Saint Stephen’s Church in Providence: The History of a New England Tractarian Parish

By Norman Joseph Catir, Jr.

Providence, Rhode Island: St. Stephen’s Church, 1964.

CHAPTER VIII

The Temple Secured

1945-

THE REVEREND Doctor Robert Casey proved to be an excellent choice for locum tenens after Father Townsend’s departure for Winsted, Connecticut. Father Casey’s scholarship and wit in the preaching office, his devotion and effort in the pastoral office, endeared him to the people of Saint Stephen’s parish. Probably the inquisitive instinct in this priest, who was also professor of Biblical Literature at Brown University, led him to an interesting discovery about the alabaster relief located above the font in the church. When this bit of fifteenth-century sculpture was placed over the font, in the early part of the twentieth century, everyone concerned had thought that it represented a primitive baptism. After extensive research Father Casey discovered that the charming little alabaster was not the depiction of an early baptism at all, but rather a portrayal of the story of Saint Nicholas raising three innocent children from a pork barrel. An ancient legend relates that these three innocents had been salted away for the winter by a wicked innkeeper. The repentant man and his pious wife stand by in shocked stupor, in our alabaster, as the fourth-century Bishop Nicholas brings the victims back to life. Many a fond parent has stood serenely by as his child was carried to the font and delivered from spiritual death by the waters of baptism, just beneath this terrifying scene of a delivery from physical death. Although the donor never realized the allegorical subtlety effected by the placement of the fifteenth-century carving, we today appreciate its fortuitous significance, thanks to Father Casey.

Perhaps one of the most valuable memorials which Saint Stephen’s possesses was moved from the priests’ sacristy into the north aisle of the church while Father Casey was still in charge. When Joseph J. Bodell had the sacristy renovated in 1930 he gave an exquisitely carved and polychromed late fifteenth-century German altar piece to be placed on the sacristy wall. In January, 1946, the corporation of the parish gratefully accepted a north aisle altar in honor of Saint Stephen given by the Bodell family.[1] The altar piece, which is probably Swabian, was placed above this altar and is today one of the choice artistic treasures of Saint Stephen’s Church. The altar itself was designed by Mr. F. Ellis Jackson and executed by Mr. C. H. Westcott, both members of Saint Stephen’s parish.

Almost no time elapsed between the departure of Father Townsend on December 15, 1945, and the decision of the vestry to call the Reverend Paul Van Kuykendall Thomson to be the new rector on December 17 of the same year.[2] Father Thomson, as the assistant at Grace Church, Newark, had worked under the well-known priest, Charles Lewis Gomph. During World War II he had entered the Navy Chaplain’s Corps, at the same time maintaining his relationship with the important Newark parish. In January of 1946 he accepted the offer of the rectorate, which included a yearly salary of $5,000. He assured the vestry that he would arrive in Providence as soon as he was released from his military obligations.[3] In March, 1946, the vestry purchased a new rectory for $15,500 at 147 Lloyd Avenue.[4]

Several parallels can be drawn between Father Thomson and Saint Stephen’s ninth rector, Father Penfold. Father Penfold had been a World War I chaplain with an outstanding record; Father Thomson had served well in World War II. The most notable characteristic of Father Penfold’s many abilities was his finesse with the spoken word in the pulpit; during his short ministry Father Thomson had already started to acquire a reputation as an excellent preacher. The vestry chose Father Penfold partly because of his personal vigor. When Father Townsend resigned from Saint Stephen’s he had suggested that the parish look for a young and vigorous rector. Paul Thomson was twenty-nine years old and appeared to be in excellent health.

At the outset of this new rectorate two important departments in the parish youth work began to take on life—the church school and the college work. During the first year of Father Thomson’s ministry the Children’s Mass was moved from the Lady chapel into the church. This change made it possible for the 9:30 Mass to metamorphose into the present Parish Mass, the principal service of Saint Stephen’s today. At first this Mass was sung without benefit of choir. One priest was celebrant while the other taught, dialogue style, from the aisle. After the Mass one of the clergy instructed the entire church school; classes for the young children were carried on in the guild house following this instruction.[5]

In October, 1946, Father Thomson organized a college student discussion group which met on Sunday afternoons.[6]

Faculty members such as Father Casey, Professor Joachim Wach, and Professor Ben Brown had, for some time, been successful in bringing students to the church. Because of their labors the new rector commenced with a substantial foundation upon which to build. In addition, Father Thomson initiated a class for university professors, hoping undoubtedly that greater Christian commitment on the part of faculty members might lead to further inquiry from students.

During Father Thomson’s tenure at Saint Stephen’s, the rector of Grace Church, Providence, delegated one of his curates to do work on the Brown University campus. Father Thomson immediately realized the undesirable implications of such a policy and moved to curtail these ministrations by speaking privately to Bishop Bennett.[7] He saw that history, geography, and the canons of the Church clearly place Brown University within the orbit of Saint Stephen’s work. He realized that it would be both fitting and proper for the Diocese of Rhode Island and for interested parishes to assist Saint Stephen’s in carrying out her mission to the campus. But the responsibility for the work and all prerogatives clearly belonged in the hands of the George Street parish.

Father Thomson asked the Reverend Warren R. Ward, a former parishioner of Grace Church, Newark, brought up in the staunch Catholic traditions of the Reverend Charles Lewis Gomph, to come to Saint Stephen’s as curate. Father Ward had been graduated several years previously from Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin and following his ordination was given charge of Saint Andrew’s Church, Harrington Park, and of several other missions in the diocese of Newark. Father Ward’s diverse pastoral experience in New Jersey prepared him well for his new duties at Saint Stephen’s which commenced on Whitsunday, 1946. Soon he organized a Couples Club and a high school group called the 114 Club. Both of these organizations reached out to the lapsed and the unchurched at a critical time immediately after World War II when many people needed just such bridges to carry them to a new church home. In addition, both the Couples Club and the 114 Club, under the genial direction of the curate, sponsored several successful money-raising events to benefit the parish.[8]

As curate, Father Ward also initiated the Adult School of Religion which met immediately after the 9:30 Mass every Sunday.[9] A Christian’s education does not cease with the conclusion of his church school enrollment. Certainly some of the most fruitful Christian education comes in man’s mature years when, hopefully, life’s experiences have opened him more completely to the will and action of God. Saint Stephen’s Adult School of Religion was founded with this concept in mind and during recent years has proved the validity of adult education many times over.

