Swedish Folk Within Our Church
The rise, normal decline and glorious results of half
a century's work
By the Rev. Thomas Burgess, D. D.
Secretary for Foreign-Born Americans, Department of Missions,
National Council
ALL OF OUR Swedish work, what there is left of it, have I
seen with my own eyes, priests, people and churches. I have learned
carefully its origins, rise, normal decline, results. I therefore
thank God heartily and tell of it to you. For ten years, I have
been technically Dr. Hammarsköld's superior officer. He
has made monthly reports to me, and of course I have been more
or less in touch with the work and visited some of it. This past
spring, however, I made a special complete tour. It was worth
it.
At present, in the special Swedish parishes, missions and
circuits we have only eight priests; in 1920 there were eleven;
in 1910, twenty-seven; in 1900, twenty-six; in 1890, four. According
to records, these ministers of Christ have baptized since 1887,
31,427 Scandinavian-Americans; in unrecorded visits, far afield,
they must have baptized at least ten thousand more. As a result,
direct and in great measure indirect, for all this was not done
in a corner but has been and is known of all men of Swedish origin,
our ordinary parishes have in them large numbers of Swedish birth,
parentage and grandparentage. This is so all over the country,
but especially in the Midwest and Northeast. It is probably true
to say that in these two sections, taking the three generations
only, our parishes have more people of Swedish origin than of
any other race excepting English.
This notable achievement of the Church's domestic mission
has, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, been largely due
to the wise and devoted leadership of that scholar, statesman
and saint, the Rev. Johan Gottfried Hammarsköld, M. A.,
D. D. Landing in America in 1884, ordained priest by Bishop Clark
in 1889, he first began a Swedish parish in Providence and later
in New York, all the while traveling elsewhere, seeking out and
shepherding the unchurched. On faith alone, he imported, at one
time, six students from Sweden, not knowing even how they were
going to be fed or housed, and his faith was abundantly justified.
Again and again, he shared his last crust, so to speak, with
those for whom he had made himself responsible. Many were the
hard and picturesque experiences of his pioneer days in East
and West. In 1893, he was made General Missionary and Superintendent
of Swedish work under the old Board of Missions, the first and
only National Foreign-Born Americans officer until in 1919 our
Foreign-Born Americans Division came in with Dr. William C. Emhardt
and me. And what a help and inspiration has he been to us all
along! The National Council named him Dean of the Scandinavian
work. Now after forty years, he is as active as ever; his constant
labor and grave responsibilities still continue.
The Swedish work is now on its decline. This is normal and
indeed intentional. In another ten or fifteen years there will
be no need of it at all. Thus for half a century there has been
skillfully woven into the variegated pattern of our American
Church a profusion of Swedish [3/4] blue and yellow. This is
the race, descendants of Vikings, of which Dr. Hammarsköld
a few years ago said, "In history they are noted for their
strong sense of honor, patriotism, valor, chivalry, pride, endurance,
self-reliance, obedience to law, deep-rooted loyalty to friends,
fondness for poetry, depth of feeling, religious mysticism, love
of political and religious liberty, and strong desire for adventure."
On June 19, 1927, Dean Hammarsköld was the preacher at
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Gloria Dei Church
(Old Swedes'), Philadelphia. He told me that many of the parishioners
attending this service were lineal descendants of original settlers
who founded New Sweden in 1638. The present church was built
229 years ago. The national Church of Sweden sent thirty-four
priests in all up to 1831. They ministered in cordial friendship
and cooperation with the churchmen of their sister Church of
England, and by arrangement between the Bishop of Skara and the
Bishop of London, who had jurisdiction over these neighboring
missions, the Swedish clergy ministered to several English parishes.
The last of this line of Swedish clergy had six of our clergy
as his assistants in his large work in and about Philadelphia,
one of whom became the first Bishop of New Jersey. Bishop Svedberg
of Skara often reminded his colonial clergy carefully to observe
"the existing union with the English Church." Holy
Trinity Church (Old Swedes'), Wilmington, Delaware, which still
flourishes, was the place of the meeting, in 1786, of the adjourned
first General Convention.
With this introduction, let me jump to 1929 and relate what
I have seen and know of the present. Incidentally, the history
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will appear. Let this
be in the nature of a travelog. Dean Hammarsköld and I started
west together but he [4/5] was with me only a small part of the
month's trip.
