USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island Episcopalians 1635-1953 > Part 9
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In the century which has elapsed, the most striking thing about the dozen parishes which have developed in Providence has been the growth and preeminence of Grace Church. In 1950, it was the fourth largest Episcopal parish in the country, with nearly 3,000 communicants. Its downtown location in New England's second most populous city, and in the country's tiniest State, has been an asset in the past and would seem to be a solid guarantee for its future. Grace Church can be easily reached from any part of the eighteen square miles of the City and is within driving distance for most of the people of the State.
Besides its location in what was once a rapidly growing neighbor- hood, Grace Church has had the good fortune of having had many out- standing rectors. For over twenty years Bishops Henshaw and Clark served it. Later came Dr. Greer, afterward to be Bishop of New York. Frank Crowder and Floyd Tomkins went to leading parishes in New York and Philadelphia, while Edward S. Rousmaniere and Philemon F. Sturges were called from Grace Church to be Deans of St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston.
When William Appleton Lawrence, now Bishop of Western Massa- chusetts, came as rector to Grace Church in 1927, it was the largest and wealthiest parish in the Diocese, with 1,700 communicants. He found, however, that 90 percent of parish support came from less than 10 per- cent of the communicant list. His efforts and those of his successor, Clarence H. Horner, have been successfully directed to produce a much better balance. The largest increase in communicants and the largest single material addition to the parish fabric, $275,000 spent on enlarging upward the parish house, have been in Dr. Horner's time, now the longest rectorship of all. Grace Church has always remained steadfast in the Evangelical tradition.
St. Stephen's parish, originally a mission of Grace Church on South Benefit Street, has moved in quite a different theological orbit. Henry Waterman, an old-time high Churchman, with later leanings to Anglo- Catholicism, was its rector for nearly thirty years, his wealthy father, Resolved Waterman, being simultaneously Senior Warden. Founded in 1839, the congregation moved in 1860 to its present location on George Street, now in the heart of the Brown University campus. Henry Water- man's rectorship brought a great access of material and spiritual strength to the parish, he himself becoming one of the most beloved and influ- ential priests of the Diocese. After his death in 1875, Bishop Clark, in one of his famous vignettes, had this to say about him:
"One who, for a longer period than any of us, had been identified with the history of the Diocese, for many years the President of our Standing Committee, and our representative in the General Convention of our Church; one, who by long and arduous labor, had lifted from weakness and obscurity into strength and influence, one of our most important parishes, has passed out of our sight forever. As a man and as a Christian, the late Rev. Dr. Waterman moved in a lofty atmosphere, and seemed to have little concern with the things which were pertaining
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to the earth. ... In the sphere for which he did care, he was earnest and positive in his convictions, and these took their hue from the marked cast of his mental and spiritual nature. He believed faithfully and devoutly in Christ as his one, only Saviour, and he also believed firmly in the Church, with its creeds and sacraments as the Body of Christ, and his accredited representative here on earth. And, however one might differ from him in any of his views, no one for a moment ever questioned the purity and elevation of his motives, or the deep sincerity of his faith .... He was always instructive and edifying, and those who listened to him most constantly liked him the best. He was a well-read man .... neither did he confine himself to any one school of theology in his studies .... stringent as he might seem to be in some particulars, he was not a narrow or illiberal thinker. . .. When we are called hence, may we all be as ready as he was to answer to the summons of our Lord!"
The second important rector of St. Stephen's, who made it into a citadel of Anglo-Catholicism, was George McClellan Fiske, who was called in 1885. He soon became as beloved and influential in the Diocese as his predecessor. In his first year as rector he introduced daily Morning and Evening Prayer, and, in his second year, daily Mass. For many years, however, Morning Prayer remained the norm at the eleven o'clock service on Sundays. The present rector is Warren R. Ward.
In Dr. Fiske's time, St. Stephen's parish grew rapidly, and for a short while had more communicants than even Grace Church. Dr. Fiske, as we may recall, was the runner-up in the Episcopal election of 1910. A memorial tribute penned by a Committee of the Clericus gives such a good picture of the man that we quote it almost in full.
( Clergy Minute on Rev. George Mcclellan Fiske-May, 1923)
The coming of the Rev. George McClellan Fiske into Rhode Island, in the year 1885, marked the beginning of a new influence in the history of the Diocese.