In May of 1947 a disagreement concerning the practice of psychoanalysis within the buildings of the parish house arose between Father Thomson and Father Casey who had stayed on as honorary curate. The Reverend Robert Casey had established many contacts with students as professor of Biblical Literature at Brown University. Naturally students turned to him for pastoral guidance during times of personal stress. Father Casey also had acquired some knowledge of psychology and apparently was carrying on psychoanalysis in his apartment in the guild house. Father Thomson consulted the vestry concerning this matter; and the members agreed to request that the practice of psychoanalysis in the buildings of Saint Stephen’s should be discontinued since the parish might be held responsible for any psychic damage suffered by patients.[10] Father Casey replied to the vestry’s request in the negative, stating that his priestly functions would be impaired if he were to give up the practice of psychoanalysis. In the light of this decision he resigned and asked to have his name removed from the list of Saint Stephen’s communicants.[11] The entire parish sincerely regretted the severing of the pastoral relationship which this disagreement brought about. Without a question Father Casey was sincere and frequently successful in his intention to augment the pastoral ministry with the aid of psychology. On the other side, the concern of the rector and vestry over parochial liability was not unjustified. Three years later the pain of this unhappy departure was partially mitigated when on Good Shepherd Sunday, 1950, the thirteenth rector of Saint Stephen’s Church invited Father Casey to return to the parish to sing the Mass and to preach. This was a happy occasion for all concerned as witnessed by the fact that the former curate and parishioner preached to a packed congregation. Father Casey continued to teach at Brown for several years and then accepted a position in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He died in 1959, but the memory of his ability, devotion, and charm still lingers in the recollections of many parishioners of Saint Stephen’s Church.

The organizational aspect of the Catholic Movement in the United States began to assume a new shape shortly after the end of World War II. From October 7 to October 25, 1947, a series of Catholic Congresses was held in Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, and Los Angeles. Father Thomson was asked to take part in each of these meetings and to deliver an address on the Sacraments.[12] In the past, the rectors of Saint Stephen’s had been in the vanguard of the national Catholic Movement; and in this way, once again, church leaders outside of Rhode Island recognized the importance of the parish. The following year, in June, 1948, Father Thomson was invited to be a delegate to the International Priests’ Convention held in Farnham, England. This meeting was sponsored by the English Church Union and presided over by the Right Reverend Kenneth E. Kirk, the Bishop of Oxford, and then one of the most notable scholars in the Anglican Communion.[13]

Frequently Saint Stephen’s parishioners were enabled to hear leading Anglican thinkers of the time. In November, 1948, the Reverend Gabriel Hebert of the Society of the Sacred Mission, Kelham, England, preached in the parish church; and in the following month the Reverend Louis A. Haselmayer spoke on the 1948 Lambeth Conference. Father Hebert is a renowned scholar in liturgies, and Doctor Haselmayer an authority on Lambeth.[14] Saint Stephen’s leadership of the Catholic Movement in southern New England has helped the parish to obtain a steady flow of such outstanding churchmen to the present day.

On January 16, 1949, with this parish once again in the forefront, another advance in the organization of the Catholic party was effected by the establishment of the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Church Union. The initial meeting was held in Saint Stephen’s guild house; and it was determined at that time to back a vigorous program, especially since 1949 was the four hundredth anniversary of the publication of the first Book of Common Prayer. In February, 1949, Dom Augustine Morris, Abbot of Nashdom, the leading Anglican Benedictine monastery in England, came to speak to the infant group.[15] Soon plans for the Prayer Book celebration on May 8, 1949, began to take form. The morning Mass at Saint Stephen’s was celebrated according to the rite of 1549. In the afternoon a great meeting was held in the auditorium of the Hope High School, presided over by Bishop Bennett, with guest speakers, the Very Reverend Percy L. Urban, the Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut; and Doctor Clark G. Keubler, the President of Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin. That evening a service of Choral Evensong was sung at Saint Stephen’s; and the Reverend John Seville Higgins, the rector of Saint Martin’s Church, Providence, was the guest preacher.[16]

During Father Thomson’s rectorate church statistics and finances changed little from the latter part of Father Townsend’s time. The parish claimed 479 families and individuals, 995 baptized members, and 765 confirmed members in 1948. There were 6,946 communions made in the church, 287 sick communions, 27 baptisms, 14 burials, 10 weddings, 22 confirmations, and 403 confessions.[17] Although the interest and dividends from investments had increased to $11,200 during the first ten months of 1948, the loose offering had dropped by approximately $1,148. A small gain in number of pledgers, from 278 to 305, was made in 1948, so that by 1949 the parish finances seemed to have improved slightly.[18]

Starting the Second Sunday in Advent, 1948, the Reverend Alan G. Whittemore of the Order of the Holy Cross gave a mission in Saint Stephen’s Church.[19] From the riches of Father Whittemore’s seemingly limitless spiritual depth, those who attended the mission were amply fed. In the tradition of the many valuable Holy Cross missions given at Saint Stephen’s previously, this one also endowed the parish with a spiritual legacy from which it still derives benefit. So long as one person who attended the mission remains alive, the name of Father Whittemore, his staunch faith and articulate exposition, cannot be forgotten.