The newly organized missionary society at Nashotah House had
asked me to come and talk to them. Therefore I made my starting
point in that lovely Wisconsin lake country so like Sweden. I
found my audience consisted of the faculty and the whole student
body of seventy men. I told them it was an appropriate beginning
of a Swedish tour, and prefaced my address, which was on the
general subject "No More Foreigners," by telling them
the story of their own first graduate, Gustaf Unonius. Heading
the first Swedish colony (since New Sweden days) of fifty intelligensia,
he settled in 1841, at Pine Lake, in the howling wilderness a
few miles south of Nashotah. Here the Rev. James Lloyd Breck
took him as Nashotah's first student. Bishop Kemper ordained
him in 1845 and he established our first Swedish mission in his
own colony. Four years later Unonius went to Chicago.
Accordingly, after staying at delightful Nashotah two days,
I got a ride as far as Milwaukee and saw from an auto the hills
and lakes where Unonius once labored. Like Unonius, I went to
Chicago and on Sunday preached at the new Saint Ansgarius' Church.
St. Ansgarius' was founded by Unonius in 1849. Jenny Lind contributed
fifteen hundred dollars and presented a beautiful specially designed
chalice and paten which are now, after eighty years, the parish's
most prized possession, used only on great festivals. After a
ministry there of nine years, Unonius returned to Sweden where
he took a government position, but was often called to officiate
in the services of the national Church. A little later, the Rev.
Jacob Bredberg, ordained in the Church of Sweden, came to Chicago
and was accepted as a priest of our Church by Bishop Whitehouse.
During the interim, the Rev. Henry B. Whipple, afterwards the
famous pioneer Bishop, took charge of the work. In relating his
experiences, he wrote, "One of three services which I held
every Sunday was for the Swedish congregation. In my work with
them I became deeply attached to the Scandinavian race for their
love of home, their devotion to freedom and their loyalty to
government and to God."
In this parish, 9,597 have been baptized and 3,173 confirmed.
About two-thirds of these were during the long and successful
rectorship of the Rev. Herman Linskog. For some years these well
trained confirmation classes were the largest in the diocese.
Following the custom in the Church of Sweden, preparation for
confirmation by our Swedish clergy is always long and painstaking.
About ten years ago a terrible catastrophe occurred. An unworthy
priest wrecked the parish and lost all the property. Deans Hammarsköld
and Broburg salvaged the wreck and after a few years the courageous
people, with diocesan help, put up a little portable church in
a new and fast-growing section of the city. They are planning
to begin soon an attractive, building which will serve as church,
parish house and rectory. In a few years this will be the flourishing
parish of the new community; no longer Swedish but ordinary.
I attended the good-sized Sunday school and preached that
morning in the temporary St. Ansgarius. The enthusiastic and
forceful rector, the Rev. K. J. W. Tullberg, in introducing me
at length told of their hopes and plans. After the service, which
was in English, I met the Finance Committee and found them, as
Bishop Griswold and several of the Chicago clergy who have been
acting as their advisers told me, as fine a group as any vestry
I have ever met. These people paid their quota for the general
work of the Church for several years in full and last year over
two hundred per cent.
General contribution for diocesan and general missions has
not been characteristic of our Swedish parishes in the past.
In this they are like some other parishes. Perhaps it has taken
them a little longer than the average parish to awaken to this
duty. Anyway the latest figures show that they are fast awakening.
There is, moreover, a generic fault of which our [5/6] Swedish
parishes have sometimes been accused, and I believe with some
justice, viz., exclusiveness, even snobbishness, anyway parochialism.
Forsooth, I have heard the same applied to others than Swedish.
That Sunday night I took a train to Galesburg and was met
by Dr. Hammarsköld who had been there several days having
Holy Communion for the sick, visiting the well, holding the Sunday
services and preparing the Swedish people of St. John's for the
return, after fifteen years' absence, of their former rector,
the Rev. John E. Almfeldt, Ph.D. Dr. Almfeldt was given his M.A.
and Ph.D. in course at Brown University at the age of fifty-seven.
