USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > Historical manual of the Central Congregational Church, Providence, R.I. 1852-1902 > Part 4
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
44
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
some regularity, Friday and Sunday evenings, until June 1804. Since the Rev. John J. Walker came among us as as- sistant minister in September, 1894, those services have never been interrupted. Almost a hundred of these people have, at one time and another, become communicant members of this church. Since 1894 the communion has been celebrated at the mission alternate months with the observance at the church. A communion service was given them by Mrs. Emeline Ketchum. A Bible class in the noon hour Monday, conducted by Mr. Fuller, has never failed. The Stamp Bank, started by Mrs. Moore and long conducted by Mr. Arthur M. Stockwell, put many of them upon saving, and not a few have risen by thrift to quite a competence. They soon out- grew the Thanksgiving dinner, which used to be given them at the mission, and requested that they be allowed to furnish it in their own homes. But the greatest of all transformations has been wrought in those homes themselves. Many women who hardly knew the meaning of the word "home " are now bringing up their children in the fear of God and in the joy of Christ. Numbers of the people have gone back to the Islands, numbers also to the Sandwich Islands, and have kept up their communication with us.
In the latter part of the winter of 1891 and 1892, as the chapel part of the new building on Diman place began to approach completion, preparations were made for uniting the Sunday schools and societies at Benefit street and on Way- land avenue into one strong school and society in the new place. A farewell meeting and memorial service was held in the old vestry April 14th, 1892, when much of the earlier history of the church was recounted and many experiences of older members present were recalled. There were vivid reminiscences of the Rev. Leonard Swain, D. D., who came liere in 1852, shortly after the completion of the building on
3
-
MEMORIAL CHAPEL, IS92.
45
HISTORICAL MANUAL.
Benefit street, and was pastor for seventeen years, until his untimely death in 1869.
On Easter Day, April 17th, 1892, I had the happiness to announce that the beautiful chapel in which we were then met, all finished and furnished with rare taste, down to the minutest detail, was the gift, to the church and society, of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Danielson, with their children, and of Miss Amelia DeForest Lockwood, in memory of the parents and grandparents of the donors, two sainted members of our com- munion, Mr. and Mrs. Amos D. Lockwood. It was an occa- sion not to be forgotten. It was a gift most generous in itself, and most worthy of those whose name it bore. And it has been useful in the life of the church and the community, in a measure, I must think, even beyond the expectation which the donors cherished.
From that day forward the Blackstone Park Chapel was closed. It was sold in July of that same year. All services were transferred from the Benefit street building, except alone the Sunday morning service, which continued to be held there until July 16th, 1893.
The uniting of our various organizations, and the holding of our services henceforth all practically in one place, was a very great relief. But it was hardly to be mentioned with the advantage which the various phases of the women's work of the church experienced. For many years past, the vestry had not been deemed suitable for these purposes, and these nummer- ous organizations for the women's work of the church had met either in private houses or in a club room at 70 South Main street. To them the entrance upon this beautiful chapel was the beginning of a new era, and the provision in the new chapel building for the social life of the church came just in time to aid us immeasurably in welding the new elements of our constituency into one harmonious whole.
=
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
A year and a half passed swiftly, until the time of the open- ing of the new church. It had been hoped that we should be able to sell the old building by this time, and that a second subscription would enable us to dedicate the new building without debt. The financial reverses of the summer of 1893, which were keenly felt in this part of the country, defeated both these hopes. The church on Benefit street was not sold until the spring of 1896, nor was it deemed expedient to seek a new subscription until the fall of 1895. It was with rather heavy heart that the decision was reached, in July, 1893, that we should have to enter the beautiful new building, in the autumn of that year, with a large debt upon it, although it was quite clear that with patience the resources of the church were much more than adequate.
The decoration of the interior of the church presented an interesting problem. It had been given by Mr. Hastings into the hands of Mr. Schladermundt, of New York. It was Mr. Hastings' theory that the wall decoration of the church should all be massed in the round apse in which stands the com- munion table. The other parts of the building, save only for the pier against which the pulpit stands, and for the organ screen, being left comparatively untouched. The generosity of Mr. Francis W. Carpenter made it possible to do a very beautiful thing in the chancel. Here lavish use was made of the early Christian symbolism. But the soft coloring gives - even to this portion of the building a sense of distance and reserve. The theory of Mr. Hastings has so perfectly justified itself that I think all are agreed that in no small part the rest- fulness and dignity which the building has is due to the great smooth spaces of the walls, and that it would be a fatal error to decorate the building overmuch. Of course it still greatly needs stained glass windows, which will come with time. The communion table was paid for out of a little legacy of Miss
INTERIOR CHURCH ON ANGELL STREET.
47
HISTORICAL MANUAL.
Nancy Marsh, once a faithful missionary of this church. The lecturn was the gift of the Young People's Society at the church, while the furnishing of the minister's study was the gift of the Young People's Society at the chapel.
