USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Arlington > St. James' Episcopal Church, Arlington, Vermont : a sketch of the birth and growth of Saint James' Parish, the oldest parish in the diocese of Vermont, together with brief sketches of the lives of the bishops of the diocese and of the rectors of St. James' Parish > Part 10
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After all is said and done, it is more in the unexpected encounters everyday life, the peculiar opportunities, seldom twice alike, of hum relations, that religion shows best and brightest.
In these unpredictable situations, more than in the formal meetir. and proceedings of organizations, the spirit of brotherhood and lovin kindness which the Church labors to produce, bears its holy fruit.
In a recent book, "Nothing Ever Happens," by Dorothy Canfie Fisher and Sarah Cleghorn, the title story, by Mrs. Fisher, illustrates tl point at once quaintly, amusingly and touchingly.
And it so happens that this delightful tale is an actual inciden drawn straight out of the everyday life of St. James' Parish sor seventy-five years ago.
For these reasons, and because it took place in the Church itself. introduce it here as the ending of the mosaic I have been able to pie together with such skillful help about women's work in St. Jam Parish.
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NOTHING EVER HAPPENS By DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER *
We live-and as my father used to say laughingly we have lived for last hundred and seventy-five years-in a pleasant, long valley in chul: Green Mountains with fields and roads and stone walls and farm- ofbases and villages on the lowest slopes, and forests above them. It is 1)xquiet and out of the way of the stirring modern world that visitors okpen say, looking around them, "Well, it certainly looks as though wmmching had ever happened here!" And in a way-from the city point map:view-they're right, we never have had anything happen that would cf in the newsreel of a movie. So when city visitors say that to us, we it nod and let it go. e
But really from our country point of view, lots of things have hhopened, things we're proud of, though they're not much to tell, things v're ashamed of, things that make us laugh when we think of them, intings that make us hang our heads. Here's a sample. See what you tnk of it.
ren Many years ago when my Great-grandmother was a brisk little old chvman, she heard that on one of the mountain farms "way up in a nblow" of the mountain, the farmer's wife was so timid she never came redwn to the village to buy things or to go to church, because she was a 'aid people would laugh at her. Her mother had been an Indian, and ent :: skin was very dark; and they were plain people with very little money, and she didn't think her clothes were good enough to go to curch. And now she'd stayed away from people so long that she was etijot shy-the way a deer is shy-and felt "queer" and went into the vihuse quickly and hid, if a stranger, even one, happened to stop at the .f.m.
nf : My Great-grandmother no sooner heard that, than she got into the sabttered little old phaeton she used to drive around in and had a boy c ve her to the other end of the valley and up the long, steep, narrow iderid to the Hunter farm. Mrs. Hunter was hanging out her clothes on sote line when Great-grandmother drove into the yard and before she cald dodge away and hide, Great-grandmother hopped out of the low, ellele carriage and said, "Here, let me help you!" and in a minute, with pie: mouth full of clothespins, she was standing by Mrs. Hunter pinning ar sheets and towels and men's shirts. "My, how clean you get them!" : said mumblingly around the clothespins. "They're as white as tw milk! What kind of soap do you use?"
* The first chapter of "Nothing Ever Happens" by Dorothy Canfield Fisher and ah Cleghorn. Publishers: The Unitarian Society, Beacon Press, Boston.
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By the time they got the big basket of wet clothes all hung up, dark-skinned, black-haired mountain woman couldn't feel shy of M quick-stepping little old woman from the valley and they had pleasant time talking in the kitchen as they washed the breakfast dis Fut Rest ear and sat down together to the basket of mending. The question of go to church came up, Great-grandmother asked to see the coat and Mrs. Hunter had, said they were just as good as hers, every bit, ¿ before the old visitor had gone, Mrs. Hunter said she would go to chu. 1 Tel the next Sunday, if she could go with Great-grandmother and sit 1 ;we the same pew with her.
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"Yes, indeed," said Great-grandmother. "I'll be waiting for you , the the front porch of our house with my daughter and my little grai daughter, and we'll all walk across to church together." For Gre grandmother lived just across from the church.
