USA > Rhode Island > Bristol County > Bristol > Two hundred years of St. Michael's rectors, 1721-1955 > Part 5
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Supposing this my answer to be acceptable to the Parish, I should be glad to have my acceptance of the offer date, if there be no objection from last Sunday (May 5th) in order that I may cover the interesting occasion of the Confirmation of my first class. I would also like it to be understood, in that case, that I take the charge with an honest sense of my inability to accom- plish any result for good, except so far as it shall be "not I but Christ working in me." With a desire that it may be remembered by all, that it is by the Prayers and Faith of all that the effort of mine shall be made most effectual. In this and in all her works may the Parish of St. Michael glorify God.
I remain, gentlemen, Faithfully yours, George L. Locke
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Two major events of great importance occurred during the early part of Dr. Locke's rectorship. One was the building of the Chapel on Hope Street, directly opposite the church. The other event of not so happy a character was the schism in the parish, resulting in the building of Trinity Church in 1875. (While the contention of the schismatics was undoubtedly right, viz; the pews of a church should be free and unappropriated, subsequent events have shown that patience would have won in the end and that the time was coming when St. Michael's would contain all the elements making up the Catholic character of the Episcopal Church).
In regard to the Chapel which was built in 1877, Mr. Munro slightly exaggerates, when he describes it in his history of Bristol as "one of the most beautiful edifices of its kind in the country." The Bristol Phoenix of April 21, 1877 gives a detailed description of the building which we quote in part: "The building is rectangu- lar in plan, 52 by 76 feet, with a porch projecting five feet in front. At the northeast corner of the building, and connecting with the main room, is the rector's study, 11 by 14 feet. The study, in order to give it a rather more domestic character, has its walls dec- orated very appropriately with paper hanging. The arched panel at the north of the chancel arch (main room) is filled with a set of tablets richly illuminated in gold and color, and having the Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, with a design at the top having a cross entwined with ivy and holly. These tablets are the gift of Henry Codman, Esq., who also gave the rich crimson Brussels carpet of the platform. For artificial lighting, the building is amply provided with gas fixtures of polished brass."
The writer can well remember when Lenten services were held in the chapel, and when the rector's study became the cur- ate's office. The chapel is still used for the Sunday School, and for parochial meetings. A recent attempt to sell the building to the Town of Bristol was overwhelmingly defeated in a vestry meet- ing. (1955)
After ten years as Rector of St. Michael's, Dr. Locke gave an address in church describing his life and work in Bristol from 1867-1877. Here are his own words to the congregation on Easter night, April 1st, 1877:
"It was my custom a few years ago to deliver in this place from time to time, discourses, constituting a series upon the earlier history of this parish. In this way the history was brought down
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to a period quite within the recollection of many of the present congregation, considerably remote nevertheless from our own day. I have always cherished a purpose, not yet however accom- plished, of completing the series some time or other. I believe that these discourses were found not altogether devoid of interest to those who heard them. To the writer of them, at any rate, the investigation involved in their preparation afforded a good deal of that sort of gratification which antiquarian research yields to many minds.
"It is with a different feeling that I address myself now to what is in some sort a resumption of the interrupted historical work, but is to me a good deal more than that, in fact an under- taking of a very different nature, and in face of which I am con- scious of a certain sensation of oppression and of shrinking re- luctance to enter upon it.
"For the task to the performance of which the occasion seems to invite with positiveness that gives to the invitation the nature of a command is no longer an attempt to reproduce the history of the parish in the remote past and to incite, with whatever of ap- propriate comment, the course of action of minister and people of generations long past away. It is not even to recall memories of more recent times in connection with the administration of those who, if still living, have long ago sundered their connection with the parish. But I am called to the embarrassing duty of re- viewing my own ministry here, or let me rather say, what modesty both allows and demands, of recurring to the history of the parish during that ministry, and of addressing myself in so doing not to an outside and disinterested audience, but to one a large part of which has been associated with that ministry from the beginning. If, however, in this latter circumstance of the occasion there is an element of embarrassment. I ought to find in it at the same time one of encouragement, for I know that I shall be addressing a congregation of whose sympathy and kindly prepossession of feeling the recollection of many testimonies during these years of unworthy and halting ministration assures me.
