The parish; its life, its organization, its teaching mission, and its divine contacts; a handbook for the clergy and laity

Dedication

/ TO

L The Rt. Rev. Arthur Selden Lloyd, D.D.,

who, through the years in which he served as the President of the Board of Missions, while helping to lead the Church into the more perfect organization which now exists, ever sought to develop loyalty and devotion to the Church as the Body of Christ, a living and life-giving organism, called and commissioned by the Incarnate One to give the revelation of the Father to all His Children, that they might find freedom and the more abundant life.

Introduction

burden but a relief. It is a labor-saving device. This, however, does not mean that it is a means by which a lazy rector can shift personal responsibility from himself to a machine. It is not calculated to shorten his eight-hour day, but rather to enable him to use it to better advantage. Only the diligent can make effective use of organization. What is proposed in these pages is intended to aid men who are already bent on using their vitality up to the hilt, to use it effectively and economically. The author wisely emphasizes the teaching mission of the Church. We who have been taught from seminary days the truths of the Faith are easily blind to the fact that those whom we address from our pulpits have not had our advantages, and that what they need chiefly is not moral reflections or ardent exhortations but simple instruction in all that is vital to the religion of Jesus Christ. Both in pulpit and classroom the Church to-day has need of systematic, definite instruction. The commissioned teacher has authority to say things with distinctness. His personal experience equips h im to say repeatedly with St. John : "T know," "TTe know." Without this there can be no spiritual progress in a parish. Church schools are improving and week-day religious instruction for children is slowly gaining public approval. But adults are in danger of being left to starve.

Dr. Goodwin sees all this clearly, and his book is designed to aid men who, in the loneliness and isolation of country cures or the weary bustle of the city parishes, need such a mentor and stimulus as this book provides. I thank him for giving it to us, and trust that it will have wide — I will not say "reading" but — study.

25 October, 1920. Charles Henry Brent,

Bishop of Western New York.

Contents

Page Introduction by the Rt. Rev. Charles H. Brent,

D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Western New York vii

CHAPTER II The Organization of the Parish ----- 11 Diagram. The Parish Organization

The Parish as it is now Organized. The New Plan of Parish Organization. The Central or Parish Executive Council. The Coordinating Committee.

The Church Service League.

The Woman's Branch of the Church Service League. Young People's Church Service League. The Parish Group Organization.

(a) The Group Organization for Instruction.

(b) The Group Organization and Service.

(c) Men's Units of the Group Organization.

( d ) Group Organization in the Country Parish.

(e) Group Secretaries.

(f) Representatives of United Offering and Little

Helpers.

(g) The Permanent Every-Member Canvass Com-

mittee.

xi

(h) What can we give people to do? (i) Avoiding Group Isolation.

CHAPTER in

The Teaching Mission of the Church.

A. The Divine Commission and the Church's

Responsibility -------- 41

The Religious Education of the Young.

Week-day Religious Education.

The Young People's Service of Worship.

The Extension of the Church Teaching System.

When Part of the Parish Goes off to School.

The Family Altar.

Group Class Instruction.

The Church Newspaper.

B. Teaching the Fundamentals - - - - 56

Diagram.

The Incarnation.

Sacrifice.

Eternal Life Now and Hereafter.

The Holy Spirit and the Mission of the Church.

C. The Great Essentials 63

Holy Baptism.

The Holy Communion.

The Approach.

The Scripture Witness.

The Holy Mystery.

Holy Orders.

The Holy Bible. (A contribution by the Rt. Rev. David L. Ferris, D.D., Suffragan Bishop of Western New York.) Faith.

Prayer.

Other Essentials.

Holy Matrimony.

xii

Contents

CHAPTEE IV

Church Teaching and the Reconstruction

Problem 87

The call for a radical application of conservative fundamental Truth.

CHAPTER V The Pastor and His People 96

CHAPTER VI Parish Harmony Notes --------- 107

CHAPTER VII

Church Attendance and Loyalty.

Nine Reasons for Attending Churchy by Theodore

Roosevelt.

The Catholic Liturgy and Catholic-mindedness. Service.

