USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Gardiner > One hundredth anniversary of the diocese of Maine, 1820-1920, Christ church, Gardiner, Maine, May thirtieth to June third > Part 6
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"She has to trust God, though He slay. She has to ask forgiveness of her enemies. She has to welcome, with thanksgiving and praise, every sign of the return of peace and concord, of the liberation and elevation of all who are in bondage, and of the accomplishment of all those glo- rious ends for which the Most High made us one nation, and filled that nation with the knowledge of His Gospel."4
In the General Convention of October, 1865, the last which Bishop Burgess attended, when the House of Bishops, in its appointment of a day of thanksgiving for the return of peace, allowed itself to eliminate from its resolution the mention, as a subject of thanksgiving, of the reestablishment of "the authority of the national government over all the land," he joined with seven other Bishops in a statement publicly
1 Memoir of Bishop Burgess, pp. 129-136. Also, Coleman's Church in America, p. 323.
2 lbid., p. 136.
3 Convention Address. July, 1861. Journal of Convention, 1861, p. 16.
4 Journal of Convention. 1862, p. 18.
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read, courteously but firmly declining to accept a position of seeming "indifference to the safety and unity of the nation, and to the freedom of the oppressed."1
It is characteristic of this man, who would never take a vacation, that in his last winter, spent in the West Indies by imperative medical ad- vice in the hope of a restoration of his failing health, he undertook a five weeks' visitation of the Church's Mission in Hayti, making to the Foreign Committee valuable recommendations about this field. The pages of his journal, which he kept carefully until within three days of his death, show the cultivated observer, the kindly human heart. But his all too short, though nobly used, earthly days were drawing to a close, and on April 23, 1866, midway in his fifty-seventh year, peacefully, on the deck of a home-bound steamer, entered into rest this scholar-prelate, this patriotic citizen, this humble, prayerful Christian, George Burgess, first Bishop of Maine.
IV
The second bishop, Henry Adams Neely, whose beneficent episco- pate extended over nearly a third of the century behind us, embodied qualities finely complementary to those of his predecessor. Born and brought up in Central New York, where abundant fertility blessed the farm-lands, and commerce streamed through the Erie Canal, Bishop Neely seemed to reflect the spacious, sunny characteristics of his early environment. Associated with the great Dr. Morgan Dix, while priest- in-charge of Trinity Chapel, New York City, he was grounded in the traditions of churchmanship representing in this country much for which the Oxford Movement stood. From such a background this Apostolic man came to Maine in 1867, and the heart of this most pro- nounced New England State warmed to him.
In making his home at Portland, Bishop Neely was not merely tak- ing as his see city the largest centre of population, he was inaugurating a new policy, in keeping with the changed times. In this Diocese of small material resources, it was necessary for the Bishop still to be the rector of a parish, receiving therefrom the major part of his support. The private income of the first Bishop had relieved the Diocese, indeed.
1 Memoir of Bishop Burgess. pp. 255-257.
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in this matter, to a greater degree than was now possible. But Bishop Neely, while accepting the necessity of this situation, and becoming Rector of St. Luke's, Portland, embarked upon a policy of expansion. Setting forth, in his first Convention Address, the primitive principle of a Bishop's Church, as "the real and recognized centre of all the activ- ities of the Diocese," he went on to say :
"But this, I need hardly say, is a wholly different plan from that which would simply add to the other burdens of the Bishop the care of an ordinary parish, holding him responsible for all the details of pa- rochial work, without affording him competent clerical assistance, and with no other object in view than to enable him to secure by additional labor, a competent maintenance. The result must be in such a case, that neither the work of the Diocese nor the work of the parish can be thoroughly done; and the overtasked workman must soon succumb under the oppressive weight of such a load. The larger and more im- portant the parish which is thus assigned to him, the worse his position is; and if his Episcopal charge be that of an essentially Missionary Dio- cese, he may well despair of accomplishing aught to his own satisfac- tion, or of much value to the Church. "1
The "apparent necessity of assuming alone this double burden" had made him doubtful as to his duty in respect to the call extended by the diocese. But New York friends made temporary provision for an assistant in the parish of St. Luke's, which after five years the parish assumed.2
The project of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke was an element in this forward-looking policy. This project, for which the changes con- sequent upon the great Portland fire of July 4, 1866, had prepared the way, was well forward within three months of Bishop Neely's conse- cration. The people of St. Luke's caught the enthusiasm of his pro- gressive leadership. By an act of faith worthy of note, they voted to make the proposed Cathedral Church forever free, though as yet hav- ing in sight hardly one-fourth of the money needed for its erection.3 Largeness of vision characterized the work in its inception and pro-
1 Journal of Convention, 1867, p. 21.
2 Twenty Years (an address by the Rev. Charles Wells Hayes, at a Commemorative Service, January 23, 1887), p. 7. 3 Ibid., p. 14.