So sure enough the next Sunday there was Great-grandmother a her young-lady daughter and her little-girl granddaughter, all in th best Sunday dresses and bonnets, their prayer books in their han smiling at Mrs. Hunter as Mr. Hunter drove her up in the lumberi old farm-wagon which was the only way the Hunters had to get aroui Mrs. Hunter had a bonnet on over her sleek black hair, and her da face was all creased with those nice smile-wrinkles, as she climbed c on the hitching block and started up the front walk to the house. was a cool day, she had put on a warm cloak, her shoes were shined, a (she was a real country-woman whose idea of dressing up was a p fectly fresh, clean apron), she had put on a big blue checked-gingha apron, nicely starched, over her coat, and tied the strings in the bad
My aunt, who was Great-grandmother's granddaughter, and w was the little girl on the front porch that day, used to tell me, wher was a little girl, about what happened next. She said she and } young-lady aunt were so astonished to see a woman with a big apr on, over her coat, that their eyes opened wide, wide, and they we just ready to put their hands up to their mouths to hide a laugh, wh Great-grandmother said, briskly, as she always spoke, "Well, gir would you believe it! We've forgotten to put our aprons on. Ju excuse us a minute, Mrs. Hunter, and we'll be right with you." A1 then she hustled them into the house, and-although they kept sayis it was "terrible"- she made them put gingham aprons on over the coats, and she herself put on the biggest one she had and tied t. strings in a bow-knot behind, and they sailed across to church, all fo of them, aproned from chin to hem, and went to church that way, wi Great-grandmother looking so hard at anybody with a surprised expre sion that people soon got the idea and even the children stopped gigglin
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After the service, everybody came to shake hands in a friendly way h Mrs. Hunter (they knew Great-grandmother would have a thing two to say to them if they didn't), and said they were glad to see out at church. And after that Mrs. Hunter came every Sunday, rest of her life-without an apron, for Great-grandmother negli- ntly let fall, some time the next week, that it wasn't really necessary wear them on Sundays.
chole: Well, we laugh over that story, but we're really very proud of it. d stød we were prouder yet when long, long after Great-grandmother and s. Hunter were both in the old Burying Ground with tombstones youper their graves, we saw another little incident that would make you genk that, when once such a thing happened in a place, the very place Gtielf is different, almost as if one action could make a natural channel ang which other actions like it could flow more easily. And of course her what is so, it makes a great difference what kind of channels get made irany town.
It was this way. One of the families in our town was very, very nbergor. The father had died, the mother was sick, the five children arons atched along as best they could, with what help the neighbors could er ogre them. But they had to go without things that you'd think were ed asolutely necessary.
Ise. Not only did they never have good "dress-up" clothes, but they d,Ever even had new work-clothes. They wore things that other people and given up because they were too ragged. Their mother, sitting up nghi bed, patched them as best she could, and the children wore them. baThen the oldest boy-he was a thin little fellow about fourteen years drol-got a chance to go to work for a farmer around the mountain whatom us, he had nothing at all to wear but a very old shirt, and some ad fled and much-patched blue denim overalls, and his thick work-shoes.
The farmer and his wife had never seen anybody in such poor vrking-clothes (although they never dreamed this was all the new bed boy had), and on Saturday when the farmer's wife went to the lage to sell some eggs, she bought young David a brand new pair of bie jeans, so stiff they could almost stand alone-you know how band new overalls look. The next day at breakfast they said they Tre going to church, and wouldn't David like to go along. Yes, ideed he would! So they all went off to their rooms to get into their tenday clothes. The farmer was dressed first, and was sitting by the d dio trying to get the time signals to set his watch, when David walked
His hair was combed slick and smooth with lots of water, his avy work shoes were blacked, his face was as clean as a china plate. xpand he had on those stiff, new, blue jeans, looking as though they gliare made out of blue stovepipe.
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The farmer opened his mouth to say, "You'll be late if you do : get dressed for church. We're almost ready to start," when he s David's face. It was shining with happy pride in the first new clot. 3 he had ever owned. He looked down at the blue jeans with a brol smile, he ran his hand lovingly over their stiffness, he looked up at i: farmer and said, gratefully, "Land! I'm so much obliged to you :: getting me these new clothes in time to go to church in them."
The farmer sort of coughed, got out his handkerchief, blew his nc, and said, "Wait a minute," and went to take off his own nice b. t. serge suit and put on a pair of blue jeans. Then he and David walk ! into church together, and sat in the same pew, and sang out of 1: same hymn-book, and-though they neither of them ever said a wc to me about it-I'm pretty sure from the peaceful, happy expressi on their faces, that they never enjoyed any church service better, in their lives after that.
