USA > New York > History of the Church of Zion and St. Timothy of New York 1797-1894 > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20
" Resolved, That while it is with deep sorrow that we give him up, we cannot help congratulating those to whom he will minister on their good fortune.
" Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the Parish Records of Zion Chapel, be printed in The Churchman, and be given to the Rev. Mr. Sturges.
"That God may be with him and bless him wherever he may be and whatever work he may undertake, is the prayer of us all.
" ARTHUR HAMILTON, ADAM SPOHR, ROBERT MARTIN, JOSEPH NOIRJEAM, FREDERICK DEBES, JOHN HUGHES,
" Committee.
"NEW YORK, April 7, 1890."
The ladies of the parish church organized several active societies, among them we mention :
ZION AID ASSOCIATION,
whose object is to provide employment for and minister aid to poor and destitute Protestants, especially members of Zion Church and congregation.
188
ZION CHURCH.
WOMEN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
Its object is to awaken in the parish a deeper, more per- manent, and general interest in the mission work of the church, diocesan, domestic, and foreign, and to secure sys- tematic contributions towards its support.
ZION CHAPEL SEWING-SCHOOL SOCIETY.
Its title suggests its work, and it now numbers two hun- dred and nine scholars and twenty-five teachers.
NIOBRARA SOCIETY.
This society seeks to support Indian scholarships in schools under the jurisdiction of the missionary Bishop of Niobrara, now of South Dakota.
These activities, clustering around the parish, have been most efficiently managed, liberally sustained, and beneficial in their administration.
The Rector vacated the rectory in 1886, to occupy his own residence, No. 37 East Thirty-ninth Street. Professor Doremus has been the tenant of the rectory since then.
During the rectorship of the Rev. Dr. Tiffany the parish was favored, at different periods, with the very valuable and acceptable services of Messrs. Bottome, Jones, and Van Bokkelen, as superintendents of the parish Sunday-school, and as lay-readers, while prosecuting their course of studies at the General Theological Seminary.
189
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.
Mr. George Hill Bottome was ordained to the diaconate in 1887. Upon his ordination to the priesthood in 1888, at Zion Church, he accepted the appointment of assistant minister of Grace Church, New York.
Mr. James Clarence Jones continued in the relations men- tioned during 1887 and 1888. In the following year he was ordained deacon, and called to the rectorate of St. Thomas' Church, Brooklyn.
Rev. Libertus Morris Van Bokkelen, Rector's assistant, was ordained deacon at Zion Church in 1888, and priest at St. John's Chapel in 1889.
During the latter year he established The Zion Chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, as the outgrowth of the St. Andrew's Society, which was organized in the parish in the autumn of 1888. He also assumed charge of Zion Chapel in March, 1890, where he remained until he received a call, in the same year, to the rectorship of the new Church of St. Thomas, Mamaroneck, built as a memorial to Mrs. James M. Constable, by her husband and children.
Amid all these signs of generous giving and efficient working, commenced a gradual and continuous diminution of numbers and resources, so that in January, 1888, the fol- lowing action of the Vestry was taken :
" Resolved-That a committee consisting of the Rector and Wardens be appointed to consider and report at the next meeting, as to the desirability and feasibility of moving the Church from its ecclesiastically crowded neighborhood."
190
ZION CHURCH.
The Committee reported :
"That your committee, while recognizing the fact that the attendance at Zion Church has been gradually decreas- ing, so that at the present time scarcely more than half the number of pews are rented, and that the chief cause of this condition is that the region around us is overcrowded with churches, yet, after careful consideration of this subject in all its bearings, cannot regard the exigencies of the Parish such as would justify them in recommending at the present time the movement suggested by the resolution and which is fraught with so much concern not only to the immediate welfare of the Parish but extends far into its future. They would rather advise that earnest united effort be made to resuscitate the Church in its present location. Your com- mittee, therefore offer the following resolution and ask to be discharged :
" 'Resolved, That it is inexpedient at the present time to change the location of the church.'"
The report of the Committee was inconclusive in that it failed to indicate what united effort it would recommend.