"The occasion to which I refer is the occurrence of the first decennial anniversary now just past of my connection with this parish. In the long extended history of so venerable a corporation as this, dating its origin back to the year 1720, ten years is in one view not a long time. It is less than a 15th part of its age. But to any institution charged with such high functions and solemn
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responsibilities as are committed to a Christian Church, 10 years are a long time when thought of as years upon which the heavenly judgment is to sit. And from another point of view, the personal one, 10 years, the first years of independent pastoral charge, more- over the most valuable perhaps and available for purposes of achievement in the work of life of all the 7 decades which make up the Psalmist's limit of mortality, the retrospect can hardly be other than in a certain view oppressive and painful, however much in another view there may be in that retrospect that is cheering.
"The 17th of February just passed was the anniversary of my first act of ministry in this Church 10 years ago. I was here by no wish of my own, but in a rather reluctant response to very ur- gent representations which had been made to me later in the previous week by a gentlemen deputed by the vestry to procure aid from some quarter or other as to the pressing need of some one to take charge here for 3 months. This I had refused to do, having already made engagements in another direction for the approaching season of Lent. I had, however, yielded to the solici- tation so far as to consent for a single Sunday and had come down by late train on the previous night. St. Michael's, Bristol, was scarcely more than a name to me and even as a name not famil- iar. Many years before I had happened to hear of the town and the church in connection with the visit of a friend to this place, but that was about all of my association with either. I was here for a single Sunday, a stranger to everyone, and all were strangers to me. I was the guest for that brief visit of a gentleman well known then and for a year or two longer for his public spirit and generous activity in the parish and in the town, whose subsequent removal from this to his native place in an adjoining State was generally regarded as a public calamity, and who has now for some years ceased to be numbered with the living, Mr. Charles Sherry. That February Sunday in 1867, as I recall it now, was a cold, leaden, cheerless day. The interior of this building as it then was, had not about it much warmth of color to counteract the in- fluence from the dullness without. As I entered at the morning service from the robing room, I recollect that the first impression on my mind was that the size of the congregation was hardly pro- portionate to that of the building. I remember that during the session of the Sunday School, which I visited, I was taken by the Superintendent who was also the Senior Warden of the parish,
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for a view of the parsonage house, which I doubtless looked upon with much less of interest than I should have done had I known it was presently to become and to remain for so many years my home. It is a curious exercise of thought to me to recall from the point of view of today my first impressions received on that Satur- day evening and Sunday of persons, places, and surroundings then all strange and novel, but which the contact and experience of years have long made as familiar and as much matters of course as the circumstances of childhood. That Sunday viewed from this seems to me a day very long ago, a point somewhere in the remote past of my life. Its duties were soon over. But when I left the town the next evening I was no longer free. I had committed myself over night to return for the next Sunday and to remain for three months.
"Thus my hastily arranged journey on a gloomy Saturday afternoon to an unknown church in a distant unknown town, to minister to a congregation of strangers as I supposed for a single day was in reality taken under plainly providential guidance I have never doubted, for the purpose of taking up a permanent work, amidst scenes of natural beauty (such as when the test should come some years later it should be found almost impossible to relinquish) amongst, and for, and with a people whose inter- ests should in time come to be as my own; whom I should come to know and regard with that knowledge and regard possible, in the same degree and in the same wide extent, to no other relation in life than to that sacred one which brings the pastor of a Christ- ian flock into such varied intercourse with the households of his charge; as adviser, helper, consoler, partaker with them and minis- trant in their richest joys and most absorbing griefs; admitted of- ten to the inner sanctuaries of domestic life, looked to also as the appointed leader in the associated public functions of church life, a relation growing moreover wider and closer year by year.
"For the Ministry which I assumed as I supposed for a day when for the first time in my life I entered this chancel on that Sunday morning which I have described, has been continuous from that moment to this. I find that on referring back to my official register that the subjects of the two sermons preached on that first visit were 'Coming to Christ' and 'Excuses.' My first act of private pastoral ministration was performed a day or two later when I was summoned from Boston by telegraph to admin- ister the Sacrament of the Supper to a godly woman whose praise
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٠١
٥
THE REV. ANTHONY R. PARSHLEY, CANON
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Locke Memorial Preaching Cross
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The Reverend DANIEL K. DAVIS, CANON
The Reverend DELBERT W. TILDESLEY, CANON
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Photo by E. W. Roorbach
Serviceman's Altar where Canon Larned celebrated the week-day services
ST. MICHAEL'S CHAPEL, BRISTOL, R
ST. MICHAEL'S PARISH HOUSE
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had long been in this church and town, and who had been now a good while prostrated with the illness which not long after ful- filled its early promise of being final. There were circumstances of that simple service which made it doubly impressive. For the principal recipient, to the joy of strong and clear personal faith there was added another that was two-fold, a rejoicing over others very dear and near to her now for the first time partakers of the sacred elements.