His thesis was a comparison of the philosophies of Hegel and
St. Paul. He built St. John's Church at Galesburg, part of it
with his own hands. When I visited him in Providence, he showed
me a framed poem given him at the time by one of the leading
business men of Galesburg entitled It Couldn't Be Done. In fact,
Almfeldt has the building of several rectories and churches to
his credit. Now his ambition is to spend the rest of his life
again as a missionary. From Galesburg, he will work out into
the surrounding country and draw to our Lord many unchurched
of Swedish stock. Bishop Fawcett of Quincy has appointed him
Archdeacon. Bishop Fawcett wrote me some time ago: "Our
Swedish work contributes largely to our English-speaking work.
It is only for the new arrivals and some of the old people that
we need a service in the Swedish tongue, but for long we will
need Swedish priests to lead. It has been a joy to find that
the Swedes of St. John's really belong to us. They feel that
they are a part of the American Church and have an important
part in the work. They are a loyal body of people, proud of the
Apostolic marks of the old Church of Sweden in which they or
their forebears were reared and glad to find a similar body in
this country."
Dr. Almfeldt drove in June with his family from Providence
to Galesburg in his second-hand Chevrolet for which Dr. Hammarsköld
raised the money. His people are overjoyed to get him back. The
new Archdeacon has a good opportunity and he is the level-headed,
devoted sort that will make the most of it.
At St. John's, as in all our Swedish parishes, the services
are more than half in English according to our Prayer Book, and
less than half in Swedish according to the use of the Church
of Sweden. Swedish services must continue decreasingly a few
years longer for the older generation. However, language is not
the important matter. The all important thing is a priest who
thoroughly understands and so can reach the scattered and unchurched
people.
Dean Hammarsköld and I attended the Diocesan Convention
in Peoria and made addresses. Then he went alone to St. Paul
and I followed the next day. We met again only for a couple of
hours when he, Associate Dean Broburg and I held a dinner conference
together in an excellent Swedish restaurant.
Scandinavians were largely the pioneers and builders of Minnesota.
A large proportion of the population is of their stock, Swedes
and Norwegians about equally divided, and the Danes in lesser
proportion. One thing that proves the result of our Swedish work
is that while the numbers of Swedes and Norwegians were [6/7]
about equal in the general population of Minnesota, far more
Swedes are members of our ordinary parishes than Norwegians.
Almost every parish in Minnesota has many Swedes in its membership.
In St. Mark's, Minneapolis, which was formerly Bishop Freeman's
parish, the choir is almost two-thirds Swedish. At Gethsemane
Church, the rector told me a number of his children are products
of nearby St. Ansgarius'.
We used to have four Swedish parishes in the Twin Cities.
Now there are two, both at present under Dean Broburg who is
assisted by lay readers from Seabury Divinity School. He has
been greatly hampered in his widespread rural work in the past
few years by the burden of these two parishes, St. Sigfrid's,
St. Paul, and St. Ansgarius', Minneapolis. In the latter, since
its founding, in 1893, there have been 903 baptisms and 510 confirmations.
Its founder, the Rev. Olaf A. Toffteen, Ph.D., later professor
at Western Theological Seminary, did remarkable work there and
in the surrounding country. The Rev. Fritz Anderson was at St.
Ansgarius' fifteen years. A little over a year ago, he took an
ordinary parish in Manton, Rhode Island, and now has just succeeded
Dr. Almfeldt at St. Ansgarius', Providence. He recently wrote
me: "I am now renewing acquaintance with things Swedish
and in it I find great joy." He is a talented musician and
was formerly organist in St. Ansgarius', Boston. Broburg and
Anderson were at Seabury together and are both products of our
Swedish work. Swedish parishes in the Twin Cities have given
ten priests to the Church.
I spent almost a week in these beautiful cities on opposite
banks of the upper Mississippi, Minneapolis and St. Paul, and
the region around about reminded me of my own New England just
as it reminds the Swedes of the land of their fathers. I had
good talks with Bishop McElwain and a number of the clergy on
the Scandinavian situation. On Sunday morning I celebrated the
Holy Eucharist at Gethsemane at eight o'clock, preached at a
Swedish service at St. Sigfrid's at nine-thirty; rushed back
to Minneapolis to preach at St. Paul's at eleven; then traveled
to Eagle Bend and back again, making 320 miles, and arrived at
my hotel three o'clock the next morning.