The Vestry, however, decided as an experiment to make a change of the choir, and accordingly issued the following circular appeal :
" NEW YORK, March 8, 1888.
" TO THE PARISHIONERS OF ZION CHURCH :
" Upon the solicitation of the Rector and of several mem- bers of the parish, the Vestry, after full and careful consid-
191
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.
eration, have decided to change, on the first of May, the present choir of Zion Church to a Surpliced Choir of men and boys, composed of twelve treble, six alto, four tenor, and four bass voices, which, with the Organist and Choir- master, will occupy the choir floor of the chancel.
" It is confidently believed that this change will promote both the temporal and spiritual welfare of the Church, and will therefore meet with the approval of all who desire its prosperity.
"Such change will necessarily involve considerable ex- pense, not only for the increased cost of the new choir, but also for the alterations required to place the choristers and organ in their proper positions. The main expense will be the purchase of a new organ, which, in the judgment of organ- ists, is absolutely requisite to the satisfactory development and proper rendering of the music of the Church. It is estimated that the sum needed to cover the expenses of the entire project, over and above the amount which may be received from the sale of the present organ, will be about $5500,-the new organ to be built in the organ chamber, so that the cost of an expensive case will be avoided,-and, as the revenues of the Church will not justify any appropria- tion from its funds, the Vestry appeal to your generosity, and solicit your aid in carrying forward to a successful issue this important movement.
" Already some of the parishioners have given assurances of their hearty approval and co-operation, and your Vestry earnestly hope that the liberal offerings on Easter Day, in
192
ZION CHURCH.
response to this appeal, will assure them of the approval and co-operation of all the parishioners of Zion.
" WM. B. BEEKMAN, " Clerk of the Vestry."
The response on Easter Day to this appeal exhibited how willingly all the parishioners united in another effort to re- store the prosperity of their church. The offertory amounted to over $4800. At the same time the committee having the alterations in charge was authorized by Mr. William S. Hawk to order from the factory of Mr. Frank Roosevelt a valuable organ, completely filling the organ compartment, as a memorial of Mr. Samuel Hawk, thus giving another evidence of his ardent zeal for the church. The cost of this gift and of a carved oak organ screen, together with the amount of the offertory, exceeded $9000-an amount largely in excess of all requirements. The excess, amounting to nearly $3000, was, with the permission of the donors, applied to the renewing of the heating appliances throughout the building which were found very defective.
A choir of exceptional merit was secured, with Mr. Alfred I. McGrath as organist and choirmaster. After two years of trial, it became evident to those interested in the parochial organization and the objects for which it existed, that any further effort to permanently resuscitate the parish where it was located would not only be a vain and hopeless en- deavor, but would impair resources which, if conserved, could be utilized in another field. This conviction was the
i
Interior of Zion Church, Madison Avenue.
٠١٠٠
L
193
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.
outcome of the deliberate judgment of those who had watched the results of all the efforts put forth for many years.
Upon this conclusion being reached, several informal con- ferences between the Rector and members of the Vestry were held regarding the future of Zion Church. These were followed by a series of Vestry meetings, the first being held at the residence of the Rector, on January 25, 1890.
At this meeting the Rector stated what is here recited, with substantial accuracy, from memory: The object of the meeting (without dwelling upon the existing condition of the parish, with which all were familiar), was to determine what our common desire should be in the use of the means committed to us to do larger work for the church than is possible where we are located. To aid those present in reaching a conclusion uninfluenced by any personal consid- eration, his resignation was placed at the disposal of the Vestry. If perchance any one present believed that Zion could be restored where it is, or if perhaps it was believed that by a reduction of expenditure to equal income the church should be continued where it is, the Rector expressed his entire willingness to assent to such a reduction in his salary, but did not hesitate to say that such a scheme, in his opinion, could not prove otherwise than a hopeless undertaking, and one in which he could have no heart. Having thus removed every impediment to a full and free consideration of the object of the meeting, the Rector pro- ceeded to express his own views. His judgment was that the
I3
194
ZION CHURCH.
valuable resources of Zion could be more effectually em- ployed elsewhere, and in no way be made more productive of good to the church at large, as well as to Zion itself, than by selling the present valuable site and erecting a free church in a less wealthy region, and one less amply supplied with churches, or by consolidating with some free church already established in a rapidly growing neighborhood.