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gress, beginning with the choice of Mr. Charles C. Haight as architect (then a young man with his reputation yet to win), and all through the ten years of struggle and sacrifice, until the consecration, on St. Luke's Day, 1877, of the noble Gothic edifice.
But, though the solicitude of Bishop Neely for St. Luke's, and his affection for the people of his Portland parish, have left monuments, not only in stone, but in the hearts of hundreds there intimately bound to him and his, just as notable was his missionary zeal for Church ex- tension throughout the length and breadth of the State.
The episcopate of Bishop Burgess was by no means lacking in mis- sionary progress. The seven congregations of 1847 had grown by 1867 to nineteen, though still only seven were self-supporting; the commu- nicant list from 582 to 1527. This was a good growth.
Now the era of expansion was beginning, after the Civil War. And Bishop Neely made fine "adventures for God." The eause of Christian education was near to his heart. Two schools-St. Catherine's for girls at Augusta, and St. John's at Presque Isle for boys-were estab- lished by him. Later, it is true, changed conditions and financial diffi- culties made it necessary to dispose of these schools, but not before they had sown seeds of religious truth in many hearts, which bore fruit in worthy citizenship and Christian living.
The diocesan branch of the Woman's Auxiliary, established early in his episcopate, was promoted zealously by the Bishop, and emphat- ically by the constant and efficient guidance of Mrs. Neely, who also organized in 1882 the diocesan branch of the Girls' Friendly Society.
Greatly did the Bishop plan, and indefatigably did he labor, in plant- ing the Church in the remoter parts of this State. He gathered a group of like-minded lieutenants, whom his hopefulness helped to sustain in the hard places. Missions sprang up and churches were built in Aroos- took County, in the new settlements of central and eastern Maine, on the Moose River in the northwest. It is good to see the glow of affec- tionate and reverent memory lighten the faces, to-day, of men and women throughout these regions, as they recall the annual visits of the Bishop, his human friendliness, his childlike delight in stopping an hour or two to fish, his devoted zeal for the Church, his untiring energy.
When the Bishop laid down his staff in 1899, the nineteen parishes
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and missions of 1867 had grown to 44, and the 1527 communicants to 4187, and the episcopate fund from $2000 to over $69,000, including the Bishop's house.
Earnest missionary as he was in this large Diocese, it must not be sup- posed that Bishop Neely's vision was narrowed to local matters merely. His addresses reveal an intimate touch with the larger issues before the Church ; he was forward in expressing sympathy with the revision of the Authorized Version of the Scriptures;1 in two General Conventions he was honored by his brethren of the House of Bishops with the chairman- ship of the House ; his voice was heard in two of the Lambeth Confer- ences; and International Arbitration, on which the Bishops at Lambeth in 1898 made important pronouncements, received from him earnest support.2
On the eve of All Saints', 1899, thirty-three years to a day from the date of his election as Bishop, Henry Adams Neely entered the " sweet societies " of Paradise, having all but completed threescore years and ten, in his faithful earthly pilgrimage. And less than two years later, his widow, strong and wise helpmeet (albeit frail in body), linked with him inseparably in his people's affections, followed him into "the rest that remaineth for the people of God."
V
The name of Robert Codman, the third Bishop, stirs responsive chords in the memories of a great multitude-men and women, boys and girls- who knew him so well less than five short years ago. More aptly, far, could many of you touch upon his personality than he who stands be- fore you. Although we were contemporaries in the House of Bishops, it so happened that, in that assembly no longer small, I had the privi- lege of a speaking acquaintance only with the then Bishop of Maine.
Yet no one could come to Maine, to take up the work laid down when God called Robert Codman up higher, without gaining a distinct im- pression of his devotion, his unselfishness, and his knightly courage.
Seeing in a beloved brother's death the beckoning of the divine Hand to take that brother's place, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
1 See Letter to the Lord Bishop of Winchester, in Appendix to Journal, 1871, p. 39.
2 Address in 1898, Journal, 1898, pp. 22-24.
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All he had-talents, culture, dreams, possessions-he consecrated to his Master's service.