Throughout the spring and summer of 1949, life at Saint Stephen’s moved along at a normal pace. Father Thomson had previously divided the parish into zones and instituted a vigorous program of parish calling. He had also effected an increase in the parish gift to the Sisters of the Holy Nativity, who accomplished such a large share of the parish work. The prewar amount for their support seemed appallingly minuscule by postwar standards. After the initial years of activity in the rectorate of this young man, 1949 seemed to promise a period of retrenchment and calm. That summer Father Ward took his vacation in July, and Father Thomson left during August for the National Guard session at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod. During the last full week in August, 1949, Father Thomson returned to Providence for a brief period and called Father Ward to meet with him. At this time the rector announced that he had submitted to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence but as of that moment had not resigned from the rectorate of Saint Stephen’s. He also told the curate that he had informed neither the Bishop of Rhode Island nor the wardens and vestry of Saint Stephen’s Church of his action. Shortly after making this surprising revelation, Father Thomson returned to Camp Edwards, leaving his assistant in a quandary. As curate Father Ward maintained a loyalty to his rector; at the same time, as a priest, he was called to a higher loyalty in support of the church from which his superior had so furtively departed.

After considering the problem overnight, the shocked young curate determined to make contact with the wardens and vestry of Saint Stephen’s in order to apprise them of the fact of their rector’s new ecclesiastical status. Father Ward had access to the summer address of Mr. Albert Newman, the treasurer of the parish, who was vacationing on Cape Cod; and so he called Mr. Newman, told him the disturbing news, and found out that Mr. R. H. Ives Goddard, the senior warden, was also on Cape Cod at that time. Father Ward then spoke with Mr. Goddard over the telephone; and Mr. Goddard subsequently made contact with Mr. F. Ellis Jackson, the junior warden, who was at his summer home in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard. At first the wardens and Mr. Newman did not believe the curate’s account of the situation; and in their perplexity they consulted Mr. Horace Weller, able lawyer and vestryman of Saint Stephen’s.

In the meantime Father Thomson had returned to Camp Edwards on Cape Cod where Brigadier General Chester Files, a member of the vestry, was in command of the Rhode Island National Guard unit of which he was the chaplain. On August 26, 1949, Mr. Weller telephoned to General Files and explained the situation to him. General Files was concerned about this news, not only as a vestryman of Saint Stephen’s, but also as the military superior of a chaplain who presumably had repudiated his ecclesiastical connection. The General then brought Father Thomson to the telephone. After posing several questions to him concerning his present relationship both with the Episcopal Church and with the Roman Church, Mr. Weller determined that Father Thomson had at least unofficially submitted to the Roman obedience and that he intended to make a formal submission to the Roman Bishop of Providence within a few days. Directly following this conversation Mr. Weller went to Bishop Bennett and requested that he relieve Father Thomson of all parochial functions at Saint Stephen’s and that he consent to the appointment of Reverend Warren R. Ward as priest-in-charge of Saint Stephen’s Church. The Bishop immediately agreed to both requests and proceeded to inhibit Father Thomson and to appoint Father Ward. The curate accepted the appointment with the following conditions: that he need make no parish calls except upon the sick, that he should have charge of the conduct of parish affairs, that he need not attend vestry meetings, and that he would not seek the rectorate of the parish.[20]

Although Father Thomson’s resignation was announced as of September 1, 1949, it was not until much later that he submitted a formal written resignation which was fetched by the priest-in-charge.[21] During this period, until sometime in October, the former rector and his wife and family were allowed to reside in the rectory. On December 16, 1949, Bishop Bennett deposed the Reverend Paul Van Kuykendall Thomson from the priesthood, having inhibited him from the exercise of his ministry on August 26, 1949.[22] At the time of the formal announcement of Father Thomson’s resignation, the news that he would become an instructor at Providence College, a Roman Catholic school, was given out. He has remained on the faculty of that institution until the present day.[23]

For the people of Saint Stephen’s, as well as for their priest-in-charge, the autumn of 1949 was a time of uncertainty and unwanted publicity. During the Newport clergy conference in the autumn of 1949, Father Ward was so plagued by reporters that Bishop Bennett advised him to return to Providence. Unusually large congregations attended church, hoping undoubtedly to hear something of a controversial nature preached from the pulpit. They were disappointed if their expectations anticipated the bizarre or the dialectical; for the priest-in-charge continued in the normal manner to preach the gospel, medicine enough for any sickness and power enough for any frailty. Several offers of other positions were made to Father Ward while the Saint Stephen’s vestry continued its search for a new priest. He refused each of these calls, since he realized that his duty lay with his present parish during its hour of crisis.

September and October of 1949 were also months of physical strain and emotional tension for Father Ward; and by the end of October the pressure became apparent when he contracted mononucleosis and was sent to Jane Brown Hospital. Fortunately, the Reverend Charles Townsend, Saint Stephen’s former rector, was vacationing in Jamestown, Rhode Island, at this time. The vestry called upon him to celebrate Sunday Masses on October 23, 1949, and he gladly consented.[24] This became the last occasion upon which Saint Stephen’s eleventh rector officiated in the church; for in March, 1950, Father Townsend died and was buried in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.[25] The Reverend Harold Carter, the rector of the Church of the Advent, Pawtucket, gave generously of his time during Father Ward’s sickness, both officiating at services and covering the parish in case of an emergency.