Because of an unforeseen shift in my plans, Dean Broburg had
to change the hour of services at St. Sigfrid's and could give
his people only a few days' telephonic notice. Notwithstanding
this, there were over 150 in the church that morning. The big
choir was splendid and sang as only Swedes can sing and they
[7/10] were all thoroughgoing young native Americans of Swedish
parentage and grandparentage. At least I think so, for in this
parish there are a number of Norwegians and Germans, also Czechs,
Danes and even a few Irish.
The service was Swedish Hoch Messa according to the Prayer
Book of the Church of Sweden, which corresponds to our Proanaphora
or Ante-Communion. Dean Broburg wore surplice and stole. For
the Holy Eucharist, which is generally said in English, he and
most of our Swedish priests wear the typical Eucharistic vestments
of the Churches of Sweden and Rome which include the "fiddle-back,"
heavily embroidered chasuble. Although I know no Swedish, I found
I could join heartily in the Swedish hymns.
St. Sigfrid's Church and rectory where Dean Broburg has been
in charge for fifteen years was once in the heart of a residential
settlement. Now it is in the railroad shipping section, surrounded
by tall warehouses. Not one of the 467 communicants of the parish
lives within a mile of the church. Because of the location paying
assessments have sometimes been over one thousand dollars a year.
Notwithstanding this and a large sum for improvements, these
people paid five-sixths of their quota last year and plan to
give the whole this year.
A 1929 graduate of Western Seminary who was born in Sweden,
has just come to assist the Dean. It is hoped that another assistant
can relieve him of his strenuous duties in running two parishes
and leave him time for the development of his vast rural field.
As it is, he has driven his Chrysler almost fifty thousand miles
in the past five years on a circuit of several distant towns
and villages and occasional ministrations to many scattered,
unchurched Scandinavians. Beside all this, it was he who opened
and superintended the new work in the Diocese of Marquette and
helped solve the difficult situation in Chicago. Several times
his iron strength has almost broken under the strain. He is a
large man, with a fine dignified presence, sound judgment and
ability as a writer, as well as tireless energy. According to
his report for the year 1926, when he was temporarily running
the two parishes in the Twin Cities, he performed ministrations
in twenty-five different places in four dioceses.
[11] I saw some of that rural field, untouched by the Church
yet ripe for the harvest, in the 320 miles that Sunday to Eagle
Bend and back with the Associate Dean. I passed through more
of it on the train later, a wonderful farm country developed
and manned largely by the thrifty Scandinavians. At Eagle Bend
in the Diocese of Duluth, we have had a Swedish mission for some
years, but the work had diminished to a faithful few. Three and
a half years ago Dean Broburg took hold of it. With his student
lay assistants, he has built it up until it is now the outstanding
congregation of the village. It also was the best church building.
Last year the building was thoroughly repaired, the exterior
painted, the interior painted and decorated, a new hall opened
and well furnished, all bills had been paid and the final payment
of twenty-five hundred dollars on the mortgage. A three days'
mission had just been concluded. Then late one night, Dean Broburg
received the telephone message, "Our church is burning down."
He jumped into his car and drove wildly the 160 miles through
the night. He found the church still burning and about the ruins
in the early morning light were grouped the stricken parishioners.
He told me: "I stood there and cried like a child."
I saw the bare foundations the evening I was there. We had
service in a dingy upstairs Odd Fellows Hall where the fraternal
regalia shone forth from a glass case near the temporary altar.
There must have been two hundred people there as fine and interested
a congregation as I have ever preached to, with lots of young
people. It was Evening Prayer in English and they sang very sweetly
the familiar hymns. At Dean Broburg's request I preached an evangelical
sermon for forty minutes, as he told me the Swedes always desired
a long sermon. I met and congratulated the delightful parents
of Elmer Johnson who this year graduated from Seabury. Bishop
Bennett on his last visitation to Eagle Bend said that if Dean
Broburg had done nothing else, to have given to the Church such
a candidate for Holy Orders was worth all his travels. Even now
as I write a new church, with the help of the ever-ready American
Church Building Fund, is rising on the old foundations. The people's
affliction has only increased their zeal.
I wish there were space to write of my next four days with
the new and remarkable Archdeacon for White Work of South Dakota,
Valentine Junker, formerly Moderator of the Presbyterian German
Midwest Synod with 149 churches under his charge. But this is
a Scandinavian story and I will only mention it by stating that
the vast rural field with its failing sectarianism which "Val,"
as everyone affectionately calls him, is opening up, is quite
similar, except in racial stock and lack of trees, to Dean Broburg's
rural Minnesota.