Sunday, the 5th of November, was chosen for the dedica- tion day. It seemed to us that such a service fell inost appro- priately on a Sunday. In the service of the morning the Rev. Prof. George Harris, D. D., of Andover Seminary, a former pastor of this church, preached, and the Rev. Charles W. Huntington, D. D., of Lowell, Mass., also a former pastor, took part. The notable thing about this service was that there were present and participated in it representatives of many other denominations besides our own. There was not a Protestant body of any prominence in the city which had not been invited. The venerable Bishop Clark, of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, sat in the center of the chancel and read the Old Testament lesson. The service was meant to be an illustration of that true catholicity of spirit for which this church has so earnestly stood.
The afternoon service was a communion service substan- tially in the form which has since become so familiar to us. There had been invited to sit in the chancel the ministers of all the Congregational churches of the State. Deacons of several neighboring churches aided our own in the service of the communion. The Rev. Dr. James G. Vose, of the Benefi- cent Church, as the senior Congregational pastor of the State, made the address. In the evening the house was once more filled to its utmost capacity at a popular service for which special music had been prepared, and at which Prof. George F. Moore, D. D., of Andover Seminary, preached. To one and another of these services, at the charges of the church, all the aged and invalid of the parish had been brought in car- riages, and had then been cared for by the ladies of the social
48
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
committee. It was a glorious autumn day. The decoration of the church was beautiful. The whole spirit of the occa- sion was uplifting. It was a day, for those whose hearts were in this church, the like of which we shall hardly see again.
The eight years which have elapsed since the dedication of the building have more than justified the highest hopes enter- tained as to the wisdom of the move and the growth of this east side of the city. There is no portion of the city which has had a more rapid or substantial development. It must always be a most desirable residence quarter. The church stands just midway between the two rivers.
I might say here that it was the very week before the dedi- cation of the new building that Mrs. Moore and I moved into the house 20 Diman place, which was built for us to rent by Mr. Francis W. Carpenter. This home, also, it has been a great pleasure to us to make a center for the social life of the church.
Up to this time the Sunday school had been held at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, as, indeed, the sessions of the schools on Benefit street and at the chapel had been held at that hour for years. Immediately upon entering the new building it was proposed to hold the school at 12:15, that is, at the close of the morning service. This made possible the fulfillment of a desire which had long been cherished, namely, that the com- munion service should be held as a service by itself at the end of the afternoon, and not appended to the morning service as has been the custom of so many of our churches. Accord- ingly this change also was voted in December, 1893, and the order of worship which we use for the communion service was then adopted. No one thing which we have done in all these years has been more universally approved. No one thing has exerted a greater power in the devotional life of the
49
HISTORICAL MANUAL.
church than this afternoon communion service in all the restfulness and beauty which have come to attach to it.
The attention thus drawn to the communion service facili- tated another change of great moment, which had long been looked forward to. The church, like so many others founded in its time, had exacted at the admission of members to its communion a formal subscription to the Articles of Faith of the church and assent in the reading of its Covenant.
We had come to feel deeply that this act of subscription was a mistake. It placed an unwarrantable obstacle in the way of the avowal of the Christian life. It put an unfortunate emphasis upon a form of words which, like all other such forms of words, was necessarily partial, and was to be explained in the light of the circumstances out of which it had arisen. The act of subscription seemed to imply a unanimity of intellectual assent, on the part of those already in the church, which we knew did not exist. Such formal assent to a statement of faith has wrought incalculable injury through the emphasis it lays upon the merely intellec- tual elements of belief, as against the practical imitation of Christ in men's lives. It serves to keep out some il1ost honest and modest and thoughtful men whom the church needs. For these reasons the act of subscription was abol- ished by votes of May 18th and July 12th, 1894. This aboli- tion of all test of this sort, as it obtained the unanimous consent of the church at the time, has undoubtedly been a measure of the highest usefulness, as the accession of mem- bers from almost all denominations of Protestant Christendom plainly shows.
A new Form of Admission of members to the church was adopted, couched almost absolutely in the language of Scrip -. ture, and which was more of the nature of an expression of the simple spirit of worship appropriate to the occasion.
4
50
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
I may say in this connection that the rules of the church also were thoroughly revised and amended January 13th and February 3d, 1898. They were finally adopted and published in their present form April 21st, 1898. This also, like that other change above mentioned, came so easily and naturally, and has by all been looked back upon with such satisfaction, that one wonders almost why he ever had an anxious thought concerning it, or any doubt of the issue.