The destruction by fire of St. Timothy's Church, on Fifty- seventh Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, at mid- night of the 22d of the same month, offered an opening for just such church work.
The land owned by St. Timothy's Church consisted of seven lots-three in Fifty-seventh Street and four in Fifty- sixth Street,-thus presenting an eligible and valuable site for the erection of a large and solid church edifice and a parish house, leaving an ample endowment fund. To facili- tate a project which, if it commended itself as strongly to the judgment of the Vestry as it did to his own, he desired it to be distinctly understood that in the event of its consumma- tion, the Rector of St. Timothy's Church, the Rev. Henry Lubeck, should be the Rector of the united corporations, and that the Rector of Zion Church should be Rector Emeritus, without salary.
The Vestry, while deeply sensible of the complete self- abnegation involved in this noble proposition of their Rec- tor, by which he made it clear that the future of Zion Church was alone in his thoughts, refrained from taking any initia- tory steps until the proposed movement had the approval of
195
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.
the Bishop of the diocese and the acquiescence of the Rec- tor of St. Timothy's Church.
To secure these the Rector kindly volunteered his services.
At a subsequent meeting of the Vestry, held at Dr. Tiffany's house in Thirty-ninth Street, on February 7th, the Rector reported that he had called upon the Bishop of the diocese, from whom he learned that the contemplated move- ment for uniting Zion and St. Timothy's churches (involving the sale of Zion Church), not only had his approval, but was to be commended as illustrative of the wisdom of the people of Zion.
The Rector of St. Timothy's Church replied that he was much gratified to be approached by Zion Church with a proposal of that nature.
Thereupon an informal committee of conference was ap- pointed, consisting of the Rector and three members of the Vestry, to meet a similar committee from St. Timothy's Church.
The committee thus appointed had but one meeting. After an interchange of views as to the desirability and feasibility of the proposed union, and a full and frank state- ment of the financial condition of each parish, a preliminary agreement was formulated, setting forth the terms and con- ditions for a union and consolidation of the two parishes.
The Vestries of the two parishes met on February 2Ist, at the Windsor Hotel, in separate parlors kindly offered them by the proprietors.
196
ZION CHURCH.
After mutual conferences, resolutions were passed sub- stantially adopting all the articles submitted in the prelimi- nary agreement.
A committee composed of the Senior Warden from each parish was appointed to have prepared, through counsel, an agreement in due form for the union and consolidation of the corporations, and to submit the same at the next joint meeting of the Vestries.
Before any formal action was taken, the respective Ves- tries, although not legally required to do so, deemed it not only courteous, but eminently proper and advisable, that so important a movement, extending far beyond their term of office, should be submitted to the consideration of the re- spective corporators. Notices of meetings were accordingly issued for Thursday evening, February 27, 1890, when the whole matter was laid before the corporators of each church.
After full consideration resolutions were passed, without a dissenting vote, requesting the respective Vestries to com- plete the arrangement as soon as possible. The following is the official report of the meeting of the corporators of Zion Church :
" A meeting of the parishioners of Zion Church was held at the chapel, Thirty-eighth Street and Madison Avenue, on Thursday evening, February 27, 1890, at 8 P.M.
" Rev. Dr. Tiffany was called to the chair.
" The chairman stated that the following notice of the
197
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.
meeting had been sent to all the members of Zion Church qualified to vote at the election for Wardens and Vestry- men :
' 37 East Thirty-ninth Street, ' February 24, 1890.
' MY DEAR SIR :
' At a meeting of the Vestry of Zion Church, held on Friday evening last, February 2Ist, a preliminary agreement looking to the consolidation of Zion Church with the Parish of St. Timothy was adopted.
'You are respectfully invited and urged to attend a meet- ing on Thursday evening, February 27th, at eight o'clock, in the chapel on Thirty-eighth Street, adjoining Zion Church, that the plan may be fully explained and considered.