The controlling motive of Bishop Codman's soul was intense per- sonal devotion to Jesus Christ, the living Head of the Church. In his first Charge to the clergy, in 1902, on the subject of the mission of the Episcopal Church in the State of Maine, he emphasized strongly the Church idea as contrasted with the individualistic principle in religion. But with him the "Church idea" meant that " the Church comes first, so to speak, and personal religion is its highest and purest product." "The Church is the home" - he went on to say -"the training-school, wherein we are taught and trained to hold personal communion with God through Jesus Christ."""Our Puritan ancestors,"he said, "taught the ne- cessity of personal Christianity. So do we. If there is danger lest this per- sonal religion should die out, we would simply transplant the seed into good ground, the garden provided by our Lord for its nourishment. . . . Noble work has been done by noble men, and we are reaping their harvest to-day. Their good work must be continued. We cannot let it die. A crisis is before us, and the Episcopal Church steps in with a new help and a new power, the influence of the Church idea, preserved under the Provi- dence of God through the peculiar independence of the Church of Eng- land, and transmitted to us for this country, to be used when this crisis should come."2
This high and well-considered conception of the Church's mission dominated the Bishop's policy. This personal devotion to Jesus Christ, that was its core, glorified his life. Hence his compilation of children's devotional hymns, his musical settings for the Eucharist. Hence the exquisite Emmanuel Chapel, with its fine Altar high and lifted up, and above it the figure of the Divine Child, going forth from the Virgin Mother's fostering care to conquer the world by love. Herein-turn- ing to a very different field-was the motive of that work of social ser- vice which received so much of his thought and care. For he saw in the children of men the image of God, and he sought to make their bodies fitter for the divine indwelling, and their environment more ample. This devotion to Christ and to the glory of Christ's holy Church was the
1 Charge in Journal of Convention, 1902, p. 35.
2 Ibid., p. 39.
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ground of that splendid, watchful care for the material equipment of every parish and mission. Some of the outstanding results we all have seen, in renovated churches, new rectories, more systematic organization of Mission Board and mission stations.
Apparent to us all are the substantial, outstanding fruits of Bishop Codman's unstinted generosity. But within was the "blessed unction" of the Holy Ghost-that "fire of love," kindled by grace, ever freshened by prayer-which made his lavish offerings pleasing to God. It was, too, this hidden life of the soul, keeping its own "inviolate retirement," that sustained him in the fight against physical pain, - more severe and con- stant than any but his closest friends could guess.
Bishop Codman's consciousness of Diocesan needs transcended the term of his own labors. He cherished a vision, and sought to provide means that the Church in Maine might better fulfil her high calling in years to come. Perhaps with a premonition of a sudden summons, he early took steps not only to augment the fund for episcopal support (a support he did not need, yearly turning back into the Diocese his salary); but, moreover, to secure substantial additions to earlier bequests, constituting "The Burgess-Neely Fund," for discretionary use by the Bishop of Maine in the upbuilding of the Church.
Because he loved the Church and believed in her God-given mission, Bishop Codman craved for her ministers a practical, spiritual training for the priesthood, and an intellectual equipment to meet the require- ments of the twentieth century. The painstaking work he did as one of the trustees of the General Theological Seminary was no mere tinkering with statutes; it was definitely directed towards this goal : more effective preparation of the stewards of God's mysteries for the needs of this our day and generation.
A convinced believer in the divine authority of the Catholic Church, the third Bishop of Maine was no hard and narrow Churchman. Strong, matured, clear in the Faith, and therefore patient and loving, is the attitude revealed in the Convention Address of 1913, when the Bishop touched upon the questions coming that year before the General Con- vention-among other things the so-called "change of name :"
"My advice is not to hurry the change of name. The change is bound to come. Spiritual progress demands it. But we can afford to wait, and
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we must avoid pain, bitterness and misunderstanding. .. . It is indeed a glorious spirit which is bringing about this change, a spirit far above partisanship. It is the spirit of the Church, waking up to a conscious- ness of what she is. It is a spirit which cannot be tied up and bound about in any sectarian notions of the Church. It is a spirit which hates sectarianism and partisanship as hindrances to progress. The Church is declining to think of herself as one of the many little sects of Pro- testantism, standing for certain doctrines, forms and ceremonies of a past generation. She has discovered her historic heritage; she has caught a vision of her catholic mission; she is filled with zeal to do her work, and is casting off the swaddling-bands with which she was wrapped when she came into existence upon American soil. Let us argue for the change, let us explain the glorious spirit behind it and win converts in the cause; but do not try to hurry the working of the Holy Spirit."1
The timeliness of such words, my brethren, is not diminished but on the contrary emphasized, by the momentous issues involved in the great war even then impending, from whose shock the world trembles still.