Unknown to anyone outside the vestry, this body had unanimously elected the Reverend Warren R. Ward to be the thirteenth rector of Saint Stephen’s Church on October 20, 1949.[26] While Father Ward was still in the hospital the wardens called upon him and asked him if he would accept. They assured him that he could be certain of the support of the entire parish, as well as of their own cooperation, since a large group of parishioners had banded together and petitioned the vestry to elect their former curate to the rectorate. Mr. Goddard and Mr. Jackson agreed to wait for Father Ward’s answer until such time as he was released from the hospital. In the intervening period this young priest consulted both the Very Reverend Edmundson J. M. Nutter, the dean of Nashotah House, and the Reverend Charles L. Gomph, his former rector. Both knew Father Ward well and also possessed some knowledge of Saint Stephen’s parish. They advised the thirty-one-year-old man to take the call; and on November 1, 1949, the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the founding of Saint Stephen’s, Father Ward officially accepted the rectorate of Saint Stephen’s Church.[27]

At his first vestry meeting, Father Ward made several recommendations which indicated the general tenor of his plans for the parish. He asked that an item of $650 a year be put aside for the support of one seminary student. He also proposed that a fund of $200 a year be set up for parish and college youth work. Fully appreciative of the work of the Sisters of the Holy Nativity, Father Ward requested that the vestry provide their total support, $2,500 a year, in order that their work might be confined entirely to Saint Stephen’s. A long overdue measure which the new rector suggested was the establishment of a committee to make a yearly survey of the guild house and to plan for a major renovation in the near future. Finally he asked for the purchase of new choir and acolyte vestments. Although not all of these recommendations were acted upon immediately, the vestry did approve an increase in the item for the Sisters of the Holy Nativity from $900 to $1,200 a year, and an increase in the contingencies fund from $1,000 to $1,500 a year.[28] As Father Ward’s rectorate progressed, most of the requests which he made at this first meeting with the vestry as their rector were fulfilled.

The institution of Saint Stephen’s thirteenth rector was held on Saint Andrew’s Day, November 30, 1949. A large congregation of parishioners and friends was present at this service for which Bishop Bennett was the preacher. The historic parish, the reins of which this young priest had just received, survived in reasonably sound condition despite the recent turmoil caused by the departure of its previous rector for the Roman fold. The parish register showed 705 confirmed members and 870 baptized members at the beginning of 1950. So far as can be discerned not one member of the parish followed Paul Van K. Thomson. As early as the January 16, 1950, corporation meeting a sound fiscal integrity, characteristic of Saint Stephen’s in recent years, was made evident by the annual budgetary balance of $2,504.71.[29]

Since his election as rector, Father Ward had been searching for a curate. He announced the appointment of the Reverend Frank Albert Frost on January 1, 1950. Father Frost, who had been senior curate at Grace Church, Newark, New Jersey, arrived at Saint Stephen’s on January 15, 1950, and took up residence in the guild house along with the rector who remained there until the rectory, which had been let for one year, was vacated and renovated.[30] With a gift of $5,000 donated anonymously by R. H. Ives Goddard, the vestry was enabled to redecorate the rectory, which was in a shabby state, and to build a two-car garage.[31] Father Ward moved into the Lloyd Avenue house during the summer of 1950. At that time his mother, Mrs. William Ward, came to live with him and to act as the able and gracious hostess of the rectory until Father Ward’s marriage to Miss Alice Keeler Clark on December 27, 1963.

One of the most urgent tasks which the clergy took up during the first year of the thirteenth rectorate was the winning back to the sacraments of parishioners who had lapsed because of the defection of their former rector to Rome. Many penitents, scandalized by his repudiation of Anglican orders, stopped making their confessions. Other devout people had lapsed from their communions. Father Ward recognized that the restoration of regular lay communion would promote increased strength in the spiritual life of Saint Stephen’s Church. At the same time he realized that mid-twentieth century Anglo-Catholic parishes need no longer maintain the customary non-communicating late Mass in order to insure fasting communions. In view of these facts, he announced that all parish Masses, including the late Sunday Mass, would have communions from May 7, 1950, on.[32]

Missions given by members of the Order of the Holy Cross and of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist had contributed immensely to the spiritual life of Saint Stephen’s for more than fifty years. Fortunately, the Diocese of Rhode Island was planning simultaneous statewide missions to be held in each parish between October 1, and October 6, 1950. Father Ward chose the Right Reverend Reginald Mallet, the Bishop of Northern Indiana, to be the missioner for Saint Stephen’s parish. Bishop Mallet conducted an excellent series which was concluded on Sunday, October 8, 1950, by a diocesan mass meeting held in the Rhode Island Auditorium at which the Right Reverend Henry Knox Sherrill, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, delivered the address.[33]

Ever since his arrival, Saint Stephen’s young rector had realized the vital need for education, especially in a Catholic-minded parish where people must love and understand God with their minds as well as with the rest of their faculties. As curate, Father Ward had initiated an adult school of religion, which he expanded after he became rector. At the other end of the educational spectrum, in September, 1950, he instituted a nursery during the eleven o’clock Mass. From that time to this the parish has justly been able to claim that its program of Christian education extends from the cradle to the grave.[34]

We must never underestimate the vitality and commitment which Father Ward gave to the parish during his curacy, while he was priest-in-charge, and after he was made rector. Undoubtedly the illness which overtook him in late December, 1950, and extended through most of January, 1951, resulted from worry and overwork.[35] Even in the rector’s absence his plans for future improvements in the fabric were put forward at the vestry meeting which followed the corporation meeting on January 15, 1951. At this time a renovation committee, composed of Messrs. R. H. Ives Goddard, Albert F. Newman, Horace L. Weller, John Nicholas Brown, Joseph J. Bodell, Jr., Edwin L. Clark, Leo Bayles, H. Raymond Spooner, Mrs. John Nicholas Brown, and Miss Nancy Dyer was formed.[36]

Although the major alterations were carried out several years later, at this time Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Ives Goddard anonymously gave new electric lights and new pew cushions, which greatly enhanced the beauty and convenience of Saint Stephen’s Church.[37] Not long afterward, Mr. Horace Weller donated new kneeling cushions to be used under the nave pews.