' Very respectfully, ' C. C. TIFFANY,
' Rector. ' WM. B. BEEKMAN, ' Clerk of the Vestry.'
" The following corporators were found present in response to the invitation :
Rev. C. C. Tiffany, D.D.
" Libertus M. Van Bokkelen.
Mr. David Clarkson.
" Francis T. Garrettson.
" George H. Byrd.
198
ZION CHURCH.
Mr. Charles Haight.
" William C. Collins.
" George L. Jewett.
" Benjamin F. Watson.
" Delano C. Calvin.
" Alfred W. Fraser.
" William B. Beekman.
" Frederick W. Devoe.
" William S. Hawk.
" Charles Kellogg.
" Robert L. Harrison.
" Mr. Harrison was appointed secretary of the meeting.
"The preliminary agreement adopted by the Vestries of Zion Church and St. Timothy's was then read. Mr. Clark- son then made a statement of the condition of the parish and the reasons which had led the Vestry to urge the con- solidation of the two parishes. Dr. Tiffany also explained the situation. Mr. Garrettson and other gentlemen then expressed their views, all being in favor of the course sug- gested by the Vestry. It was
"' Resolved, that the union and consolidation of Zion Church and St. Timothy's Church into a single corporation, under the name of " The Rector, Wardens, and Vestrymen of the Church of Zion and St. Timothy in the City of New York," substantially upon the basis of the preliminary agree- ment read at this meeting, entered into at a recent meeting of the Vestries of the two churches, be and the same is approved
199
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.
by this meeting, and the Vestry of this Church is requested to proceed and consummate such union by entering into a formal legal agreement to be approved by the Bishop and Standing Committee of the Diocese, and by taking the proper legal steps to obtain the order of the Supreme Court for the union and consolidation of the two corporations determining all the various conditions and provisions thereof.'
"The resolution being put was carried unanimously. On motion it was unanimously resolved that all leases of pews be terminated May 1, 1890.
" It was further moved and carried that the action of this meeting be reported by the Rector at morning service on Sunday next.
" On motion the meeting then adjourned.
" ROBERT L. HARRISON, " Secretary."
In consequence of an unavoidable delay in the legal pro- ceedings, the annual Easter election for Wardens and Ves- trymen became necessary and was held upon April 7, 1890, thus affording another opportunity for the expression of any adverse judgment by the corporators. The election re- sulted in the unanimous re-election of the members of the former Vestry, with the exception that Mr. Robert L. Harrison was chosen in place of a former member long ab- sent on a tour around the world.
On April 11, 1890, both Vestries met and formally
200
ZION CHURCH.
authorized the execution of the agreement and the petition to the court. After procuring the approval of the Bishop of the diocese, and the consent of the Standing Committee, upon petition from each of said corporations and upon the said agreement duly proved, the Supreme Court did on April 25, 1890, make an order for the union of the two corporations under the title of "The Rector, Wardens, and Vestrymen of the Church of Zion and St. Timothy, in the City of New York."
Sunday, April 20th, the Rector preached his last sermon to the congregation of Zion Church, as on the following Friday the two corporations were legally united under another corporation title. This sermon was published in The Church- man and is here copied, omitting the historical sketch.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee .- Deut., viii., 2.
To progress is not simply to advance, but to advance in right lines. There must therefore be retrospect as well as prospect to lend progress to motion. We must know the whence before we can know the whither. The new move- ment must join on to the old to give completeness to the achievement. Past and future clasp hands in the present if there is to be the continuity which makes the end the accomplishment of the beginning.
All this is especially true of moral progress and spiritual gain. Men may wander in a circle mentally as well as physically. You recollect that among wanderers in the for-
20I
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.
est this is the inevitable tendency-a return to the starting point because, without ability to track the course they have already come, they move in a circle instead of going straight on, and return to the initial point at last with much move- ment but without advance, instead of gaining in distance by progression along the line of original direction. This same error is repeated often in mental and moral action for lack of that circumspection which is born only of retrospection. To obviate that, to prevent a step backward, we must cast a look backward. Thus it was that when the children of Israel were about to enter the promised land to begin a new phase of existence, they had but to cast all former experience be- hind them, though that had been a wholly different experi- ence-an experience of wandering instead of settlement, an experience more of internal development and instruction than of the new warfare, offensive and defensive, to which they were now called in the land of Canaan. " That ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live."
