiful lake were purchased through the gener- ous interest and gift of the senior warden, Mr. Edward W. Hutchins. Here again in the rectorship of Dr. Mann is an achievement which has meant much in the life of the parish.
The staff at Trinity Church worked and lived together as one great family. Especially were Dr. Mann's relations with his various assistants ideal. We were all made to feel that we were associates and as such were trusted with real responsibility. The rectory was a home always open to us at any time. I wish that it were possible to enumerate the contribution of each assistant. Of Mr. Kidner I have already written, though too much cannot be said of his beautiful life and influence. The Rev. Edward Travers was an assistant minister when Dr. Mann came as rector. Soon after he resigned to become chaplain of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Then fol- lowed the Rev. Appleton Grannis, Rector of St. Anne's Church, Lowell; the Rev. Ernest Tuthill, Rector of Grace Church, Tucson, Arizona; the Rev. Edwin J. Van Etten, D.D., Rec- tor of Calvary Church, Pittsburgh; the Rev. Gabriel Farrell, Director of Perkins Institute and Massachusetts School for the Blind; the Rev. John S. Moses, Rector of the Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Brookline; the Rev. Russell Moodey, Rector of Grace Church, Muncie, Indiana; and the Rev. John Ridout, who served after Dr. Mann's resignation as minister-in-charge and who died a year ago. Mention should also be made of the organists: Dr. Wallace Goodrich, Dean of the Boston Conservatory of Music; Mr. Ronald Grant; Mr. Ernest Mitchell, now the organist of Grace Church, New York; and Mr. Francis W. Snow, the present organist of the church.
It is difficult to do adequate justice, in the account of one rectorship, to those whose services have continued over a long period of time. Mr. Charles E. Chester's connection with the parish was almost coterminous with that of Mr. Kidner, both
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coming in the days of Dr. Brooks and both dying in active service at almost the end of Dr. Mann's rectorship. I wish that there were space to pay adequate tribute to Mr. Chester's per- sonality and work. There is a tablet in the Clarendon Street vestibule to his memory. Mr. Harold Miller, long his assistant and now the present sexton, has carried on with the same de- votion and ability.
Did any parish ever have two such parish visitors as Miss Mitchell and Mrs. Groves! I can see them now as they used to sit with their desks facing each other in the passageway as it was before the parish house was remodelled: Miss Mitchell, with her work for the Industrial Society and the Home for the Aged, who had been connected with the parish as visitor since the days of Phillips Brooks, outwardly austere, inwardly unselfish and affectionate; Mrs. Groves leading her large group of mothers in the winter, in the summer acting as matron at the Mothers' Rest, warm-hearted, tireless in her service for others. For over seven years, into the succeeding rectorship, Trinity had the service of Deaconess Theodora Beard, in es- pecial care of the work with women students, under the name of St. Hilda's Guild; calling, assisting in the preparation of confirmation classes and in many other ways. Miss Beard made a deep spiritual impress upon many in the parish.
Through all this period Miss Hersey continued to lead her Bible Class, so remarkable in the annals of any church, really a parish within a parish-a combination of instruction, inspi- ration, generous giving, and fellowship. Miss Snelling acted as the efficient parish librarian and director of the Lenten choir. Miss Sarah Ginn was a tower of strength in the Church School. Mr. Robert D. Reynolds and the devoted ushers of the church formed themselves into a happy group as the Ushers' Club, and gave invaluable service.
It is impossible to mention all those who contributed to these fruitful years. In 1910 Mr. Robert Treat Paine died after a remarkable service of upward of thirty years as warden
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and vestryman. The close personal friend of Bishop Brooks, as the minutes of the wardens and vestry stated, "No layman has ever exceeded him in devotion to the best and highest in- terests of Trinity Church." Many times I have heard Dr. Mann describe Mr. Paine's loyal support through the first years of his rectorship. In 1916 the children of Mr. Paine erected in his memory the present beautiful pulpit. As Dr. Mann wrote at the time: "The pulpit in memory of Robert Treat Paine not only witnesses by its exquisite wood carving to the continu- ity of the Prophetic office in the Church and to the Incarnate Life of Jesus Christ as the one great theme of Christian preachı- ing, but it testifies also to the spiritual influence of a noble friendship, linking together as it does the memory of a great preacher and a great layman."
In 1917 Colonel Charles R. Codman resigned as senior warden after a notable service of fifty years as vestryman and warden. He was succeeded by Mr. Edward W. Hutchins, who had been for a number of years a vestryman. The next dec- ade in the parish was to be marked by the influence of Mr. Hutchins's devoted and wise leadership. Dr. Mann and he were warm friends, and many were the conferences between sen- ior warden and rector. With a deep love of Trinity Church, with balanced judgment and high ideals, Mr. Hutchins made indeed a great contribution. No history of this period would be complete without mention also of the services of Mr. Har- court Amory as junior warden and of Mr. Francis B. Sears as treasurer.
The rector of Trinity Church has always by his position an opportunity to be of help beyond the parish in the affairs of the diocese, of the general Church, and of the community. In all these spheres Dr. Mann played an important part. In all the diocesan projects he was a loyal supporter of the bishop. He was president of the Greater Boston Federation of Churches for several terms and was for many years trustee of the Bos- ton Public Library, by appointment of the mayor, at the time
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of his resignation being president of the Board. In 1917 Mr. Josiah H. Benton left a large sum of money to be administered under certain contingencies for the relief of the poor of Boston by the rector of Trinity Church. It was Dr. Mann, in consul- tation with Mr. Hutchins, who first administered this fund on the broadest possible grounds and set the procedure to be followed by all succeeding rectors. But perhaps Dr. Mann's greatest contribution, outside of the parish, was his service at a number of General Conventions. He had been a delegate many times when in 1913 he was elected president of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. He was so capable as a presiding officer and so eminently fair in all his decisions and appointments that he was reelected unanimously at the three succeeding conventions, indeed a notable tribute. One of the historic occasions at these conventions was the visit of Cardi- nal Mercier in Detroit in 1919. The address of welcome of Dr. Mann made such a deep impression that I am including it in this chapter, not only because the references are to great events in history, but also because this address is an excellent example of the style of one who preached from the Trinity pulpit for almost eighteen years.
"YOUR EMINENCE :
"It is my happy privilege, as the President of this House, to extend to you, Sir, the respectful and the friendly greetings of this House. Once in three years this House of Clerical and Lay Deputies representing this national Church, coming, as the standards will show you, from every state in the union and from the Island Possessions of the United States, meets to- gether with the House of Bishops to legislate upon the affairs of this Communion. It frequently happens that the House of Deputies suspends its session that it may greet and welcome some distinguished visitor, and while I can recall several such occasions, I can remember none, Sir, when the House of Dep- uties showed in more unmistakable fashion its feeling of re-
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spect and honor for a visitor. Out of the murky confusion of the first two years of the war, two figures gradually became plain to the eyes of the American people. One was the figure of the King of Belgium, personifying as he did to us the truth, the honor, and the courage of the Belgian people who refused to break their plighted word and who met the onrush of the overwhelming forces of Germany with that heroic resistance that the world will never forget. There is a cartoon which may be familiar to you which I think fairly represents the judg- ment which the American people formed concerning the King of Belgium and his people. It represents the King standing in the midst of a scene of utter desolation; all around are ruined buildings and devastated fields, and by his side is standing the figure of the Emperor of Germany uttering the words, 'You see what has come out of a disregard of my request. You have now lost everything.' And the King of Belgium's answer is 'No, I have kept my soul!'
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