While the parish pressed forward the plans for internal improvements, its rector did not forget the acute needs of church institutions beyond the bounds of Saint Stephen’s. In March, 1951, parishioners contributed $817 for theological education to Nashotah House Theological Seminary. Father Ward suggested that the vestry appropriate an additional sum which would bring the gift to $1,000. This it gladly did, and ever since 1951 Saint Stephen’s has contributed an equal annual sum to Nashotah.[38]

Father Frost left Saint Stephen’s to accept a call to the rectorate of Saint John’s Church, Camden, New Jersey, in mid-February, 1951. In March of the same year the rector announced that by June, 1951, after graduation from the General Theological Seminary, the Reverend Hebert Bolles, an ordinand from the parish, would come to fill the curacy.[39]

Even as Saint Stephen’s continued to nurture many vocations to the priesthood, so also did it encourage numerous lay vocations for diocesan church work. The S. Stephen for September, 1951, listed fifteen diocesan positions or committee memberships filled by communicants of the George Street parish.[40]

Continuing a long-standing tradition, a Requiem Mass for the peaceful repose of the soul of George VI, king of England, was celebrated on Wednesday, February 20, I952.[41] Doctor Fiske had initiated this custom at the death of Queen Victoria; and, ever since, a Requiem has been offered after the death of a British monarch.

On October 1, 1952, Bishop Bennett appointed the Reverend Hebert Bolles chaplain to Episcopal students at Brown University. Father Bolles was to continue on the staff of Saint Stephen’s with an office in the guild house. Since the crowded Sunday morning schedule seemed not to allow for a special student Mass in the church, the chapel of Saint Dunstan’s School was used temporarily for the Sunday College Mass. With the permission of the rector, Father Bolles was allowed to use the guild house for student social activities.[42] The Reverend William H. Wagner, Jr., the curate of Saint Luke’s Church, Evanston, Illinois, accepted the call to the curacy of Saint Stephen’s and arrived to take duty on November 16, 1952.[43] Father Bolles remained as chaplain until the summer of 1953 when he left to become rector of the Church of the Ascension, Wakefield, Rhode Island. He was the first full-time Episcopal college chaplain at Brown, and his ministry initiated a new pattern for combined parish-college work. From his beginning in 1952, the college work at Brown, Pembroke, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Bryant College has flourished and prospered. Undoubtedly the two primary factors in this success are the presence of a full-time chaplain on the campus and the nurture which Saint Stephen’s parish has always afforded his work. The Reverend Samuel J. Wylie succeeded Father Bolles as college chaplain in 1953, and the Reverend John Crocker, Jr., followed Father Wylie in 1958. Father Crocker is the present college chaplain. Neither Father Wylie nor Father Crocker has been a member of the parish staff, although frequently Father Wylie did assist with the Children’s Mass and with summer Masses. Their relationship has been that of extended visitor, under arrangements made between the Bishop of the diocese and the rector and vestry of the parish.

In May, 1952, the rector and vestry of Saint Stephen’s initiated a program of renovation in the church and guild house, more ambitious than any similar undertaking attempted since the construction of these buildings. This project was commenced with the repointing of the exterior masonry of the buildings which cost $22,227.[44] Wisely the vestry determined to attempt an increase of the annual pledge rather than to back a capital funds drive. The parish by January, 1953, had 802 communicants, 1,018 baptized members, 318 families, 10,296 communions made during 1952, 202 private communions, 28 baptisms, 22 confirmations, and 5 receptions.[45] The average attendance during this period had also been excellent. For Sunday Masses during Lent the average was 525, for the Lenten evening services 125, for the Lenten daily Masses 12. On Ash Wednesday, 1953, 416 people had been present at Mass; and 250 attended the evening service.[46] Decidedly Saint Stephen’s was showing signs of new life. Nevertheless, the combined lay financial support, exclusive of endowment income, amounted to little more than $17,000 per annum, a rather small sum.[47] If the capital funds for improvements could be borrowed against the endowment fund of the parish, then the efforts of the rector and vestry might be utilized to increase the annual giving, a far more important goal, in the long run, than a capital funds drive for a specific material object.

By March of 1953 the vestry and private individuals already had allocated $65,000 for pointing, storm windows, a ventilating system, new pew cushions, new lights, and guild house renovation.[48] Embryonic plans for a professionally managed every-member canvass had started to take shape. To the horror and shock of the entire parish, on Sunday, March 15,1953, Father Ward was stricken during the sermon with a coronary infarction.[49] At the age of thirty-five, after nearly four years as rector, this young priest had given an important part of himself—his health—to Saint Stephen’s. It had happened before with other priests, and it most certainly will happen again. Few begrudge the sacrifice, so long as a purpose is discernible. For ten weeks the young rector lay in the hospital; and even after his return to the rectory in late May, he was forced to accept a schedule of limited activity. Father Wagner carried on the full round of services during the rector’s illness. So pleased was the vestry with the curate’s conduct of affairs that it presented him a gift in May, 1953.[50]

In the autumn of 1953 the rector and vestry thought it wise to call back the Reverend Emerson K. Hall to assist with services on a part-time basis.[51] Father Hall’s devotion to the parish was once again demonstrated in the faithful work which he carried on during the succeeding year and a half, after which he left to become vicar of Saint Bartholomew’s Church in Cranston, Rhode Island.

As the year 1954 commenced the parish found itself in better financial condition than it had enjoyed for some time. The largest pledged receipts in recent years, a gift of securities amounting to $5,500, and full payment of $7,749 on the diocesan quota for the second year in a row, all helped to elevate the rising morale of Saint Stephen’s people.[52] In February, 1954, Governor Roberts signed a bill which allowed Saint Stephen’s corporation to increase the amount of its tax-exempt property from $500,000 to $1,500,000.[53]

During early September of 1954 the Reverend William Wagner resigned the curacy in order to pursue graduate study for one year. After serving six years as curate of All Saints’ Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts, the Reverend Donald L. Davis came to be curate of Saint Stephen’s on September 19, 1954.[54]

The long-awaited financial campaign, directed by the Wells Company, a group of professional church fund raisers, was initiated by Father Ward and Mr. Goddard, the senior warden, in late October, 1954.[55] By December the canvass had gone over the top with an annual pledged aggregate of $50,792 and twenty-five pledges then not made.[56] The amount of the 1955 canvass was by far the largest in the history of Saint Stephen’s parish, $33,000 greater than the average yearly voluntary contributions before the drive.