The church and society agreed, April 26th and May 25th, 1894, to give power to the pastor to call an assistant min- ister for the work of the church and mission. The Rev. John J. Walker, of Andover Seminary, was invited, and began his work among us September 16th, 1894. He was ordained by a council held in the church December 11th. He remained with us until September, 1896. He was followed by the Rev. Win. T. Holmes, of Andover Seminary, who began his work June 3d, 1897, and continued with us until February Ist, 1901. In the interval before Mr. Holmes's coming, the Rev. Win. O. Weeden aided in the work of the mission.
The assistant has always been responsible directly and solely to the minister. It is the conviction of many that, unless our free churches can adapt themselves to the system of having more than one minister, our large churches, and especially those in the cities, become impossible to maintain in any high degree of efficiency. On the other hand there is some timidity, and a feeling on the part of many that our Congregational order does not lend itself easily to the plan of two or more ministers serving in one church. We can only say, as the result of eight years' experience here, that the experiment has proved an unqualified success. The work of those years would have been entirely impossible without the presence of Mr. Walker and Mr. Holmes; both men grew deeply attached to the church, and the church to them. I
51
HISTORICAL MANUAL.
count it among my privileges to have had their untiring help while they were here, to have lived in the pleasantest relations with them, and to have done what I could to send them forth in due time to work in parishes of their own. They also have assured me that they regarded the time spent here as a valua- ble part of their preparation. Mr. Walker became pastor of the church in Yarmouth, Mass., and is now at Westboro, Mass. Mr. Holmes went from here to become the pastor of the church at Watertown, Conn. The Rev. Lawrence R. Howard, of Union Seminary, came here as assistant May 15th, 1901, and was ordained June 7th. He resigned the 13th of September to go to a church of his own in Plainfield, N. J. The Rev. Gregory D. Walcott, of Union Seminary, is assist- ing in our work since January Ist, 1902.
I might say here that there have gone out from this church, in these thirteen years, four of its sons into the ministry. The Rev. William G. Lathrop is now pastor of the Congregational Church in Shelton, Conn. The Rev. Edward L. Thomas, of North Andover, Mass., and the Rev. George H. Thomas, of Minneapolis, Minn., are both of them in the ministry of the Episcopal Church. There must be added the Rev. Frederick E. Stockwell, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Beverly, N. J. Mr. Stockwell was ordained here, in the home church, by a council, May 23d, 1898.
Already, i11 1891, we held a special service in the old vestry on the evening of Good Friday ; but beginning in the season1 of 1897, we held regular preaching services in the church on Thursday evenings through Lent, at which eminent ministers from other places were asked to aid us in the observance. The Good Friday service was held in the church at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and, beginning in 1900, the Thursday evening ser- vice in Holy Week was made the occasion of an observance of the communion of the Lord's Supper. I can but think
52
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
that these services also have ministered to the spiritual life of the church and have done something for the aid and up- lifting of the community about us; for they have been quite largely attended by others than the membership of our own church.
All that I have said in many places above has implied the strongest interest in the music of the church, and the realiza- tion of our dependence upon the hearty and wise co-operation of those in charge of it, if any true things were to be accom- plished in the department of worship. We have therefore been fortunate in that, through all these years,-first under Mr. William O. Fuller for almost fifteen years, then by Mr. Edward K. Glezen, who was organist of this church for thirty years, and latterly by Mr. John H. Mason, who has been our musical director-the standard has been maintained at the highest. The opportunity through music of the noblest order, faithfully rendered, to co-operate to the end of making the hours spent in this place hours of high privilege, of impressiveness and helpfulness, is one which our musical directors have been keenly alive to and have utilized to the full. In the whole matter of the music we are indebted also to the untiring energy and unfailing tact of the society's music committee, latterly under the chairmanship of Mr. Charles A. Catlin.
From November, 1893, to November, 1898, we endeavored to maintain an evening service at the church. During the four summer months of each year, however, the service was held in the chapel. But the location of the church is such that the neighborhood presents absolutely no floating popula- tion for a so-called popular service. Special courses of lectures delivered Sunday evenings, like that of the winter of 1894 and 1895, on "Christ in Modern Life," did indeed draw large audiences, but they drew them largely from other churches in a way quite unwarrantable. That part of our own constitu-
53
HISTORICAL MANUAL.
ency which would from conscience attend a second service had probably already served in the Sunday school, at the mission, or in some one of the city charities, so that this so-called second service would be to them a third, or even a fourth, ser- vice on the day, and no free time would be left to them in their homes. Another large part of the constituency deems one preaching service enough, and I myself am frankly con- vinced that this is true.
To make a service full of rest and peace at the end of an afternoon, and free entirely from the tendency to degen- erate into an entertainment which often attends the evening service, is an entirely different problem. It would seem to be the right of some who could not attend the moril- ing service that there should be such an hour. It has the additional advantage that it is an occasion when the seats are free. It appeals in a new way to some who did attend the morning service. And with this problem we have been en- tirely successful. In November, 1898, this service was set at 4:15 P. M., and to this service the organist, Miss Fannie C. Berry, with her recitals, and the choir, have rendered the greatest possible service. The order of worship for this ser- vice was adopted in November, 1898.