I stopped half a day at Litchfield, Minnesota, with the Rev.
William E. Harmann, formerly Secretary of the Standing Committee
in the Diocese of Duluth, and another of our American-born Swedish
priests. This spring, he consummated the union of our Swedish
and American parishes in Litchfield with a combined vestry. He
has long done good work among his racial brethren, and like all
the rest is often called to distant places to minister to Swedes
in Swedish or English. Ten years ago, he made the same Swedish-American
combination when in Duluth, but in that case the two parishes
took over the Swedish church building because it was the better
of the two.
I next went north to Duluth, stopping over for two hours in
Minneapolis to report to a member of the National Council at
breakfast. In Duluth my old G. T. S. classmate, Oscar Lindstrom,
met me. Alas, we had to take a trolley to the rectory because
someone had stolen the carburetor from his ancient Ford the night
before. However, he installed a new one that afternoon and we
merrily rattled over the extraordinary, long, bare [11/12] mountain
whose side is covered with the city of Duluth, and had a wonderful
view of the greatest of fresh water lakes. Lindstrom, like several
others of our Swedish-born priests, has long been out of Swedish
work.
In Duluth, as everywhere, the results of former Swedish efforts
have told strongly. St. Paul's, Duluth, is the largest parish
in the Diocese. Its rector, the Rev. B. T. Kemerer, formerly
of the Field Department, reported to the Division last year that
his parish was made up "very largely" of people of
Scandinavian stock. Of course, no one looks upon these people
as foreigners because the Scandinavians are part and parcel of
the regular American population, and many are among the leading
citizens. So it is all over this country where Lindbergh was
brought up.
I preached for Lindstrom in his two churches on Sunday, went
on a picnic Monday at his camp on the inlet of the lake with
Kemerer and the Dean and hospitable Mrs. Lindstrom, who is, by
the way, educational secretary of the diocesan Woman's Auxiliary.
That night I took the sleeper along the southern border of Lake
Superior, got off the train at Marquette at four a. m. and went
to a hotel to finish my sleep. At nine o'clock Bishop Harris
came and got me and he and the Dean all day showed me the beauties
of Marquette. Its high rocky shore covered with pines, balsam
firs and white birches is just like the coast of Maine, only
the waters of the great cold lake are a Mediterranean blue. In
the evening, the Bishop drove me out to the edge of the cliffs
and we meditated in the moonlight.
Next day the Bishop drove me south one hundred miles through
the deep woods and mining country to Iron Mountain. Our veteran
priest, the Rev. Wilhelm Blomquist, and the famous old Archdeacon
Poyseor met us. Like all Swedes, Mr. Blomquist has a most refreshing
sense of humor. It is great fun wandering among Swedes. The church
at Iron Mountain is our newest Swedish [12/13] mission. A whole
congregation, including its former minister, ordained in Sweden,
asked Bishop Harris to take them over six years ago. A National
Council appropriation on a decreasing scale helped start them
and carried them along. Now they are self-supporting. They bought
and transformed a former Baptist church and ordered a gorgeous
altar from Chicago. It cost them many thousands of dollars to
make over this church. The whole matter has been accomplished
under Dean Broburg's wise guidance.
I never saw such an immaculate church. We tracked a little
dust on the shining chancel floor and were at great pains to
remove it. That evening came the service, Swedish Vespers. Mr.
Blomquist preached ten minutes, the Bishop ten, the Archdeacon
eleven (his standard duration), and then, heeding Dean Broburg's
emphatic admonition given me before I left him, I held forth
for forty-five! I preached an evangelical sermon and chose as
my text that giving the ninefold fruits of the Holy Spirit, and
then followed it with a dissertation on the Swedish work of the
Church. After I finished, the rector began preaching some more,
so I had to bid the Bishop good-bye in the sanctuary and make
my train as I had an appointment with Bishop Griswold next morning.