Christian Stewardship.

The Stewardship Account Book.

In Conclusion.

What the Congregation may expect of the Vestry. What the Vestry may expect of the Congregation. Subjects Suggested for the use of Group Classes. What the Department of Religious Education may ask of

the Parish.

What the Department of Social Service may ask of the

Parish.

What the Department of Missions may ask of the Parish. The Church Newspapers. (Subscription price and address.) Lists of Books Suggested for Reading.

xiu

CHAPTER I

The Church as a Living Organism

The Recorded Revelation

Eph. 1 : 22, 23. The Church is His Body, the fulness

of Him who filleth all in all.

Eph. 5: 23. Christ is the Head of the Church.

Col. 1: 18. Christ is the Head of the Body, the

Church.

Col. 2: 9, 10. In Christ dwelleth all the fulness of

the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.

Eph. 1 : 10. That in the dispensation of the ful-

ness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.

Eph. 4: 11-13. He gave some, apostles, . . . for the

building up of the body of Christ.

Rom. 12: 5. So we, being many, are one body in

Christ, and every one members one of another.

1 Cor. 12: 27. Now ye are the body of Christ.

1 Cor. 6: 19. Know ye not that your body is the

temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? . . . therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God's.

St. John 15: 5. I am the vine, ye are the branches.

Acts 1: 8. Ye shall be witnesses unto me. (Read

St. Matt. 28: 18-20. And Jesus said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you alway,

EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE AGES.

The Church as a Living Organism The Church is the body of Christ. When this is said we are not using a figure of speech. We are stating a fact. The Church exists because the Son of God came to earth on a mission which has not been completed. The method of His manifestation and ministry was, and still is, the Incarnation. He was "made man". In and through our nature He revealed God. He said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." The Gospels tell us what "He began to do and teach". It was but a beginning. He founded and commissioned His Church to carry on the mission for which he became and remains Incarnate. The Acts of the Apostles is the first book of Church history, and is also the continuation of the Gospel history of Jesus. He did not go away. He became invisible in His Church, and the Acts of the Apostles and the Christlike acts of all Christians are the acts of the invisible but ever present Christ, who lives and works in His Body, the Church, to continue what He "began to do and teach", that all men might come to see and know their Father.

The Church as a Living Organism

"God is Love." Because His love is universal, the Body in which He chooses to express and reveal His love must be a Catholic Body with a Catholic mission. It must be designed for and related to all men everywhere. The heart of God can not be satisfied until the hand and voice of His Body reaches not only His nearest but His farthest child. The Father can not be fully known by any of His children until He is known by and revealed through all of them. To make Him known and loved everywhere that His will may be done upon earth as it is done in Heaven is the mission of the Church.

The Christ, who is the Head of the Church, in calling us to be members of His Body reveals a divine love and an infinite patience. He knows what is in man. He knows the coldness of the human heart, the slowness of the human mind, and man's self-will. Xevertheless, He has chosen and called us to be the Body in which He dwells and upon which He depends. Because He loves us, He patiently works through us that we may share His Sonship and become partakers of the divine nature. Thus He brings "many sons into the glory of His perfect life".

Because the Church is His Body it is a living organism. The Churchman should never let the organization side of the Church's life make him forget this. The organization must serve the organism. It must have a corporate Christ consciousness. The members of every Church organization should ever remember that they are simply seeking to function through the organization as members of the organism which is Christ's living Body. The organizations in the Church can help make this truth vital and real by loyalty to the great fundamental teachings of the Church through individual and corporate obedience to the call of Christ to His Body to follow Him and share in His experiences.

This call of the Father comes to us over and over again in the round of the Christian Year.

(a) In Advent we are reminded that the Christ is ever coming more fully into His Body and into His Kingdom, and the voice that spoke to the Virgin speaks to us also, asking for our humanity for the incarnation of God. Every organization of women should observe the season by quiet hours and a corporate Communion.