"My first Baptism was on Ash Wednesday two weeks later, a man past middle life, not a man of many words but who had been thinking much and feeling deeply and who came to give a hearty assent to the demands of the Baptismal office. His subsequent life of seven years adorned the doctrine he had so earnestly professed. Three weeks later I was for the first time called to read the burial service. It was my introduction to my new parish (which was also my first parish, for during the three earlier years of my ministry I had filled only a subordinate position in a city church) detecting in sluggish or in reserved natures the indications of fitness or un- fitness, unskillful in discriminating between a superficial passing enthusiasm and a deep-seated purpose divinely begotten, too timid or too amiable to deal honestly and plainly with those needing rebuke and warning rather than encouragement, or inconsiderate in dealing with the timid and self-distrusting, especially he may be himself wanting in the clear perception of the truths involved in the doctrine of Christian life. Much of this I discovered in the course of my own attempts at guiding those who applied to the be admitted candidates during this our first Confirmation Season. Those with whom I had to deal were for the most part strangers to me. Of that superficial excitement and stimulus of the religious faculties unaccompanied by a deep conviction and determination of will, to which I have just referred, there was, as was to be ex- pected, under the circumstances of the time, probably in consid- erable degree. And yet it would not now seem strange had the number out of this large confirmation class who should prove steadfast been proved smaller than it has been. Of the 43 con- firmed May 5, '67 - 1 has died, 3 have withdrawn to Trinity Church, 11 have removed from town, 1 is unaccounted for, 7 never became or almost immediately ceased to be communicants, while the remaining 20 are recognized as 'communicants in good standing of this parish.'
"I should be sorry to have it supposed that such a showing as
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this of so large a proportion as more than half of a whole class of candidates falling back and as in these cases at once from their position as avowed Christians was common. Such a thing has occurred with no subsequent class. The largest number at any one time since 1867 was that of last year, viz; 31. The entire number confirmed in these ten years has been 176. I regard it as a good indication of the spiritual condition of the parish that the propor- tion of young candidates has been of late years large. It is rarely that I encourage those under 15 to present themselves. Nor do I mean that those above that age are always encouraged to do so. Of course no absolute standard of years can be fixed. But I can- not consider it to be a hopeful sign for a church when its children are accustomed to look upon themselves as ineligible by virtue of their tender years for active church membership. It is indeed a mistake to encourage children while still too young to know their own minds and purposes, to seek participation in sacred transac- tions which they cannot appreciate. It is a grievous error also to encourage the feeling that the attainment of a certain number of years is the main condition for confirmation. But it is no less an error to foster in them the idea that they must have first en- countered and vanquished the temptations of ripening years be- fore they can be fit candidates for the rite of avowal of Christian Faith and purpose. The last confirmation class of 31 members, 3 were married persons of mature years, whom we leave out of this analysis. Of the 28 who mainly composed the class, 5 were of the age of 15 or less, 5 were 16, 9 were 17 to 19, 9 were between 20 and 25.