Its success generated enough confidence to convince the vestry in January, 1955, to approve expenditures of $11,000 for exterior repairs and $70,000 for interior repairs to the guild house. The officers of the parish were also authorized to borrow up to $180,000 (later this amount was raised to $190,000) for capital improvements, using the parish endowment as collateral. At this time Mr. Horace Weller estimated that it would take ten or twelve years to pay off such a loan.[57] This estimate was cut in half when a generous gift was contributed six years later.

By January, 1955, the total annual pledge amounted to $52,000.[58] Although this sum was raised for current expenses, the astounding success of the campaign bolstered the confidence of the entire parish as it set out to complete the major improvements with the installation of an Austin pipe organ. September, 1955, was the date when the completion of all renovation had been promised; however, delays in supply, strikes, and a hurricane held up the consummation of several projects. The more than seventy-five-rank Austin pipe organ still lacked twenty-five ranks of pipes and awaited a final tuning. Both a strike and a flood held up the woodwork for several of the guild house rooms. The painting in the church interior still awaited completion.[59]

Finally, on December 13, 1955, a dedicatory organ recital, given by Mr. George Faxon, the organist of Trinity Church, Boston, marked the formal completion of the organ and, indeed, of the entire renovation project. Doctor Everett Titcomb of the Church of Saint John the Evangelist, Boston, led a massed choir in Ralph Vaughn Williams’s coronation setting of the Old Hundred and in his own Victory Te Deum. A congregation of 1,000 people was present for the organ dedication which was conducted by the Right Reverend John Seville Higgins, the former rector of Saint Martin’s Church, Providence, who had been made bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Rhode Island in 1953.[60]

While Saint Stephen’s was taking several giant material and financial steps, its leaders saw to it that the spiritual life of the parish and university was not neglected. From December 6, through December 10, 1954, the parish sponsored a mission, given by the English Franciscan, the Reverend Denis Marsh of Cerne Abbas, entitled “The Gospel and the Creed.” The mission was concluded on Sunday, December 12, with a Solemn Mass.[61] Two months later, to an already crowded Sunday morning schedule Father Ward added a 10:10 Mass for college students, which was celebrated in the Lady chapel.[62] In general, the students found an early hour for Sunday Mass inconvenient, since Saturday evenings frequently presented the irresistible temptation to turn night into day. A late hour was essential for any student Mass which might bid for large-scale university support. This sandwiched-in fifty minutes provided the foothold for a growing chaplaincy to university students.

One year later, in January, 1956, Saint Stephen’s made a further adjustment in its Sunday schedule in order both to assist the student work and to facilitate the parish ministry. Starting Sunday, February 12, 1956, the principal parish Mass was celebrated at 9:30, while the 11:00 o’clock celebration (in the fall of 1959 the hour was changed to 11:15 A.M.) was designated the College Mass.[63] In many cases, parishioners did not wish to give up the 11:00 o’clock Mass as the principal service of the day. Fortunately, these parishioners could still attend a Mass at this late hour; for the rector made it clear in a letter to the entire parish that according to the Canons of the Church and the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer every service held within the confines of a specific parish is under the jurisdiction of the rector of that parish and is, therefore, a service of the parish. Father Ward explained the arrangement in this way, “The three Masses on Sunday morning are for the members of the parish and the students. Both are welcome at all services of the church.”[64]

Naturally, the relationship of the college chaplain and his work to Saint Stephen’s parish is covered by the Canons of the Church; but in order further to specify procedure Mr. Horace Weller drew up an informal agreement which served practically to set forth the relationship of the college chaplaincy to the canonically organized parish. This agreement provided that the Mass must always be the service conducted at the late hour on Sundays; that the parish eucharistic vestments would be worn; that the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer should be strictly adhered to; that all services, activities, and space were made available at the discretion of the rector by mutual agreement with the bishop and the chaplain; and that the agreement would be terminable at any time.

In October, 1956, Mr. Weller made a survey of the facilities of Saint Stephen’s employed by the college work and found that conservatively estimated they were worth in excess of $5,000 a year.[65] The parish also paid Father Wylie a small honorarium in exchange for his services conducting the Children’s Mass.[66] Altogether Saint Stephen’s bore, as it always had, the largest single share of any parish in the conduct of the ministry to the campus; and in addition to the gifts of time and space the parish clergy still continued a vital ministry to the students.

Along with the missionary responsibility which Saint Stephen’s assumed in giving facilities, time, and manpower to the college work, several of its vestrymen continued the venerable tradition of diocesan service. Mr. Robert Jacobson, long-time vestryman, was appointed chancellor of the Diocese of Rhode Island; and Mr. Albert F. Newman, junior warden and treasurer of the parish, was again elected treasurer of the diocese in May, 1955.[67] Several years later Mr. Newman died; however, Mr. Jacobson still faithfully serves as diocesan chancellor as well as senior warden of his own parish.