(b) Christmas calls us to Bethlehem, but it calls us also to a great consecration. There are palaces and homes still fast closed to Him who is ever seeking to be born in human hearts. Too often still "there is no room for Him". Organizations which repair the church and sew garments, but which hear not the angel message and music all through the year calling life to adoration, may fill up time but fail to fulfill a worth-while purpose. They sometimes offer material and mechanical substitutes for that service and fellowship which would enrich the soul and build up the Body of Christ.

(c) Epiphany calls for a continuous manifestation

of His indwelling Presence. It reminds us that we are "His witnesses". It speaks to the human of a divine stewardship. It points to the tern-

The Church as a Living Organism

pies of the Holy Ghost and bids us keep the windows clean that the Light of the world may not be hidden by the darkness of self -indulgence.

(d) Lent calls us to come apart into a solitary place. It seeks to make better known the truth that makes us free. It is the call of the Church to meditation, study, self-examination, and selfmastery, and asks of us the denial of self for the enrichment of self and the life of the world. It sometimes happens that the organizations in a parish are so blinded to the nature of the Church as an organism that even Lent makes no change in their formal mechanical programme; and, without study classes, and without corporate Communions, they go on serving and meeting ; doing things which add to the finances and the annual report but leave the spiritual life of the organization and the parish unenriched by any new vision and without the inspiration and power which comes from close and conscious communion with Christ in study, in prayer, and in Eucharist.

(e) Good-Friday. This is the deepest and highest call of the Father to the heart of humanity. It is, however, the call to which man is most insensible and least responsive. The cross still "Towers o'er the wrecks of time", and the wreckage has been much greater of late because of man's unsubdued selfishness and uncrucified "will to power". The home, the State, and international goodwill and world peace are all cross-shadowed. They are not placed in right relation to this one supreme symbol of victory. Behind or at the foot of the cross are the gloom and despair and degradation of self-seeking and rebellion. Lifted up upon it they will catch the gleam and glory of the Life that conquered. They have not the faith for the great adventure. They have not the courage to follow their Master. Until the day dawns when a newvisioned faith will inspire in men the courage to hear and answer the call of the Father to follow after the Son of God in the path of life which leads over Calvary and through crucifixion to the more abundant life, there will be divorce and industrial discord, and international hatred, covetousness, greed, and war. The Cross marks the only road to peace. From the altar it seeks, too often in vain, to speak to the Church. When its meaning there is seen and its call answered, the organization becomes an organism, for through death Christ's Body still passes into new and higher manifestations of life.

(f) Easter bears perennial witness to the Church that her Lord and Master is the Incarnate, Living Christ. It witnesses to the fact that "God hath already given unto us Eternal Life and that this Life is in His Son." As Christmas speaks of the mobilizing of the members into His Body, as Lent calls the mobilized body into the training camp, Easter points to the

The Church as a Living Organism

heavenly armor, the panoply of the divine equipment.

(g) Ascension Day points to the divine and victorious Leader who promises "all power" and an "Ever Presence". He is at the head of the army. It is His cause. It cannot fail.

(h) Whitsuxday says to the mobilized, trained and equipped, and divinely led body, "Carry on". It points the way from victory unto victory to the destined day when "the kingdom of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord". It points to martyrs and saints who have led the way through "peril, toil, and woe" and bids us follow in their train, and promises victory, not by human might or power, but "by My spirit, saith the Lord". It is because He, the living, personal, ever present Spirit, dwelleth in the Church and empowers its members that the organization becomes and continues an organism: the Living Bodv of the Living and Incarnate Christ.

(i) Trinity Sunday calls the Church to worship God revealed in Christ, and made known through His eternal Spirit, with reverence as becomes the finite approaching the Infinite One. Faith is not asked to understand but to worship Him who is the self-revealing and self-giving God, whose name is Father and whose nature is Love. The truth to which Trinity Sunday bears witness is personified and communicated to the

Church in the Holy Eucharist, that the Divine Life and sacrifice may be extended through the continuous Body of Christ in which Christ incarnate continues to reveal the Father to His children and continues also to present the eternal divine sacrifice once forever offered on Calvary, but perpetually offered to and through His Living Body, the Church. Before the Church can vitally function as an organization, it must become and remain continuously conscious of itself as an organism, called and ordained to be the Living Body of the Living Christ to extend His Incarnation and to be His witness.