In what we sometimes call the "new era," it is through the old Faith - albeit quickened ever by the Spirit of Life -that we must draw the divine strength we need for our tasks. May we be heartened by the good examples of these true and faithful shepherds whom God gave to His flock in Maine, and who still are bound to us by a living bond in the Communion of Saints.
1 Journal of Convention, 1913, pp. 51, 52.
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LETTER FROM BISHOP LAWRENCE
Diocese of Massachusetts Office of the Bishop 1 Joy Street, Boston April 22, 1920
ROBERT H. GARDINER, Chairman,
Committee on the Centennial Celebration, Diocese of Maine. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN:
PRESSURE of work in the Diocese due to my expected visit to the Lambeth Conference will prevent me from being with you at the Centennial Celebration. I regret it the more because of the close relations of the Bishop of Massachusetts with Maine in the past.
This prompts me to speak of Bishop Griswold and the Bishops of Maine. The more I know of Bishop Griswold, the more I wonder at his industry and devotion, and the way in which he led like a good shep- herd the sheep which now compose six Dioceses of New England, for Connecticut was never in his charge. He was our opposite neighbor in Pemberton Square when I was a babe in arms, and I have heard my father speak again and again of Bishop Griswold's humility, sincerity and industry. Of Bishop Burgess I have no personal knowledge.
Passing from him, I can claim as my friend all the succeeding Bish- ops of Maine. When in Deacon's Orders and passing two or three weeks at Bar Harbor in 1875, I read Morning Prayer in the hotel, and Bishop Neely preached. Having many friends there, I was induced to preach on the following Sunday, but was so frightened that I had the assur- ance to ask Bishop Neely to read the service for me while I preached. This he did with the utmost friendliness, and the very fact that I, a young Deacon, asked the Bishop to assist me, suggests what a friendly man he was. No organ or piano was necessary to support the hymn when Bishop Neely was present, for with his magnificent voice he led and carried the whole congregation, whether it were a dozen or several hundred. He was a man of strong and rugged character, of cheer and kindliness, and these characteristics won for the Church a sympathetic opening with all those citizens of Maine with whom he came in con-
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tact, many of whom until they knew the Bishop thought of the Church as intimately associated with the Scarlet Woman.
Bishop Codman was of stern Puritan ancestry, and something of the sternness of his forbears obtained in him, especially in everything that related to purity of morals. Soon after Robert Codman had begun the practice of law, his younger brother Archibald, who was the rector of the Church at Roslindale, near Boston, died. His people were devoted to him. The life of his younger brother and his loss to the ministry so moved Robert Codman that he closed his office, entered the seminary, and was ordained, that he might take his brother's place in the ranks. His devotion, supported by his excellent judgment in business matters, enabled him to do strong work in St. John's Church, Roxbury. He was a devoted pastor. It was characteristic of him and of his common sense that as soon as he was made Bishop of Maine, he made it his first duty to see that the missionaries of the Diocese were comfortably housed. Personality came first, and he knew well that a missionary could not do his best work among the people unless he was so housed and fed as to give him full vigor. Bishop Codman, like Bishop Neely, loved Maine, its variety of scenery and life, its long road journeys and backwood experiences and trips along the coast. The people of Maine, Church people and all, had hardly realized how fond they were of him when his, to us, untimely death came.
As Codman was of the Puritan stock of the Boston colony, so Bishop Brewster is of the Pilgrim stock of Plymouth. He has passed through the sifting process of Connecticut churchmanship, and of frontier mis- sionary experience. These transitions, combined with his native sweet disposition, vigorous personality and cheerful habit, are making him too an indispensable part not only of the Church in Maine but of its civic life.
May God's best blessings be with the Diocese.
I remain, with kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
WM. LAWRENCE
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LETTER FROM BISHOP CHAUNCEY B. BREWSTER
The Bishop's House, 98 Woodland Street Hartford, Connecticut May 21, 1920
The Right Reverend Dr. BENJAMIN BREWSTER,
Bishop of Maine, Portland, Maine.
MY DEAR BISHOP: At the Convention of the Diocese of Connecticut, held in St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, on May 18th and 19th, the Bishop in his Address called attention to the approaching Anniversary of the Diocese of Maine. On the following day there was moved and unani- mously adopted a Resolution instructing the Bishop to convey to the Diocese of Maine the greetings of the Diocese of Connecticut.