Another healthy characteristic, the roots of which extended back to the very foundations of Saint Stephen’s, was the tradition of sending many men into the priesthood. The parish has presented an unusually large group of men for Holy Orders during the last seventeen years. In 1955 the following men either had been presented during Father Ward’s ministry or were preparing at that time for ordination or for the religious life: Hebert Bolles, Robert Orpen, Alan Smith, Harrington Gordon, Alan Maynard, Frederick Powers, Milton Hurdis, Henry Turnbull, Edgar Wells, Robert Duffy, James Frink, David Jenkins, Strathmore Kilkenny, and Arthur Williams.[68] Since that time Earl West has tried his vocation to the religious life at the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while Sheldon Watchorn presently is a junior professed member of the Order of Saint Francis in England. In 1961 the Reverend Alan Smith made his life profession at the Order of the Holy Cross, West Park, New York, and is now stationed in Liberia. Currently Howard Blunt is preparing for holy orders at Lehigh University.

In addition to encouraging vocations directly, Father Ward has also assisted both David Hogarth and Carl Layer, Brown University students not members of Saint Stephen’s, in obtaining admission to Nashotah House Seminary. Many Brown students from dioceses other than Rhode Island trace their spiritual home to Saint Stephen’s, while countless more have been thankful for its nurture along the road to the ministry.

In 1956 the rector and vestry faced a potentially serious financial problem when they confronted the fact that in two years the pledges obtained through the Wells Company canvass had dropped by more than $10,000, due to removals, deaths, and reduction in pledges. The fact that the corporation was then carrying a $176,000 debt at 4 per cent interest made the 1956 pledge decrease to $41,982.40 all the more dangerous.[69] By means of hard work and careful planning the rector and vestry were able, after several years, to bring the annual pledges to the high mark set by the 1954 campaign. Perhaps the successful investment policy of the vestry’s Finance Committee has, during the past decade, led Saint Stephen’s people to rest too comfortably with regard to pledge support. The Finance Committee is composed of some of Providence’s leading financiers, and the resulting growth of the general endowment fund bears witness to their good stewardship of personal time and talents.

From March 18 to March 22, 1957, the College Work Commission in cooperation with Saint Stephen’s parish sponsored a mission given by the Reverend Michael Fisher of the Order of Saint Francis in England. All parishioners and students were invited to attend the services. Several of these mission services were conducted by Father Ward, and others by Father Wylie. In addition to the mission, Father Fisher gave a number of lectures in the parish and preached on both Good Friday and Easter Day, 1957.[70]

Several honors from groups outside the parish came to Saint Stephen’s people at about this time. In May, 1957, at the annual meeting of the board of trustees of Nashotah House, Father Ward was elected a permanent member of that group of which he had been an alumni member for six years.[71] The year previous, 1956, Saint Stephen’s rector had been given the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by his seminary; and the year following, 1958, Brown University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology. In November of 1957 Mr. Hollis Grant, Saint Stephen’s able organist, was elected regional director of the American Guild of Organists;[72] and on May 19, 1960, Nashotah House Theological Seminary awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. Mr. Grant’s reputation as one of the fine church musicians of the East naturally has led to increasing demands for his services both from the University, where he is the Manning Chapel organist and choir director, and from groups outside the parish, such as the organists’ guild and the University Glee Club. Always he has put the work and interests of Saint Stephen’s parish first, refusing any position or task which conflicted with his church work. As a result, the mixed choir which he has fathered is second to none in the state of Rhode Island and skillfully presents all types of liturgical music from plain song to the masses of Haydn and Mozart. On several occasions Mr. Grant has played organ recitals sponsored by the Mothers’ Club for the children of the parish, so wide is his range of interest and concept of service.

On January 11, 1959, the Reverend Donald Davis announced that after four and a half years as curate of Saint Stephen’s, he had accepted a call to become the curate of Mount Calvary Church, Baltimore, Maryland.[73] Once again the Reverend Emerson K. Hall consented to assist with the services until a new curate could be found;[74] but by mid-February the announcement was made that the Reverend James C. Amo, rector of the Church of the Ascension, Wakefield, had accepted the call to become Saint Stephen’s curate as of April 1, 1959.[75]

Father Amo took up residence in the guild house at about the same time that the corporation voted to give the rector a new residence at 196 Bowen Street. The old rectory had been inconvenient, and so when Mr. and Mrs. Warren Phillips, devoted members of the parish, offered their spacious home to the parish for the low price of $25,000, the corporation voted to go ahead with the purchase and to sell the 147 Lloyd Avenue house.[76]

Two deaths, less than one year apart, grieved the people of Saint Stephen’s parish perhaps more than any other events in recent parish history. On November 19, 1959, Mr. Robert Hale Ives Goddard, long-time vestryman and former senior warden of Saint Stephen’s, died. Mr. Goddard’s wholehearted support of his parish, both personal and financial, could hardly be surpassed or equaled by the record of any layman inside or outside Rhode Island; but in traditional fashion his son, R. H. Ives Goddard, Jr., took the vacant vestry position and continues to carry on the now more than one hundred years of service which the Goddard family has rendered to Saint Stephen’s. Scarcely one year after her husband’s death, Mrs. R. H. Ives Goddard generously offered the gift of the sum of $68,000 to cover the cost of the Austin pipe organ which had been installed in 1955. This sizable contribution eliminated the remaining parochial debt incurred during the renovation. The organ was subsequently dedicated the Robert Hale Ives Goddard Memorial; and the vestry of Saint Stephen’s has since set aside an item in the annual budget for a Goddard Memorial Recital.

The second tragic death was that of the Reverend James C. Amo, Saint Stephen’s curate for only slightly more than a year. This took place on July 13, 1960, as the result of an automobile accident in North Attleboro, Massachusetts.[77] Although Father Amo had been at Saint Stephen’s for only a short time, his selfless pastoral ministry had won him the affection of the parishioners; his ability as a preacher had stimulated many minds; and his capacity for warm personal friendship had brought him close to countless people who needed such a friend and adviser. The day after his death the parish offered a Solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul. The rector, grief-stricken as he was, celebrated the Requiem.