So when visitors from the city say, "goodness, how quiet the 1 up here in the mountains is! Looks as though nothing had ever happen here since the Year One," we think "Well, now that depends on wł you mean by 'happen.'"
Note .- Mrs. Fisher's great-grandmother was Mrs. Nathaniel Canfield, who wa Miss Hawley, coming of a family noted for their devotion to the church.
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CHAPTER TEN
St. James' Parish During the Episcopate of the Right Reverend Arthur Crawshay Alliston Hall, D.D.
SPECIAL Convention of the Diocese was held at St. Paul's Church, Burlington, June twenty-two, 1893, for the election of a Bishop to succeed the Right Reverend William Henry Augustus Bissell, D.D. A che PP
Twenty-seven clergymen were present and thirty-three parishes vre represented by the laity.
The Rev. Dr. J. Isham Bliss, Rector of St. Paul's Church, Burling- ta, and President of the Standing Committee, was the presiding officer ( the Convention, and Mr. Thomas H. Canfield was elected Secretary.
After an address by the Rev. Dr. Bliss, the Convention proceeded to te election of a bishop.
The roll of the clergy and laity was called and it was found that von the fourth ballot the Rev. Samuel Hart, D.D., of the Diocese of Onnecticut and Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, ld been elected.
After the singing of the Gloria in Excelsis and closing prayers the Onvention adjourned.
A special Convention of the Diocese was held at St. Paul's Church, arlington, on Wednesday, August thirty, 1893.
This Convention was called in response to a summons of the Stand- ig Committee as follows:
"To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of Vermont:
"At a meeting of the Standing Committee held on the fifth day of ly, 1893, it was moved:
"Whereas, the Rev. Samuel Hart, D.D., recently elected Bishop by e Convention of this Diocese, has declined said election,
"Resolved, That in accordance with Title 1, Canon 8, Sec. 4, iocesan Canons, a special Convention of this Diocese be called to meet St. Paul's Church, Burlington, on Wednesday the thirtieth day of
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August next at 11 o'clock A.M. to elect a Bishop in place of Will Henry Augustus Bissell, D.D., deceased,
"Therefore, I, J. Isham Bliss, the President of the Standing Co mittee, do hereby summon a Special Convention of this Diocese to n at the time and place aforesaid.
J. ISHAM BLISS."
The Convention was then organized, twenty-seven clergyr being present, and thirty-five parishes being represented by the La and proceeded to the election.
The roll of the Clergy and Laity was called and it was found t upon the second ballot the Rev. Arthur C. A. Hall, M.A., of Diocese of Massachusetts had received a majority of votes of ba orders and was therefore elected Bishop.
The Rev. George Lynde Richardson, D.D., in his biograp "Arthur C. A. Hall, Third Bishop of Vermont" has the following fas of interest in regard to the election of Bishop Hall :*
"Father Hall's friend, Mr. Charles E. Graves, of New Haven, C. necticut, treasurer of Trinity College, Hartford, and a devout chur man, was allied with Vermont by many ties, and it happened that i- mediately after Dr. Hart's declination, his sisters, Mrs. E. L. Temple, Rutland, and Mrs. W. H. Collins, wife of the Rector of Saint Michae Brattleboro, were visiting him.
"Mr. Graves asked who would be chosen as Bishop of Vermont, al when they replied that there seemed to be no one in view, he said t he had heard that Father Hall, who had been so successful in Bost would welcome an opportunity to return to New England, and su gested that his name should be put forward.
"Mrs. Collins was so impressed by the possibility that she te graphed to her husband and Mrs. Temple communicated in the sa way with Mr. Temple, who was at the time treasurer of the Diocese Massachusetts and a layman of wide influence.
"These two men undertook to consult with the leaders among clergy and lay people as to the possibilities of such a choice.
"There were, of course, objections.
"Mr. Temple used to say that when he first suggested the idea was sure of being met by one of three objections.
"Some people said, 'You can't elect him.' Others said: "The Cow Fathers will not release him'-while others declared that the 'Standi Committee would never confirm the election.' It proved, howev that no one of them was right. Father Hall was elected on the seco
* Arthur C. A. Hall, Third Bishop of Vermont," by the Rev. George Ly Richardson. Houghton Mifflin & Co.
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ott. His reply to the committee that notified him of his election v .; that his acceptance must wait upon the action of the Society of 3 Cht John the Evangelist and the Standing Committee in America, but tomlied that, if this action were favorable he would accept.