"The infant Baptisms during 10 years have numbered 164, those of adults 86, in all 250. The communicant list has been as it would naturally be in view of the former history of the parish, which has seen it increased from time to time since the year 1812 by very large accessions, an unusually long one for a church in a town no larger than ours. The legislation of the Church on the subject of parochial removals as well as of desertion of the Lord's Table has been and remains so loose that to make a communicant list accurately correct is a difficult not to say impossible matter in any long established parish. Many persons are found who are unable to say whether their church residence is here or in some other place. Others again after removing to other places beg to be allowed, often without sufficient reason, to remain registered in their old home and decline to have their names inscribed in the
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place of their actual residence. Such cases, however, are not very common. So it likewise happens, of course, that there are among the actual permanent communicants of this parish persons who claim connection with that of their former residence and desire not to be counted here. Again, in so old a parish as this the number of superannuated and invalid communicants who are rarely if ever seen in church is considerable. There are always, moreover, communicants in considerable numbers whose avocations or mar- riage connections, or other claims, call them to permanent or near- ly permanent absence from their own church home to reside here and there in no place fixedly, or else in places where there is no church to which they can be transferred. Allowing, however, for all these causes and influences which have to be taken into ac- count in the revisal from time to time of the communicant list, the disproportion between the number of registered communicants and those ever present at any one Communion has always been too great. My last report which was made up with some care re- turned 350 as the number enrolled. The largest number present at any one Communion in 10 years was 205, and that was in mid- summer when many visitors were present. The average is much lower than that, about 140, which is quite too small to show a satisfactory spiritual condition of things. Of course it is never ex- pected that in a large church anything like the Easter number of communicants can be assembled at any one service. The prevent- ing causes are many. But it would not be unreasonable to expect that were the currents of spiritual life flowing in the church with such volume and activity as the blessing of the Divine Spirit earn- estly and persistently sought by us would ensure, the representa- tion would be considerably larger than it is. I do not forget that after all, statistics are not wholly satisfactory and may easily de- ceive. I should be very glad in many a time of discouragement dur- ing these 10 years it would have been a source of greatest help - to be able to feel assured that unfailing regularity of attendance at the Lord's Table on the part of those under my pastoral guid- ance was a sure indication of a right spiritual condition, and of a life not conformed to this world in its pettinesses and uncharitable- ness and frivolity, but transformed by the renewing of the mind. The number of communicants who have been formally dismissed with the canonical certificate in order to join the new parish of Trinity Church is 10. In addition to these others who had been for some time more or less distinctly identified with our Communion
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but were registered elsewhere, have withdrawn informally for the same purpose, no formal action being necessary on their part. "The number of marriages solemnized by me in 10 years has been 57, all with very few exceptions within the parish.
"The somewhat rambling statistical statement that I am mak- ing would be imperfect, I suppose, without some reference to the financial history of the parish during 10 years, which reference must, however, be brief and comprehensive. I will arrange the amounts distributed under the heads by which they are annually reported to the Bishop and Diocesan Convention. This statement, let it be understood, is not exactly correct in that the figures being taken from the Reports in Convention Journals include all the Convention year preceding June 1867, of which I was here only a small part. On the other hand, nothing is included since the last Convention, although the amount raised in that time is unusually large in consequence of the subscriptions and others to the new Chapel Fund. To be quite correct, therefore, 1 or 2 thousand dol- lars at least would have to be added to the total now given. Con- tributions then for the past 10 years:
"Diocesan Missions $794; Domestic Missions $5,263; Foreign Missions $3,705; Freed. Com. $782; Education for Ministry $1,300. Other objects exclusive of support and increase of parish work $6,567. Total for objects exclusive as just stated $18,917. Contri- butions including pew rents, income of Kay Fund, subscriptions, offerings in church, proceeds of Bakes, Fairs, etc, etc., for all ob- jects connected with support of public worship in parish, salaries, care and improvement of property, diminution of debt, increase of Chapel Fund account $49,342. Grand total of receipts in 10 years from all sources for all objects $70,077, an average of $7,000 per annum.
"I sometimes find myself as I pass along one or another street of this town, noting in my mind the number of houses with which I have no association of some special experience of joy or trouble in which it has fallen to me in these ten years to be called upon to have a part. And in some neighborhoods of this town the number of such houses is small. Of course I do not find in this kind of recollection material for all in detail on this or any other public occasion. And yet I shall be pardoned the egotism of this kind of reference since it is not so much an anniversary in the history of the parish as one in my own life that I am commemor- ating. Of my own life indeed and yet my right to expect my hear-
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ers to be interested in this sort of reference lies in the consideration that my interest come of experiences touching their lives much more closely even than my own. And to recall as I may, to my- self the experiences of which the sight of these dwellings reminds me in which now one, now another, form of joy or sorrow or per- plexity has at one time or another called me in my pastoral re- lation during these years, throws a certain glow of rich coloring over my past life here among you as it comes up to me, now in the recalling it.