A forceful and aggressive personality, representing a Churchmanship somewhat variant from the type prevalent at that period, was occupying a central position and radiating a power felt by all.
It was not long before Dr. Fiske made for himself a place in the heart of the diocese. It was readily recognized that while force and militant qualities were conspicuous in him, there went with them a gentleness, a sweet humility, a soundness and excellence of judgment which tempered and controlled all.
He held definite convictions with such sincerity and fairness, combined with such broad sympathies, that he won not only the respect, but the affection of those who sharply differed from him, and contributed in a large measure to the unity of spirit which has characterized the life of the diocese.
So it was that Rhode Island came to appreciate, to honor and to love him. That he was not unmindful of the confidence bestowed upon him, in the place that knew him best, is evidenced by the fact that, each time that higher honors were offered him, he elected to remain in the place where he was appointed to serve.
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By interested attention to the duties pertaining to a parish priest, by the force and effectiveness of his preaching, born of the intensity of his convictions, by his courage and tact in approaching men, he brought the parish of which he was the leader into a position of commanding strength and missionary service. Directly, or indirectly, his influence has enriched the worship of the whole diocese. His trans- parent devotion to the life of the Church bore continual witness to all men of the simplicity and intensity with which his whole being embraced and absorbed the truths of the Catholic Faith.
For many years, almost as a matter of course, he was chosen a member of the Standing Committee and a representative to the General Convention, and this, by the suffrages of those not entirely in accord with his theological position, but whose confidence in him was implicit and entire.
As the congregation passed out of church on the day of his funeral, a humble parishioner was overheard to remark, "It seems to me as if it was my own father who has gone."
We dare to believe that, in the new life now revealed to him, one of its purest joys will be the consciousness that he ever strove to be a faithful and devoted spiritual father to the children committed to his loving care.
All Saints Memorial Church, located on Westminster Street a mile south of Grace Church, has had but three ministers in a century. For half of this time Daniel Henshaw was rector. His curate, Arthur M. Aucock, now 92, and the oldest living alumnus of the Episcopal Theo- logical School, succeeded him. In his thirty years as rector, Dr. Aucock became a leading presbyter of the Diocese, and enhanced somewhat the important standing of the parish. He built the extensive parish house and organized the St. Andrew's Society, for many years the largest Men's Club in the Diocese. It was often said that when Dr. Aucock resigned, the parish would gradually disappear, but such has not been the case. In the twenty-year rectorship of John Bertram Lyte, All Saints has, like neighboring Grace Church, doubled its communicant list, even if it has nearly halved its Church School. Whether there will be room, in the future population and industrial changes of the city, for both of these parishes on Westminster Street, history alone will determine. Grace Church, by location and endowment, would seem better fitted to survive. All Saint's, however, is nearer a considerable residential area of the semi-slum variety. Dr. Aucock used to say that it took so much money to pay up the parochial missionary quota that he was never able to do anything to clean up his own backyard. Will it someday come to pass that All Saint's will be once again a diocesan mission, supported, in part, by the missions which it now so strongly supports?
St. John's on North Main Street, 231 years old and now the Cathedral of the Diocese, has seen much better days. It is located in a relatively blighted neighborhood. Its horse and carriage constituency of the last century has virtually disappeared, and its 500 communicants are scattered far and wide. But for a $300,000 endowment, it could not possibly function, at least in its present large and expensive buildings. It is on the wrong side of the Providence river to be a downtown church. Yet the housing developments of the future may bring it someday an accession of people.
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The Church of the Messiah in Olneyville Square, once a part of the neighboring town of Johnston, is now nearly a century old. Its beginnings were in a bleak mill village by the then clean waters of the meandering Woonasquatucket. There the Gammel and Goddard families had part of their large textile interests. In the vigorous rectorship of Thomas J. Cocroft, from 1870 on, the forlorn church building was replaced by the present stone Arthur Amory Gammel Memorial, built by Mrs. Gammel in memory of her husband. In the long rectorship of Frederic I. Collins the large parish house was built, to accommodate not merely innumerable parish activities, but also a Sunday School which, for a time, exceeded 500. Even today the Church of the Messiah has the second largest Church School in the Diocese. A wonderful revival of the parish, after a period of decline, has taken place in the dozen-year rectorship of Elbridge B. Welch, who went there not long after his graduation from Cambridge. To ensure its continuance over the years as a large missionary out-post among less prosperous people, the Church of the Messiah needs a much larger endowment than it has.