Every winter has seen the holding of a pastor's class for those who look forward to uniting with the church. In the old days it was held at my house. Since 1892 it has been in my study at the Memorial Chapel. It was held first on Sat- urday afternoons, then Friday afternoons, and latterly on Sundays at the hour of the Sunday school. The class is hield from six to ten weeks. I have never found just the right book for it. I have never followed the same plan for it in any two years. But it has given me a chance to know the young people coming up to the time when they ought to con- sider uniting with the church. Certain of these young people
54
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
have remained in the class three or four successive years, in some cases for a year or two after they had united with the church.
No such sketch as this would be complete without reference to the faithful work which has been done in the Sunday school, or rather in the four schools which have, from time to time, been under our charge. The one at the church has been under the superintendency, first of Prof. Win. E. Wilson, and since then of Mr. Wendell P. Hale. In no small part the school has also been in the charge of the assistant minister. If the round of devoted work to disseminate right knowl- edge of the Bible and to exert true spiritual influence upon the children could any way be measured, it would be a noble judgment which would be passed. We have always had large numbers in our adult classes, and an amount of fresh and original work is always being done. Meetings of the Men's League of the church for the discussion of current questions have taken place at this hour and been counted in the enrollment of the Sunday school. For the main body of the school the adoption of the Bible Study Union Lessons in June, 1897, seemed, on the whole, a gain. The music of the school has been in charge of Mrs. Wil- liam O. Shurrocks, and since February, 1898, of Mrs. Ward B. Chase. We have always insisted upon the use of the book which is employed in the church.
In like manner, one finds it hard to describe the influence which the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor has exerted through all these happy years. Its training of the young people to expression of the spirit of devotion and in the temper of responsibility has been invaluable. Its loyalty to the church and the minister has been absolute. One ven- ture of its Work Committee has widened of late into the work of the Marsh Paper Mission, which sends out fifteen to twenty
55
HISTORICAL MANUAL.
thousand copies of papers and magazines each year to light- ships and light-stations on the coast. Its Flower Committee, caring for the decoration of the church and afterwards send- ing the flowers thus used to the sick, its Missionary Commit- tee, and its Social Committee have filled places which could never otherwise have been occupied. The music at the mission for all these years on both Friday and Sunday evenings has been cared for mainly by members of this society under the supervision of Miss Elizabeth C. Hogg. The Sunday school music there has been under the charge of Miss Carrie Smith, and also of Mr. Arthur P. Weeden.
No one can deny that the phase of religious life out of which sprang the Conference and Experience meeting is, for our congregation, as for many others, a thing of the past. Reticence about things religious is ingrained. The emphasis now is upon work and service. Much is lost, especially in the practice of public prayer. Even those of the younger generation trained in the Young People's Society do not always come to take their place in the church prayer meeting. The meeting may become a week-day sermon, it may become a lecture, it may become a class for Bible study, it may be- come a place for discussion of problems social and practical, for the presentation of information on missionary and other themes, for the reading of literature bearing upon the moral life and philanthropic movements, for lectures on hymns, to which is appended a half hour of practice of these hymns. In any of these ways, or in all of them in turn, it may be helpful and inspiring. There still does gather in these meet- ings a large part of those to whom the religious life means most and who have the interest of the church most deeply on their hearts. I have the feeling that I should not be able to maintain my own devotional life without the aid which this service in its distinctive character gives.
.
56
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
We have pursued from the beginning the policy of making the standing committee as large and as truly representative as possible of all classes in the church. We have pursued the policy of doing nothing new, or of any consequence, in the church without the frankest discussion. In thirteen years there has never been a dissenting vote in this committee 011 any matter finally brought to an issue. Nothing which ever passed the committee has failed of the entire support of the church. It would hardly be possible to estimate the debt which your minister owes to the men who have served on this committee for their willingness to meet as often and to sit as long as ever seemed to be required, and to canvass even minor matters with untiring diligence. Few business enterprises in this community have had abler counselors than has this church, or more devoted to the interest which they had espoused, or working together in more unbroken harmony. No mention of this board would be complete did it not speak of the fact that our senior deacon, a charter member of the church, Mr. Moses E. Torrey, served as its treasurer in the dispensation of all the wide benevolence of the church, resigning only in November, 1900, after a service of full forty years.
Nor would any history of this transition period be complete without recognition of the work of the social committee. Not only have these women of the church given themselves to calling upon strangers among us, but they have acted as hostesses at the suppers in connection with the annual meet- ing,-which excellent custom, by the way, seems to have been inaugurated in 1888,-and also in the entertainment of coun- cils, and at receptions given from time to time in the chapel. They have had much to do with the welding of all the new elements of our constituency into one whole, and making
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.