"And I find a satisfaction in the thought that in these days when ten years is longer than the average length of rectorships or pastorates, I have been permitted to accomplish that period in one place. And this satisfaction arises not from the mere con- sciousness in itself of an unbroken continuance for that length of time, but because it has given me what I am persuaded is of much value to one in the ministerial office, viz; the experience of watch- ing the development of a generation of those to whom he is ap- pointed to minister.
"Dear brothers and friends, I know that on an accasion like this I ought to be speaking in more formal way and one more to edification. I find that now I am close to the end of my discourse that I have been all this time writing even without a text. I know there is enough to be said, much that ought to be said in the way of criticism, of encouragement, of exhortation, yes of reproof and grave rebuke. But I have not fallen into that vein. Only by an effort now could I throw myself into. I should scarcely exhort now or rebuke with simplicity or affect. It has been a pleasure to me to recall in what I am conscious is a very rambling and loose way these 10 years of ministry in a parish that any man might be glad to serve.
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CHAPTER XI
PART II 1877 - 1919
What of the next 42 years? For Dr. Locke tied in length of service the 52 years of the first John Usher. This brief sketch is not a history of our times. Too many people are still in this world who remember Dr. Locke to look upon his rectorship as of the times of John Usher, Bishop Griswold and Mr. Bristed. The writer of this story of St. Michael's Church in Bristol was himself Dr. Locke's curate from 1911 to 1913, at the time of the building of the chantry, now the choir room, and is today still connected with the church. Therefore, this PART II must be brief and to the point, indulging in no fictitious fancies.
The XIX century showed a marvellous expansion of the American Episcopal Church. Native churches in communion with Washington and Canterbury were established in China, Japan and the Philippines. Cathedrals started building, and parish churches were set up where the Episcopal Church had never been known. Seminaries were crowded and revisions of the Prayer Book took place more in harmony with the old book of the Church of Eng- land as for instance the restoration of the Magnificat in Evening Prayer. Ritual movements started up to receive much condemna- tion in official quarters, but finally to triumph. With the spread of Darwinism the Church had to return to the Early Church in order to combat fundamentalism on one side and liberalism on the other. The result was a stable and orthodox Christianity which heretics and fundamentalists tried in vain to destroy. Biblical criticism, which simply meant Biblical research, soon brought to light the difference between truth and legend. The historical ac- curacy of the first chapters of Genesis did not bring into question the doctrine of the Incarnation. A child in Sunday School could now learn that the days of creation were not days of 24 hours.
Where in all this did Dr. Locke stand? He stood where a great Bible scholar would stand, not questioning the Creeds of the Church, nor obsessed with verbal inspiration. In regard to the. doctrine of the Church, he was to some of us less satisfactory. While recognizing the growth of Anglo - Catholicism, he was
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even willing to have as his first curate a young man who was considered very "high church", and to allow him to establish an Early Service for every Sunday, and to abstain from being pres- ent at the evening celebration of the Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday. With the ornaments of the Lord's Table, a cross and flowers, he was content, and would not have been altogether in sympathy with the many candles on the Altar today. Changes came about of which he was aware, as of the almost universal introduction of colored stoles. Whether he approved or disapprov- ed would to him be a matter of small importance. Like Galileo "he cared for none of these things."
What Dr. Locke cared for all his life was the spiritual life of his parishioners. That was his big concern. Were it not for the devoted energy and great efficiency of his daughter, Mrs. Wallis Howe, the Rector might never have had a curate, even towards the end of his life he would not relinquish any work his con- science told him to do. At times much to the consternation of his curates. That he was the pastor of Bristol, beloved by many outside his own Church, is still well remembered. That he was a great hospital visitor with a wonderful knowledge of medicine, often doing chores that a nurse would be expected to do, gave him a unique place in the community. Caring for the souls en- trusted to his charge, he never regarded a funeral as a routine matter, but said one day sadly to the writer: "Bertie, if all the dead of St. Michael's Church whom I have buried came to life and entered the church, there would not be room enough to get them into the building."