KEY TO THE DIAGRAM

"Plan of Parish Organization"

The plan of parish organization outlined in the chart is designed to bring the organization of the parish into harmony with the new plan of organization of the General Church, which plan is also being followed in many dioceses.

The Rector and Vestry

The position and authority of the rector and vestry is recognized by the canons of the Church. Other parochial organizations act with delegated power and under the supervision and direction of the rector and vestry. The vestry acts in the parish in lieu of the Department of Finance.

The Parish Executive Council

The parish Executive Council should be appointed by the vestry upon nomination of the rector, who will, doubtless, consult with those who are interested in the work of the several departments before making his nominations.

Each department of the Executive Council should be t

PLAN OF PARISH ORGANIZATION

DEPARTMENT A

THE RECTOR AND VESTRY

THE PARISH EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

DEPARTMENT R. E. 5 MEMBERS

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT S. S. 5 MEMBERS

CHRISTIAN SOCIAL SERVICE

DEPARTMENT M. 5 MEMBERS

MISSIONS AND CHURCH EXTENSION

"3, 15, 22, and 25 (All Missionary Education)

DEPARTMENT P. 3 MEMBERS

PUBLICITY

• EACH DEPARTMENT HAS OVERSIGHT OF THE SOCIETIES INDICATED BY THE NUMBERS

COORDINATING COMMITTEE

(COMPOSED OF ONE OR TWO REPRESENTATIVES FROM DEPARTMENTS R. E., S. S.,

AND M., THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE LEACUE

AND THE MAJOR OF THE CROUP ORGANIZATION, TO COORDINATE

PARISH PROCRAMME OF EDUCATION AND SERVICE)

THE CHURCH SERVICE LEAGUE

TO SERVE THE PARISH, THE COMMUNITY, THE DIOCESE, THE NATION, THE WORLD

PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH SERVICE LEAGUE

CHURCH SCHOOL BRANCH OF C.S.L.

A DIRECTOR

UNITS

DEPT.

PARISH SCHOOL

R E.

WEEK-DAY SCHOOL

OF RELIC. EDUC.

RE

SCHOOL OF EXPRES-

SION

RE.

JR. BROTHERHOOD

RE

CANDIDATES' CLASS

G. F. S.

RE

BOY SCOUTS

RE.

GIRL SCOUTS

RE

BOYS' CHOIR

RE

SOCIAL AND SERVICE CIRCLE (boys and girls between 16 and 21)

RE

NOTE. These are all related to the other departments in fulfillment of the five.fold responsibility, to the Parish, the Community, the Diocese, the Nation, and the World.

MEN'S BRANCH OF C. S. L.

A DIRECTOR

• UNITS DEPT.

10. PARISH VESTRY A.

11. BRO. OF ST. ANDREW RE

12. MEN'S CLUB S. S.

a. Motor Corps

b. Hospital Visiting

c. Hospital Quartette

d. Usher and Hospitality Committee

13. MEN'S BIBLE CLASS R E

WOMEN'S BRANCH OF C. S. L.

A DIRECTRESS

» UNITS DEPT.

14. ALTAR GUILD R E.

15. WOMAN'S AUXILIARY M.

16. DAUGHTERS OF KING R. E

17. GIRLS' FRIENDLY SOC. S. S.

18. S. BARNABAS' GUILD S. S.

19. MOTHERS' CLUB S. S.

20. PARISH AID COMM. A.

21. CH. PERIOD. CLUB S. S.

22. WOMAN'S C. S. L. AT LARGE (women not en- S. S. rolled in other organiza- & tions.) M.

23. THE PARENTS' LEAGUE, DEPT. R. E.

24. THE PARISH NEWSPAPER, Dept. P. " NOTE. These Utters indicate the Department of the Executive Council which has special oversight of the organization.

PARISH GROUP BRANCH OF C. S. L.

PARISH N.-W. C. UNIT (25)

A MAJOR

CROUPS DEPT.