A sixth large parish, dating from 1873, is the Church of the Epiphany on Elmwood Avenue, a mile and a half south of All Saints Church. Originally a small mission located on the edge of the city, it has now been overrun by the suburban tide extending far to the south. A $91,000 endowment provides the financial cement which holds together the 700 communicants of the present. Most of the growth of the parish was in the forty years of Henry Bassett, its first rector. Mr. Bassett was the first clergyman in Rhode Island to use eucharistic candles, although, to avoid any imputation of superstition, he extinguished them before the Prayer of Consecration. The later Catholicism of the parish is the work of various successors.
A seventh large parish, the most recent of them all, is St. Martin's Parish on the East Side. It was formed by the union of two small parishes, The Saviour Church on Benefit Street and Calvary, a mission of Grace Church, and in the 1910's located on the eastern edge of the city. It was in the twenty-five year rectorship of Arthur L. Washburn that the present beautiful church and parish house were built. St. Martin's now ranks, along with Grace Church, Providence, and St. Paul's, Pawtucket, as one of the three pillars of missionary giving in the Diocese. Two of its past rectors have become bishops -- Russell H. Hubbard, suffragan bishop of Michigan, and John S. Higgins, coadjutor in Rhode Island.
An eighth parish, the Church of the Redeemer on Hope Street, has also seen one of its recent rectors, Donald J. Campbell, become suffragan bishop of Los Angeles. Its outstanding rectorship was the forty-year one of Frederic J. Bassett. For years, at the old site on North Main Street, Dr. Bassett saw the parochial tide run out. Then, for some years, at the new location on Hope Street, he saw it coming in again. Once more the tide moves out. Suburban exodus and Jewish invasion have reduced parochial strength considerably.
A ninth parish, long time a mission, is St. Ansgarius Church for Swedes, located in a decaying neighborhood on Beacon Avenue. The
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large brick church, the gift in the Nineties of Harold Brown, still houses a struggling independent congregation. Its English-speaking constituency now outnumbers the Swedish-speaking one. Philip Broburg has been rector for some years.
Two other small parishes, for many years also missions, are St. Thomas' on upper Douglas Avenue and St. Andrew's in the Mount Pleasant area. The recently improved economic status of the working man has enabled both parishes to become independent, even if still struggling. Joseph M. Hobbs was the Vicar of St. Andrew's for a generation prior to 1930. The Church and Parish House are his work. St. Thomas, on the contrary, has had no long vicarates and rectorships. It is located in the second largest Italian neighborhood of the City. The church building, the second in use, dates from the vicarate of Frank Appleton in the last century, the rectory from that of Arthur M. Tourtellot some years later, and the parish house from that of the present writer, 1922-26. Its present independent status dates from a later period. Robert L. Weis has been rector for four years.
A twelfth parish. in Providence is the colored Church of The Saviour. In 1918, a congregation was organized in a hall under the lay leadership of Mr. Percy G. Moore-Brown, a native of Barbadoes. After his ordination, Father Moore-Brown served the Mission as Vicar for some thirty years. After the white Church of The Saviour moved east to join that of Calvary, the colored congregation succeeded to its place and name for a number of years. Later it was moved to the old Church of St. James on Broadway in a dense Italian neighborhood. When this building was finally sold to the Armenians in 1940, the Church of Our Saviour found temporary refuge in the Chapel of the Cathedral. After St. Martin's relinquished its claim to the $16,000 for which the old Church of the Saviour was sold, a new building was erected on North Main Street, in the area of the largest colored concentration in Providence. This, however, does not mean too much, since American negroes still prefer their own denominations. The West Indians, so numerous in Boston and New York, are comparatively few here. The Church of The Saviour will probably remain a heavy burden on diocesan finance for a long time to come. Victor J. Holly is the present vicar.