During the rest of July and August Father Ward carried on alone, except for the occasional assistance of several former parish ordinands, the Reverend Robert Duffy, the Reverend James Frink, and the Reverend Harrington Gordon, all of whom were then serving other parishes in the diocese. In September the Reverend James M. Duncan, a former parish boy who had recently resigned the rectorate of the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes in Washington, D. C., came to assist and stayed for nearly two months.[78] The Reverend Emerson K. Hall returned to help with the parish work on a part-time basis in early November, 1960, and has remained as part-time assistant ever since.[79]

The search for a new curate lasted until February 14, 1961, when Father Ward called the Reverend Norman J. Catir, Jr., the curate of Saint Paul’s Church, Wallingford, Connecticut, to come to Saint Stephen’s. Father Catir arrived in Providence on March 15, 1961.

In the spring of 1961 Father Ward suggested that the vestry set up both an extraordinary repairs fund to cover all future renewal of the fabric and a goals committee to discuss and suggest long-range objectives for the parish. The vestry approved of each suggestion and gave authorization for the formation of a goals committee of which Henry F. Tingley, Jr., was made the chairman. One of the first proposals which the new committee made recommended the hiring of a parish education assistant to manage the pedagogical aspects of the church school. In August, 1961, the vestry approved this suggestion; and soon afterward Father Ward appointed the new parish education assistant, Mrs. Robert Mulligan, a graduate of Rhode Island College and a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching at Brown University.

For the past three years Mrs. Mulligan has consistently helped to improve the technical facilities, the teaching methods, and the parish Christian education commitment. During the first year of her work, the church school showed a 50 per cent increase in enrollment; and it continues to flourish. The Children’s Mass under the able direction of Father Hall, the class catechism directed by Sister Mary Joel, and the regular instruction periods conducted by volunteer teachers have all been valuable features of the new Christian education program.

The contributions made by the Sisters of the Holy Nativity to the church school, to the Acoyltes’ Guild, to the Altar and Women’s Guilds, and in a host of ways to the pastoral life of Saint Stephen’s cannot be overestimated. From 1953 until 1962 Sister Veronica, with quiet wit and deep devotion, guided the life of the Providence House of the Holy Nativity. In the autumn of 1962 the Mother Superior of the Sisterhood sent Sister Mary Joel to take charge of the House and transferred Sister Veronica to Bayshore, Long Island. The entire parish regretted Sister Veronica’s departure but has soon come to appreciate the efficient work of her successor. During Sister Veronica’s term as Sister-in-charge, the location of the convent was changed from Cabot Street to its present site, 134 Power Street.

No adequate assessment of any current rectorate can be made because its very contemporaneity renders objective evaluation impossible. Nevertheless the mention of a few of the present rector’s activities outside the parish will give a fair idea of his generous service to both Church and State. In addition to his work for Nashotah House, Father Ward has served on such church groups as the Council of the American Church Union; Saint Elizabeth’s Home, as board member and vice-president; the Diocesan Departments of Missions, Christian Education, Social Relations, and Finance; the Diocesan Council; the Pension Fund Board, as chairman; the College Work Commission; and the Board of Examining Chaplains as both a member and chairman. Saint Stephen’s rector has devoted his talents to such civic groups as the Governor’s Commission on Alcoholism, the Providence Master Plan Committee, and the Corporation of Butler Health Center.

The lay people of Saint Stephen’s exert their influence on the world about them in a similar manner. Three of the four lay delegates to the General Convention of the church in 1961 were regular attendants of the parish: Mr. John Nicholas Brown, Mr. T. Dawson Brown, and Mr. Charles A. Kilvert, Jr. Mr. John Nicholas Brown is a member of the Standing Committee of the diocese; Mr. T. Dawson Brown is a former member of that committee; and Mr. Charles A. Kilvert, Jr., was elected to that same group on May 21, 1963. Mr. Washington Irving is a member of the board of trustees of Nashotah House as well as of the Council of the American Church Union. Through services such as these the work of the Church must always move from the altar to the world and back to the altar again. Many dare to hope that such may have been, is, and will continue to be the consistent pattern in the life and history of Saint Stephen’s Church in Providence.

No one knows what lies in the future for Saint Stephen’s, save Him Who makes past, present, and future. Certainly it holds a secure and enviable position at present; but a parish should not rest secure with the present alone. It must plan for the future. The parish looks forward to the construction of new apartments in both the Fox Point and the Lippitt Hill areas. The members of Saint Stephen’s wait eagerly for any new people who may move within her boundaries and are admirably prepared to accept men of every race and background. The parish was racially integrated long before the contemporary drive for national equality began and is a veritable social, economic, and racial microcosm of the city of Providence. Second, Saint Stephen’s has to pursue the ministry of a large city parish to transients and to people who live at a distance but yet wish to attach themselves to her life. Any great Catholic parish inevitably becomes a center of worship for the surrounding area. Third, Saint Stephen’s must support an enlarged ministry to the college campus. Since the first Bishop Seabury Society meeting on Ascension Eve, 1865, this parish has enjoyed a firm and healthy relationship with Brown University. It has become practically an unofficial part of the campus. President Keeney and the trustees of Brown University have stated their hope that Saint Stephen’s will always remain at the heart of the campus. In the future, the parish work and the college work should be more completely integrated and welded together. Many students realize the need of real parish life while they are away from home. If Saint Stephen’s can claim a geographical parish at all, certainly the campus must stand at the center of its bounds.

The rich life of Saint Stephen’s, strengthened and secured by her regular parishioners, broadened by her visitors, friends, and well-wishers, and made stimulating by her campus ministry, can scarcely be duplicated anywhere in this country. Combine such sociological variety with the parish’s solid and intelligent adherence to the Catholic faith, and a practically peerless combination is formed. With this firm foundation Saint Stephen’s Church can hope for no higher vocation than that of her Blessed Lord, to do the will of Him that sent her.