The first, the second, and the present Bishop of Maine have been by earlier associations connected with the Diocese of Connecticut. We are glad to claim a share in them and thankful to claim fellowship with the Diocese of Maine.
On behalf of the clergy and people of Connecticut, I send to you, and ask you to convey to the clergy and people of the Diocese of Maine, our hearty congratulations upon the completion of a century of Diocesan existence and the assurance of our earnest desire and prayer for God's abundant blessing upon your Diocese in the years and centuries to come.
I am
Faithfully yours in Christ,
CHAUNCEY B. BREWSTER, Bishop of Connecticut
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The Rev. Charles Lewis Slattery, D.D. Rector of Grace Church, New York City ; Special Preacher at the Centenary
[ His father, the Rev. George Slattery, was the Rector of Trinity Church, Saco, from 1849 to 1852, and the Rector of St. Peter's Church, Rockland. from 1853 to 1860]
THE ANNIVERSARY SERMON BY CHARLES LEWIS SLATTERY, D.D. Rector of Grace Church in New York
I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord. ISAIAH liii, 7
W E give thanks to-day for a century of honourable history in the Diocese of Maine. In 1820 there were two parishes of our Communion within the boundaries of the State,- Christ Church, Gardiner, and St. Paul's Church in Portland. These his- toric parishes were in turn the survivals of various missionary labours along the coast, and on the banks of the rivers.
I
Long before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, Church of Eng- land services had been held in Maine. In 1605 George Weymouth sailed up the Kennebec; upon landing, the ship's company, with two bewil- dered Indians, joined in the English service. This is the first recorded act of Christian worship in English in New England. In 1607 George Pop- ham came to found a colony on the Kennebec, building among the fifty houses a church wherein a Reverend Mr. Seymour read from the Prayer Book and preached. But the harsh winter, a disastrous fire, and the death of Popham discouraged the settlers; and in 1608 they returned to Eng- land.
In 1636 Sir Ferdinando Gorges brought settlers to the banks of the Saco; and here the services of the Church of England were again begun, under the leadership of the Reverend Richard Gibson. Gibson had an ecclesiastical controversy with a Puritan minister at Dover, who said that Gibson was "addicted to the hierarchy." This leader was succeeded by the Reverend Robert Jordan, who officiated in Scarborough, Port- land, and Saco. Puritan Massachusetts was now thoroughly worried lest Jordan's influence keep some of the northern settlers stedfast in the Anglican tradition ; and the strange devices which demanded freedom but denied it to others began to play. Jordan spent a good deal of time going to Boston to answer the charges of the General Court concerning Church usage, but some way, returning to his home at Cape Eizabeth, he shepherded the sheep in the wilderness, and also found leisure to point
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out the heresy of the Puritan minister at Scarborough. For many years he was probably the only clergyman in Portland. With natural leader- ship and a rich wife he was a sort of English squire. His trials were many, but when he died, he left the mark of a strong personality upon the life around Casco Bay.
For eighty years, during which the Indians destroyed Portland, the ministrations of the Church of England ceased in Maine. But the numer- ous descendants of Robert Jordan and many others had the tradition in their blood; and when the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent the Reverend William McClenachan to Dresden and Georgetown, and later the Reverend Jacob Bailey, there was a welcome from sub- conscious Anglicanism. McClenachan vanished shortly, but Bailey be- came the notable "frontier missionary," the story of whose life in a thin black volume was in many clergymen's libraries sixty years ago. Bailey was a Harvard graduate who went to England to be ordained. His suc- cess was due in part, at least, to the fact that he had been educated in New England, and so knew the needs of the people. Among the com- munities in which he preached was Gardiner. Here on August 13, 1772, he dedicated the Church of St. Ann's, in the presence of eighty people, including doubtless Dr. Gardiner and his son William. The loyalists during the Revolution, together with a fire in 1793, brought St. Ann's to the brink of ruin; but a courageous people, under the leadership of the Gardiners, built in the next year a new St. Ann's; and a new rector came to minister in it. In 1817 the Reverend Gideon W. Olney was rector, and under the vigorous support of the then Robert Hallowell Gardiner he built the present stone church, whose name was changed from St. Ann's to Christ, and was consecrated by Bishop Griswold on St. Luke's Day, 1820,-the year in which the Diocese of Maine began its formal history. We therefore worship to-day in a sanctuary which is slightly older than the Diocese itself.
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