A thirteenth parish of the city is St. Paul's Mission, located on Smith Street not much more than a mile west of the Cathedral, with St. Thomas' and St. Andrew's parishes about a mile on either side. This area, once a strong Protestant neighborhood, housed the original St. Paul's, which went under about 1890. Thirty years later George S. Pine established a flourishing mission at the corner of Smith Street and Oak- land Avenue and built the present little brick church. Since his day, the Mission, owing to neighborhood changes and unhappy tenures, has steadily declined. At present it is attached to the Church of the Redeemer, two miles away.
Fourteenthly, comes Christ Church on decadent Eddy Street, with its fine brick Church and depleted congregation. Samuel E. Webb, long sec- retary of the Diocese, was the great name of the last century. Gene Scaringi, lately, has brought it up again.
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These fourteen parishes of Providence still form the strong heart of the Diocese of Rhode Island. In communicant strength they rank with the Dioceses of Maine and New Hampshire, and, financially, above them. What the future holds for them is, of course, hidden in the mists of his- tory. Whether cities, as such, will eventually disappear, whether or not grass will once more grow on the sidewalks of New York, is beyond human ken. It would seem reasonable to believe that, as long as cities last, Providence will likewise. If so, also the Episcopal Church, even if the city is tending more and more to be inhabited by negroes, wealthy Jews and poor Roman Catholics. Owing to the smallness of the State and the centrality of Providence, its Episcopal and Protestant Churches are likely to remain in substantial strength. In the last quarter century the Episcopal churches of Providence have increased their communicant strength by nearly twenty percent, while the city has lost some thousands in population. The gain lies in out-of-town communicants.
VI THE CHURCH IN THE BLACKSTONE VALLEY
In 1850 the Blackstone Valley, like the city of Providence, had just four churches. The oldest was St. Paul's, Pawtucket, where the sturdy Evangelical, George Taft, had been rector since 1820. St. Paul's, in 1850, had 200 communicants and 180 children in its Church School. It was a quiet neighborhood parish, Trinity, a small church across the river, was then in Massachusetts territory. Woodlawn, Fairlawn, and Darling- ton, were in those days open country.
St. Paul's oldest daughter church, St. James, Woonsocket (1833), reported 113 communicants in 1850 and 175 in Church School. Christ Church, Lonsdale (1834), the big mill village parish of the Diocese, had then 75 communicants and 100 Sunday School children. Smallest of all was the one mission church of the Valley, Emmanuel, Manville, with 24 communicants and 80 children. In 1850 these four parishes had altogether 412 communicants as against the 742 of the four churches in Providence, and 535 Church School children as against 571. Financially, of course, the Providence churches were much stronger.
In the next twenty-five years only three new parishes were established in the Valley, as against the eight new ones in Providence. Those three new churches in the Valley were St. John's, Ashton, founded in 1868; St. George's, Central Falls, admitted to Convention in 1874, and Trinity, Pawtucket, received from Massachusetts in 1863.
In these twenty-five years St. Paul's, Pawtucket, had grown only slowly, from 200 communicants to 253, with a like increase from 180 to 236 in the Sunday School. The last years of George Taft were those of feebleness, and the succeeding pastorates of Emery H. Porter and T. B. Strong brought vitality but no large numerical growth. Pawtucket's big days were still to come. Christ Church, Lonsdale, reflecting the expanded
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operations of the Lonsdale Company and its interest in the parish, had the largest growth of any in the Valley. Its communicants increased from 75 to 276 and the Church School from 100 to 369. The stone church, replacing the old one of wood, was a Company gift of this period.
Emmanuel, Manville, became a self-supporting parish in this quarter- century, although numerical gains were not large. Manville's best days were also yet to come.
St. James', Woonsocket, had an even growth in these years of 1850 to 1875. The many falls in the Blackstone river in that area made possible the multiplication of mills, first for cotton manufacturing and later for wool. Woonsocket was heading for the day when it should become the second largest wool manufacturing center (after Lawrence, Massachu- setts ) in the country. When that day came, cheap labor was imported in huge droves from Quebec, making it the first Canadian city of the United States. Where once Yankees and Irishmen strove for political mastery, now two sets of Frenchmen contend for the spoils of office. In 1875 St. James' communicants had risen from 113 to 210, and its Church School from 175 to 210.