The easy optimism with its slogan of material progress in the nation and the world was rudely shaken by the First World War. Just previous to that time Dr. Locke had been served by the Rev. John Gardner of Providence, a priest lately returned from the Missionary District of Oklahoma, and who in spite of being crippled did a valiant work for St. Michael's. Mr. Gardner was succeeded by the Rev. Anson B. Howard, a former Baptist minis- ter, under instruction for Holy Orders in the Church. Mr. Howard took up his residence in the Rectory, while Dr. Locke settled per- manently in the house of his daughter and son-in-law, on Wood- lawn Avenue. Here on March 23rd, 1919, the old Rector was called by God to the life of the world to come, and shortly afterwards a beautiful cross was erected in his memory, and the ground be- tween Holmes House and the church became known as the Locke
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Close. A fitting memorial indeed, as is also the life-like bas-relief in the church, to one who like Sir Christopher Wren of St. Paul's Cathedral could say, "If you want a memorial of me, look around."
The following prayer from the Book of Common Prayer was printed in "Life" in its "Special Issue Christianity" -
A PRAYER FOR OUR COUNTRY
Almighty God, who has given us this good land for our heri- tage; we humbly beseech thee that we may always prove our- selves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning and pure man- ners. Save us from violence, discord and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of govern- ment, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. by the Rev. George Lyman Locke
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CHAPTER XII
ANSON B. HOWARD 1919-1929
This clergyman was a very quiet man. He was a mystic by nature. He was a great student, and spent hours reading in his study until early morning. He seemed by some to be not of this world, but as one of the saints of old. Mr. Howard had a deeply sympathetic nature, and is remembered with much affection by his friends. He felt that the care of St. Michael's parish in his old age was too heavy a burden for him to carry and finally resigned the charge, to take the rectorship of a small parish in a mill vil- lage-Emmanuel Church, Manville, R. I. He died Nov. 19, 1950.
ANTHONY R. PARSHLEY 1929-1947
About this time Bishop Perry directed that all the rectors of colonial churches were to be honorary canons of the Cathedral of St. John. So Canon Parshley comes upon the scene. Had St. Michael's Church been the cathedral of the Diocese, there could hardly have been better community, fraternal, military and ec- clesiastical services than were held in St. Michael's during this rectorship. Canon Parshley was a public figure, not only in the Church but in the State as well. He made many friends in the parish and in the town, and he resigned to become Archdeacon of the Diocese of Rhode Island. He is now on the Diocesan staff working among the young people just as he did while at St. Michael's. He is also administrator of the Episcopal Conference Center at Pascoag, managing editor of the Rhode Island Church- man, and Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Pawtuck- et. Still wherever he is his heart will always be in St. Michael's, for he is one of us.
DANIEL K. DAVIS 1947-1954
Canon Davis had been a chaplain in the Navy during the Second World War, and when he came to St. Michael's he showed much interest and skill in handling young people. The 9:30 Holy Communion Service, which his predecessor had inaugurated,
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became a great power in the parish, especially with the youth. He is remembered affectionately by many of the girls and boys of the Conference Center at Pascoag, where he was director and chaplain of the camps under Canon Parshley. Canon Davis re- ceived a call to be Rector of St. Paul's Church, Brockton, Massa- chusetts, a large parish, and went there in 1954.
We have now come to the end of our story. Nobody could be more aware of its deficiencies than is the writer. Much has been left out that could have been put in, especially as regards the persecution of Church people by the Puritans in Bristol in the first half of the XVIII century - imprisonment for taxes unpaid to support the Puritan minister. Much happened between the rectorship of Mr. Bristed and the fire of 1858. Then too, there is too little attention given to the wardens and members of the ves- tries in recent times. However, the intention was to write the story of certain rectors of the church, that judging by them their influence would be felt by the parishioners. St. Michael's is an old and honorable parish and has been well served from 1720-1955 by its 14 clergy, and by its distinguished sons and daughters in Church and State.
Missionaries and Rectors of St. Michael's Church in Bristol:
James Orem
1720-1721
John Usher
1722-1775
John Usher, Jr.
1793-1804
Abraham L .Clarke, Assistant
1800-1803
Alexander Viets Griswold
1803-1830
John Bristed
1830-1843
James W. Cooke
1844-1850
Joseph Trapnell, Jr.
1852-1857
William Stowe
1857-1865
L. P. W. Balch, D.D.
1865-1866
George L. Locke, D.D.
1867-1919
Anson B. Howard
1914-1928
Anthony R. Parshley
1929-1947
Daniel K. Davis
1947-1954
Delbert W. Tildesley
1954-
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