"It was not until October that the Chapter was held in Cowley, 1. when the question was submitted as to whether or not Father Hall Fuld be released in the event that his election was confirmed, there w; but one dissenting vote. It was felt that Vermont was truly a r sionary field and one to which the life of a member of the Order ght fitly be devoted.
"Father Hall then accepted the election in the following letter:
"Saint John's House, Oxford. October 3, 1893.
ethren:
"I am now able to declare my readiness to accept the office to which Il Diocese of Vermont has chosen me, provided, of course, that the .elction receives the confirmation required by the Canons. You will hue don the delay since my acknowledgment of your notification of the al:tion. This was unavoidable. Besides the time required for my own Busideration of the very important question, a Chapter of the Brother- inod could not be held to consider the subject of my release until there been opportunity to communicate with members at a distance.
nt, id "All has now been done in conformity with the Statutes, and the iety of Saint John the Evangelist, with the concurrence of the Bishop Oxford as Visitor, has formally released me from all obligations to dil community, that I may be free to accept your call.
"Begging your prayers that all may be for the glory of God and the god of His Church,
"I am, your faithful servant in Christ, ARTHUR C. A. HALL."
The services at the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Arthur Crawshay ngeiston Hall, D.D., as third Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont, were d in St. Paul's Church, Burlington, on February second, 1894, the st of the Purification.
The services began with a celebration of the Holy Communion at 0 A.M. with the Rev. William H. Collins, Rector of St. Michael's oCurch, Brattleboro, as Celebrant, and with the Rev. Canon J. B. anEvidson of the Diocese of Montreal, Canada, as Epistoler, and the weRv. Henry M. Tarberl of St. Stephen's Church, Boston, Massachusetts, Gospeler.
The consecration service was held at 11 o'clock, with the following Ehops officiating:
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The Consecrator, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Henry Adams Neeley, Bishop Maine, acting for the Presiding Bishop of the Church; the Co-Conse tors, the Rt. Rev. Dr. William Woodruff Niles, Bishop of New Har shire and the Rt. Rev. Dr. William Lawrence, Bishop of Massachuse the Presenting Bishops, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Leighton Coleman, Bishop Delaware and the Rt. Rev. Charles C. Grafton, Bishop of Fond du ]
The Epistle was read by the Bishop of Fond du Lac; the Gospel the Archbishop of Ontario, the Rt. Rev. John T. Lewis; the sermon preached by the Bishop of Delaware.
The Presbyters in attendance on the bishop-elect were the F Dr. J. Isham Bliss, of the Diocese of Vermont, and the Rev. Dr. Lu Waterman, of the Diocese of New Hampshire.
The Rev. George Y. Bliss acted as Bishop Neeley's Chaplain and Rev. William Farrar Weeks as Master of Ceremonies.
Bishop Coleman's sermon was a scholarly discourse which emp sized that a great trust was committed to our branch of Christ's Chul when in the language uniformly found in the royal charters laid u those who applied for them, is enjoined "the duty of evangelizing new world."
In 1853 Sir Humphrey Gilbert's proposed expedition was co mended to the English people as having as its chief object: "the . riage of God's Word into those mighty and vast countries."
It was the faith of the Church of England, he said, that was che in those early days to be God's instrument for evangelizing the M World. Yet for two whole centuries this Church lived in this coun Episcopal only in name, with no adequate means of propagating faith. Fidelity to the principles underlying the Episcopate fin gained its own reward in the establishment of Episcopal governmen the United States.
"To the number of those who have been charged with this sold trust on behalf of Christ's Church, is added one who has been trai under the best of instructors and one who is well fitted to be an end ing link between the venerated mother and daughter, as loyal as any has ever borne."
Bishop Hall presided over the 104th annual Convention of Diocese which was held at St. Luke's Church, St. Albans, June se 1894. A brief outline of the first convention address of Bishop I will reveal some of the working principles which guided him in administration of the affairs of the Diocese, and also point out secret of his rare leadership.
"No reasonable person," he said, "will imagine that developn involves identity of method."
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The same principles under different circumstances and at different s will be manifest in varying forms, and each man, be he Bishop ciest, must seek to be his best self, not a poor reproduction of some decessor, and to use his gifts, whatever they may be, for the up- odling of the work which is entrusted to him for a time."