GROUP No. 1 A Captain R E

A Croup Secretary A Man Lieutenant S. S.

A Woman Lieutenant M.

A Boy Lieutenant &

A Girl Lieutenant P.

A Croup Class Leader

CROUP No. 2, 3, 4, etc

(from 15 to 25 families to a Group)

THE VESTRY GROUP

THE WOMAN'S AUX. CROUP

THE C. F. S. CROUP

(These may prefer to meet as organizations for study rather than in geographical groups.)

GROUP NORMAL CLASS

U this Chart is drawn on enlarged scale for Parish House use, the names of the members of the Departments and of the Coordinating Committee should be written In and th. names of all organizations which function in the parish be Inserted in the Church Service League.

Plan of Parish Organization

composed of from three to five members, with power to enlarge their number. It would be well to have the vestry represented in the membership of each department. Each department should have special oversight of the work done by the parish organizations indicated by the numbers. The work of many of the organizations should; however, express the ideals and help carry out the programme of all three departments. The School of Expression, for instance, is distinctly related to the departments of Missions and Social Service. It does the work formerly done by the Junior Auxiliary, but is more comprehensive in both its membership and its interests. The letters placed opposite each organization indicate the department of the Parish Council to which the organization is primarily responsible. Each department should make a complete survey of the needs of all parish organizations falling under its supervision and also survey and report all work in the "five-fold field of service" which the parish should undertake.

The Coordinating Committee

This committee should be composed of one or two members from each department and also of the president and directors of the Church Service League and the major of the group organization. It should coordinate the parish programme of education, not alone for the children of the Church but for its adult membership also. It should receive from the three departments their programmes of work and, in consultation with the Council of the Church Service League, apportion the work outlined by the three departments among the various organizations of the parish and receive reports as to the work assigned. This report should be made by the chairman of the Church Service League.

The Church Service League

This is an organization created by the General Convention. It is designed to federate and coordinate all existing organizations in the parish and also to enlist the service and cooperation of the members of the parish not at present enrolled in any organization. It is composed of branches, as indicated in the chart. Each parish will federate in the Church Service League all organizations which exist in the parish and thus bring them into the closer unity of parish life. It cooperates with the three departments through the coordinating committee. Where the plan outlined is followed, each parish should have a large chart drawn in which the names of department members, of the coordinating committee, and of the officers of the Church Service League should be written.

The Council of the Church Service League should be composed of the directors of the different branches of the League and the heads of all parish organizations.

The Parish Group Organization

No parish can afford to be without this organization. No parish can fully carry out the Nation-wide Campaign programme of education and publicity without it. The method and purpose of the group organization is described in the text. In addition to group officers mentioned in the chart, each group should have a secretary to be responsible for keeping the parish census cards up to date, reporting any changes of address through the group major to the rector or parish secretary. The group organization is for fellowship, instruction, parish visiting, literature distribution, social service, and census upkeep. It is also the recruiting agency of the Church Service League.

The Nation-wide Campaign

The Nation-wide Campaign is more permanent than its name implies. It is the organizing, coordinating, educating, and promoting agency of the Presiding Bishop and Council. The Presiding Bishop and Council, as well as the diocesan bishop and his Council, look to the parishes of the Church and depend upon them to fulfil the Church's one great mission. The rector and his Parish Council look to every Churchman for loyal cooperation. A complete plan of parish organization should enlist the service of the entire membership of the Church.

CHAPTER II

The necessity for thinking of the Church as a living organism has been first stated because it is of prime importance. Because, however, the Church is the human body of Christ, it must, of necessity, make use of human means for the accomplishment of its mission. Its work cannot be left to individuals working separately. The Christ organized His apostles and His disciples and sent them forth in ordered ways and to ordered places. He also organized His own Incarnate life in the light of and in conformity to the established system. He went, "as He was wont", to worship at accustomed times and observed the national feast days of the Jewish Church, of which He was a member.