202
ZION CHURCH.
A moving picture this, of how experience of the past (how different soever in form), is to mould the experience of the future by bringing men into communion with the thought and purpose and life of the great Orderer of experience, making them apt to seize and hear every word which pro- ceedeth out of His mouth-an experience not of drill and routine to fit them for a mechanical repetition of the old life in its old form, but an experience of principle, enabling them to discern the meaning of the past and apply its essential lesson in all new forms of the coming time.
As this church is now standing on the verge of a new expe- rience, to which God in His providence seems to beckon us, we may well for a few moments cast a look backward to compre- hend the force which moves us forward-which takes us out of the old surroundings and gives a new task to our hands.
You will find that the history of this church (like that of Israel of old), has been a history of wanderings,-that like Israel's nation it had its origin in an exodus from an old country by reason of the persecution of a tyrant ruler, and that the great lesson of its experience has been to teach it that it must not live by bread only, i.e., in familiar scenes, settled in customary forms and language, fed by natural source of supply, but that by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God must it live ; by the new command ordering change in speech, then in ecclesiastical rule, then in varying local situations ; apt to hear calls to new duty, and ready to respond to the indications pointing to new tasks.
(An historical sketch then followed.)
203
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.
In 1880, March 30th, the Corporation of Zion Church was consolidated with that of the Church of the Atonement in Madison Avenue. At this period the present incumbent be- came the Rector.
The financial statement for ten years is as follows :
In repairs, gifts, and church debt
$35,000 00
For support of chapel
20,000 00
City Missions
$4,618 00
Foreign and Domestic Missions 6,620 00
Niobrara scholarship . 2,000 00
Diocesan Missions, about
1,000 00
Total for missions
14,238 00
Hospitals
4,250 00
Expenditures of ladies' societies
10,000 00
Expense of maintaining parish
100,000 00
Also for poor and various charities, as Aged and Infirm Clergy, Seamen's Missions, etc., or $1800 annually
18,071 00
Grand total
$201,559 00
In ten years the spiritual life results are as follows: Num- ber of church services, 2113 ; sermons and lectures, 1000 ; confirmed-church, III, chapel, 176,-287; baptisms, 108 ; marriages, 90 ; burials, 80; communicants, 180; chapel com- municants, 166. Of the 185 communicants of ten years ago, by death and removal we have lost all but 58. The present number beyond these have been chiefly added by confirmation.
The new movement is the result of the judgment of those most continually and most practically engaged in its affairs.
204
ZION CHURCH.
The original need of the church in this locality is more than supplied to-day. The great fund of the parish is locked up in its real estate. The church goes forth to do what the benefactors in the gift of this site intended, and a free church, especially dear to her whose name is preserved in the gift of land, will be maintained, and such endowment as the new corporation may secure will perpetuate her name- and the benefaction of her heirs.
The site now occupied has proved wholly one for well-to- do and wealthy people, and our mission chapel has been our chief ministration to the poor. The changes of residents in our neighborhood deplete, and do not replenish, the parish -- those who come into it are already attached to other and wealthier parishes easy of approach. Thus the prospect of building up here is not promising. Moreover, church ac- commodation for all is more than sufficient without us. Our new work will be to build up where we are needed, in con- junction with a parish which has forced its vigor and vitality by growth amid difficulties; not a dead or weak thing, to be resuscitated, but a strong body which deserves strength- ening; touching all classes, welcoming all classes, under a Rector who has proved his efficiency ; with the co-operation of your Rector who is glad to help, but not willing to harass him. With many of you, then, (I would it were with all of you), we say not to the old parish " good-night," but we greet it with " good-morning," as its new dawn of usefulness and reinvigorated life rises before us. Hopeful and expec- tant of the future as we remember all the way which the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.