So much for the older parishes. Trinity, Pawtucket, received in 1863, had 180 communicants in 1875 and 161 in Church School. St. John's, Ashton, founded in 1868 and liberally aided by the Lonsdale Company, in seven years had acquired 48 communicants and 154 Church School children. St. George's, Central Falls, just a year old, already had 65 communicants and 84 children.
To sum up, the Blackstone Valley parishes had increased in numbers from four to seven, while communicants grew from 412 to 869, and Church School enrollment from 535 to 1,169. The Valley church had about doubled in numbers, while in Providence churches, communicants and Church School registration tripled. Money made in the Blackstone Valley was helping Episcopal growth in the big city.
The next twenty-five years from 1875 to 1900 saw a great advance in the Blackstone Valley, particularly in fast-expanding Pawtucket. Two new churches were added to the former two. They were the Church of the Good Shepherd, located in 1888 on the slopes of Pleasant View, not far from the Massachusetts line, and the Church of the Advent (1894) near the Providence line. The Good Shepherd was an offshoot of Trinity, while the Advent began as a mission of St. Paul's. Each older parish sponsored a new one on its side of the river.
In this period Pawtucket communicants grew from 433 to 1,071, and church school youngsters from 522 to 1,284. In the Valley, as a whole, communicant growth was proportionately larger, 869 to 2,336, and Church Schools proportionately less, 1,169 to 2,142. The Church School foundation was being laid for the greater growth in Pawtucket after 1900.
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When we compare 1950 with 1900, there is another great advance in communicants, with a large drop, however, in the Church Schools. Only two Churches were added in this period, St. Luke's, Pawtucket, from 1910 on, and St. Martin's, a little later.
The growth of the city of Pawtucket, in particular, is reflected in a near tripling of the number of Valley communicants, from 2,336 to 6,435. Church School attendance, however, dropped from 2,142 to 1,481, a loss mostly in the last twenty years, with some.gain since 1950.
Let us now turn to some of the men who made these large com- municant gains possible. In 1869 Taft was succeeded at St. Paul's, Paw- tucket, by Emery H. Porter, who added to the foundations already laid. In his day a basement was put under the old church to accommodate the growing Sunday School. After some fifteen years, Porter was promoted, as it seemed then, to Emmanuel Church, Newport. His successor, T. B. Strong, went a few years later to St. James', Providence, apparently then another promotion.
It was in the rectorship of Marion Law, an outstanding preacher and energetic worker, that St. Paul's began, in the nineties, its period of greatest growth. Numbers doubled all along the line, and the new Church and Parish House were built and erelong paid for. Endowments began also to increase. Up to 1950, St. Paul's had the largest endowment, (over $300,000) of any parish in the Diocese. Marion Law's work was continued by his successor, Roberts A. Seilhamer, under whom com- municants almost doubled again in twenty years. After Seilhamer's untimely death, Harold L. Hutton held the fort, with some communicant increase, for nearly ten years. Recently the parish has began a new upsurge under Arthur F. Roebuck. The parish of St. Paul, with 1,968 communicants, was, in 1950, the twenty-fourth largest Episcopal Church in the country, just as Grace Church, Providence, was the fourth in size.
Trinity Church, Pawtucket, had a long and fruitful rectorship under Frank Appleton. Since 1930 it has slowly declined. Its neighborhood is no longer the select one of the city, and four flourishing parishes, two within walking distance, compass it on every side. A. R. Cochran holds the fort at present.
The Church of the Good Shepherd, near the Massachusetts line, has a much better hinterland than Trinity. The mere fact that many Armenians live in the neighborhood should be an asset rather than otherwise. Armenian folk, where cultivated, have turned out to be good workers and even better givers. The Good Shepherd parish in 1952 listed 480 communicants, having been blessed with three long and strong rectorships under Benjamin Eastwood, its first rector, Asaph Wicks and Roger Alling. Archdeacon Parshley in 1950 became its latest rector.
St. Luke's in Fairlawn was nursed along successfully by James Bar- bour, the rector of the Church of the Advent. In 1917 Arthur J. Watson took over the Mission, gathered enormous confirmation classes, and by 1925 had built the present beautiful stone church. From 1940 to 1951,
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Ernest H. Macdonald held the fort. A rectory and the extinguishing of a large debt on the church were his accomplishments. A. St. Clair Neild is the present active and successful incumbent.
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