The rest of the trip was not Scandinavian except as I talked
with Bishops Griswold and Fawcett and met at Bishop Griswold's
house, where I was entertained, the student, Mr. Franklin, whom
I have mentioned before as being Broburg's new assistant. In
Chicago I spoke at a U. T. O. diocesan meeting, visited the Presbyterian
Jewish Mission, lunched with the Rev. F. G. Deis of the Field
Department, spent an hour with the Greek Bishop of Chicago, who,
by the way, is a graduate of Nashotah, and then took the train
for Quincy. There I celebrated and preached in my grandfather's
old Cathedral (he was the first Bishop of Quincy) and saw some
more of Bishop Fawcett. After attending the Quincy Deanery Convocation,
I traveled by various [13/14] trains and steamers to Toronto
where I investigated the Church's Jewish work and met at the
Bishop's Synod reception a number of Canadian clergy. One of
these was Canon Vernon, who as the head of immigrant work in
Canada has long been in touch with our Division, and another,
the chairman of the new Canadian Church Committee on Cooperation
with the Eastern Orthodox. Then I sailed back across Lake Ontario
to the United States and home.
Let me now take a glance at the past extension of the Midwest
Scandinavian work, and this will lead fittingly to the work in
the East. As I mentioned above, there was formerly a much larger
number of organized mission stations. There have been forty-two
in all. The largest number of priests in charge of them at one
time was twenty-seven. The majority of these stations are now
entirely Americanized. Our present number of organized Swedish
parishes and missions is twelve with eight priests.
In the Midwest, four of these former organized Swedish stations
were in Illinois, including Emmanuel in Chicago which united,
in 1915, with Holy Cross parish. There were fifteen of these
in Minnesota and two in North Dakota, some of which were started
by the former Midwest General Missionary to the Swedes, the Rev.
John V. Alvergen, who later returned to Sweden and is now rector
of a large parish there. It was in North Dakota where one of
our veteran Swedish missionaries, the Rev. P. A. Almquist, lost
his sight while traveling over the vast prairie spaces in a driving
blizzard. Totally blind, he came to Minneapolis and died there
three years ago. In addition to a small pension, he and his wife
were supported all these years by the efforts and in part the
purses of Deans Hammarsköld and Broburg. Grace Church, New
York, used to contribute regularly, as did also several individuals.
For three years, also, there was a Swedish mission and priest
at the Cathedral, Denver, Colorado, at the time of Dean Hart.
Dr. Hammarsköld had the following experience there. On his
arrival in Denver, he found it exceedingly hot. Sunday morning
came a blizzard. He waded knee-deep to the Cathedral and there
to his astonishment found practically the whole Swedish Sunday
school faithfully present, including the smallest tots. For five
summers Mr. Blomquist has taken his vacation in the far West,
Oregon and Washington. He spent much of the time visiting Swedish
people and baptized and presented for confirmation quite a number
and connected them with various parishes.
Now for the East, the First, Second and Third Provinces. This
part of my tour has been made at odd times during the past few
months. St. Ansgarius', Providence, Rhode Island, where Dr. Almfeldt
was rector and where now is the Rev. Fritz Anderson, has a building
copied from a thirteenth century church in old Sweden, attractively
located on the corner of a little park not far from the Rhode
Island Hospital. Dr. Hammarsköld began there his first work
in 1887. In this parish, 1,245 have been baptized and 1,034 confirmed.
A constant stream has gone forth to our ordinary parishes. Like
all other Swedish parishes it never grows. New members from immigration
and other sources keep the communicant lists about static and
they give forth their young people year by year to other parishes.
From Providence as a center five missions were established for
a while and then turned their members into the ordinary parishes.
Bishop Perry told me he thought much of his Swedish parish and
that the splendid loyalty of its people was a lesson to other
parishes.
Founded by its present rector, the Rev. A. W. Sundelöf,
Litt.D., St. Ansgarius' in Boston has flourished since 1893 and
has ever had as its members the leading Swedes of the city. It
has by last report 480 communicants. Dr. Sundelöf is a charming
person and a poet of great talent. He has a boyish sense of fun.
Mrs. Sundelöf has been a great help to him in [14/15] his
work and in the training of the choir. Recently this parish,
with diocesan help, bought and refitted a large Unitarian church
in Roxbury with extensive parish rooms. He needs an assistant
now so that he, like the other Swedish clergy, can hold occasional
services for Swedes in other places in the Diocese. There are
four places in Massachusetts which formerly had organized congregations.
In Connecticut, the now abandoned Swedish stations numbered
three. In one of these places, West Haven, the rector reported
on the blank sent out by the Division last year that among his
parishioners were "one hundred Swedes and eighty Danes,
approximately." In New Jersey there used to be one. In the
Diocese of New York there were eight and one of these, Brewster,
has had for years on its vestry two Swedes.