It is necessary to organize the Church, and the organization should be made complete and perfect, that the Body may function without friction in the complete fulfilment of its divinely given mission. The human body is organized, but its organization is so perfectly arranged that when it is in healthy relation to its environment, and to the inner spirit of its life, we are not conscious of its skeleton or of the nerves and muscles, or of the vessels through which pulse the blood of the living organism. The organization of the Church is also most complete when it is least obtrusive. The effort to secure a more perfect organization is justified by the fact that when secured, and rightly used, it will make the Church a more vital and efficient organism. It should be the purpose of a parish so to organize its life, for instruction, for worship, and service, that the whole mission of the Church should be made known to the whole membership and so that the inspiration and power of individual and corporate worship may be so communicated to all that the will to service may be at one with the Master's will concerning His Body. Organization thus perfected looks to the free and full expression of the mind of Christ in and through His Body the Church, which is the living organism in which He is Incarnate.

The Parish Organization

The diocese, with its bishop, is the unit in the national organization of the Church. The parish is vitally related to the diocese and to the national branch of the Church; and, because the national branch of the Church is but a part of the Church Catholic, the parish is related to the whole Catholic Church and to its whole mission. Thus the whole Church looks to and depends upon the parish. The whole mission of the Church embraces the individual, the family, the community, the diocese, the state, the nation, and the world. It also embraces those who have been numbered with God's saints in glory everlasting, and, doubtless, others also.

At present the work of the Church is done too largely in water-tight compartments ; and, as a result, the corporate unity of the Church and the life of fellowship are weakened. The curse of the national Church is diocesanism ; of the diocese, parochialism; of the parish, society ism; and of the whole Church individualism.

The Parish as It Is Now Usually Organized

At present most of the parishes in the Church are organized upon the water-tight compartment basis. Each organization is largely independent of the others, and between them there is scarcely any bond of union. It frequently happens in large parishes that members of certain organizations never even meet the members of other organizations, and few in the parish have any idea of the scope and purpose, the failures and successes, of the work being done by their fellow Churchmen. At the first meeting of the newly organized Parish Council in a large parish, a layman who for many years had been one of the most generous supporters of the Church and a regular worshipper said that it was the first time he had ever known the scope and nature of the work of his parish.

The New Plan of Parish Organization

The diagram, inserted between pages 8 and 9, showing a suggested form of parish organization, illustrates how the Executive Council plan of the General Church, the group system developed through the Nation-wide Campaign, and the newly organized Church Service League may be correlated and made to embrace, unify, and coordinate the parish, enabling it to fulfil its mission by enlisting the largest possible number of interested workers who, under the plan, will be called, trained, and directed in helping to realize a unified programme.

The necessity for a new plan of organization grows out of the fact that the Church has a new conception of her mission and a new programme. It could not reasonably be expected that rectors would re-organize their parishes to conform to the needs of a "movement", but when it is understood that we face a new era with a new programme, the necessity for having every parish fall in line and keep step becomes obvious. It should also be borne in mind that the programme of education and service of each succeeding year will be based upon, and presuppose the fulfilment of, the programme of the years preceding. It will thus come to pass that the parish which fails to organize along the lines suggested by the General Church will soon find itself in the position of the student who is called to read Caesar, but who has neglected to master his Latin gramm **, syntax, and vocabulary. Such students are always a drag upon the class to which they belong.

The Central or Parish Executive Council

The rector and vestry are the canonically constituted authority in the parish, and under the law of the Church are related to the diocese and the General Church. In the Parish Council the rector is chairman, as the Presiding Bishop is the head of the National Church Council. The vestry acts in lieu of a Department of Finance, and may be considered an ex-officio branch of the Parish Council.

The rector, after consultation with those interested and best competent to advise, nominates to the vestry the persons to be by the vestry appointed to membership in the Central or Executive Council of the parish. This Council is composed of three departments, namely: the Department of Keligious Education, the Department of Christian Social Service, and the Department of Missions. The departments, though differently named, are, and should always be considered as expressing, in different aspects, the one mission of the Church. The Church has a unified and, therefore, undivided mission to educate, to serve, and to make disciples of all nations. Social Service rendered in the parish is as much the Mission of the Church as China is. Some parishes may also deem it wise to add a Department of Publicity.