As to Lay Readers Bishop Hall felt that without this help many of congregations would have suffered badly, yet he feared a danger multa permitted use should become an abuse.
"he Canons of the general Church carefully guard the sanction hh they give to the ministrations of Lay Readers.
. They must receive a formal and written license from the Bishop le Diocese.
. Where there is a Rector such license is only to be given on his est and recommendation.
. This license can only be given for a definite period, in no case er than a year, at the end of which time it may be formally renewed. . The license is given for a particular place.
. A Lay Reader is always to work under direction, either of the ister in Charge or of the Bishop.
. This applies to the sermons he reads to the congregation.
. A special license is required from the Bishop to authorize the Reader to deliver addresses of his own.
t is a distinct abuse, he maintained, that a Parish or Mission should charge of a Lay Reader.
ng 'he reason is, he said, that apart from the probable injury to the g man, without the grace and responsibility of Holy Orders, the ice tends to lower the whole conception of the pastoral office, too understood among our people generally, as if the chief work of the soy was to conduct services and to deliver sermons, instead of being rating the words of Richard Hooker) "spiritual and ghostly physi- na, the guides and pastors of redeemed souls, whose office doth not consist in general persuasiveness to amendment of life, but also in rivate, particular cure of diseased minds."
is to the celebration of Holy Communion the Bishop said we should re of anything that tends to sanction the idea that the Sacrament ur Lord's Body and Blood is an occasional rite for specially devout ns, an addition to the regular Sunday morning service, rather than normal and central act of the Church's approach to God, the s Service for the Lord's Day, without taking part in which no tive Christian would have been considered to have properly kept ay.
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"So far as I know," said Bishop Hall, "there are only ten parish the Diocese with a regular weekly celebration of the Holy Commu "I trust that before long every parish will have a Sunday Euch or at least that every priest will celebrate within the limits of his each Sunday, either at an earlier hour or at the forenoon service. practice of celebrating the Holy Communion in the afternoon 1 mission stations at a distance from the central church, I cannot prove, as we should avoid anything that would seem to show ou difference to truly Catholic tradition."
The counsel of the Bishop here given in both these matters wasn doubtedly at variance with much of the practice of those days, bu h leadership was strong and as the years passed these vigorously ut teachings resulted in the establishment of a normal rule for the dics
As to vested choirs Bishop Hall was not so successful in opp what had become a prevailing custom in the American Epis pa Church. Of women in vestments he said: "I cannot think that novelty of 'vested female choristers,' at any rate of girls dressed up boys is at all to be commended. I have no sort of objection to girl women singing in church; nor should I seriously object to the fee choristers wearing a distinctive dress, if this be thought necessa! e. desirable, but then let the garb be feminine; to adopt what by td. tion is a species of male ecclesiastical attire-cassock, cotta and c. seems to me a great mistake, giving in the church apparent counter ... to the idle but mischievous attempt of some to obliterate the distinc between the sexes, whereas our real aim should be in all ways to e both man and woman to be their very best, each according to kind."
"Christian education according to the principles of the Chu the Bishop said, "has been from the beginning a conspicuous featu least in the ideal of the Diocese of Vermont.
"Our two schools must be a subject of deep and anxious intere a new Bishop.
"Both have done good work in the past. For myself, I shall n content until they are placed on a more truly diocesan basis; the f cial responsibility and so the real management being shouldered b: Trustees; and the charges so reduced that we may not be out of of the average Vermont boys and girls, for whose education, rather of pupils from a distance, the Schools are primarily intended.
"To attain both of these objects Endowments are necessary. for help of this kind, even in comparatively small sums, I would earnestly plead."
During the Episcopate of Bishop Hall the following clerg served as Rectors of St. James' Parish:
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The. Rev. James Curtiss Carnahan (1894-97)
The Rev. Henry B. Ensworth (1897-99)
The Rev. S. Halsted Watkins (1900-04) The Rev. Alfred Taylor (1905-11)
The Rev. W. M. Warlow (1911-15) The Rev. VanRennselaer Gibson (1917-18)
The Rev. Sherwood Roosevelt (1918-23)
The Rev. John Mills Gilbert (1923-25)
The Rev. George Robert Brush (1926-39)
At a meeting of the Vestry of St. James' Church held on September th, 1893, a call was extended to the Rev. James Curtiss Carnahan VyfGeneva, New York, to the rectorship of the parish with salary at the e dræ: of $700 a year and the use of the parsonage.
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