A new semi-Swedish work is being carried on by the Rev. Carl
J. Ljunggren, formerly of the Seamen's Church Institute and for
fifteen years rector of St. Ansgarius', Providence. At Hopewell
Junction, an ordinary mission where he is priest in charge, he
has occasional Swedish services. In Christ Church, Poughkeepsie,
he had for a couple of years Swedish services monthly and now
four times a year. The rector, the Rev. Alexander Cummins, D.
D., takes a great interest in his work.
In 1889, Dr. Hammarsköld left Providence and organized
a Swedish mission in St. Bartholomew's parish, New York; two
years later the present St. Bartholomew's Swedish Chapel on 127th
Street was acquired. The rector, the Rev. Dr. Greer, later Bishop,
was ever one of Dr. Hammarsköld's most loyal supporters
in this chapel, where 2,098 baptisms and 901 confirmations are
recorded. Since its foundation it has been the spiritual home
of thousands of Swedes of greater New York and vicinity. The
large majority have been transferred to other parishes but a
number still come to the chapel for their Christmas and Easter
Communions. [15/16] The priests in charge have continually gone
out to minister to Swedish people in Staten Island, Long Island,
Connecticut and New Jersey with the result of widespread religious
education, baptisms and confirmations. For the past twelve years
the devoted pastor of this chapel has been the Rev. Eric Gideon
Ericson.
And now for Dr. Hammarsköld's own particular work, though
indeed it is all his work. Many of the parishes and missions
were established by him personally and with all of them he has
been in intimate touch. His statesmanlike wisdom, devotion, tireless
energy, and gentle great-heartedness have rarely been equalled
by any of the pioneer missionaries of the Church, and the way
has bristled with difficulties. For some years now he has lived
in Yonkers, New York, and has a regular Swedish congregation,
with evening services only, in the chapel of St. John's Church,
Yonkers, and another congregation in nearby Tarrytown. His office
is in St. John's Parish House. When he is away, the Swedish priests
in New York and Hopewell Junction take his services, or one of
the nearby clergy. He told me the other day that he had preached
in the last forty years 10,367 sermons, an average of over 200
a year. This does not count addresses. Let me quote from some
of his monthly reports of the few years past. These reports are
paragons of brevity. Here is a typical one: "I beg leave
to report that during the month of December, I conducted twenty-three
services, took part in four, and delivered sixteen sermons, six
addresses, celebrated Holy Communion eight times, one public
and six private, baptized five children, married two couples
and officiated at four burials."
Three other monthly reports, after giving a similar list of
ministrations, say: "During the same period I visited Washington,
D. C., seven towns in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and attended
to work at my missions and preaching stations." "Visited
eleven towns in Massachusetts, nine places in Rhode Island and
six in Connecticut." "During my western trip, I had
from two to three services every weekday and four every Sunday.
The average attendance at these services was 162." And another:
"beg leave to report that during the month of January I
suffered from a rather severe attack of rheumatism, but I managed
to conduct all stated services and with the aid of automobiles
to call on 149 non-church-attending families in Westchester County.
The main object of these calls has been to urge parents to at
least send their children to our Sunday schools, and I have reason
to believe that the results will justify the efforts made. Permit
me to suggest that you make it known to our American clergy that
I am anxious to visit their parishes and cooperate with them
in the efforts to gather the younger generation of Scandinavians
into the Church." Each year he has brought new life and
courage to Swedish priests and people in various places by holding
several missions of three to seven days' duration. Recently,
Mr. Ericson has been recovering from an operation and the overworked
Dean, who was sixty-nine years old in August, has been running
his parish. He seems to have spent the hot summer having funerals
in Brooklyn and elsewhere. I do not think he ever took a real
vacation. Two years ago the Archdeaconry of Westchester helped
him to buy an Essex car. It has been a wonderful aid to him in
his work and a real recreation.
I have attempted to tell something of the little-known story
of our Swedish work, its origin, rise, normal decline and glorious
results during half a century. Truly it is one of the most remarkable
cross-sections of the history of our American Church. For this
that has been accomplished for the souls of thousands, thanks
be to God.
Copies of this leaflet may be obtained from the Foreign-Born
Americans Division, 281 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y., by asking
for Leaflet No. 1546.
