The Committee charged with the duty of preparing and forwarding this Memorial offering, having accomplished the work entrusted to them, beg leave to submit this Report of their proceedings, and of those incident to the formal presentation of the gift.
In response to the appeal for subscriptions for this purpose, the sum of $381.25 was placed in the hands of the committee. [Of this amount there was expended for the Chalice and Paten, $300; for Letter of Presentation, $20; for express charges to England, $5.25 for Marine Insurance, $3.25; for custom duties and carriage expenses in Great Britain, $21.50; printing and postage, $5.45. Out of the balance of $25.80 this letter is prepared for the subscribers.]
The preferences that were indicated as to the form the Memorial should take mainly favored the selection of a Chalice and Paten for use in the service of the Holy Communion. This determined the action of the committee.
The appropriateness of such selection is based upon the fact that, along with the Episcopate, the American Church has received so important a part of its office for the celebration of the Holy Communion from the Scotch Church.
It was the desire of the committee to secure a design for a Chalice and Paten that should be intrinsically rich in its material and be embellished with such ornamentation as might properly symbolize the purpose of the offering. One was finally adopted, which was entrusted to Mr. R. Geissler of New York to execute. The vessels may be described as follows, an illustration of the same being printed with this letter:
[4] The Chalice stands eleven inches high, and is u! massive silver, covered with delicate and significant embellishments. Around the bevelled part of the lower base, between lines of elaborately wrought mouldings, runs in enameled letters the memorial inscription, as follows:
That they have done for this People. +
From above the base mouldings spring eight arched panels. The front one contains a crucifix, the cross and the figure of our Lord being in full relief. In the panel to the left are the arms of the See of Connecticut, resting on branches of oak. In the one to the right are the arms of the Bishop of Aberdeen, encircled by branches of the thistle. In the panel opposite that containing the crucifix are the emblems of St. Peter and St. Paul. The remaining four panels are filled with the emblems of the Four Evangelists. From this part of the base rises a richly moulded plinth, supporting the lower shaft, which is worked in diaper tracery. The knop of the shaft is enriched with eight elaborately wrought bosses, ornamented with garnets and sapphires in gold settings. Above the knop the shaft has simpler treatment, being worked with quatrefoils in square panels, all in relief. From this rises the bowl of the chalice, which shows solid gilt, enriched with an outer cup of delicately chased silver work, divided into eight sections, to correspond with those of the stem and of the foot. The section above the crucifix shows the Alpha and Omega, entwined by passion-flowers. The next one to the left contains the "I. H. S.," entwined with the grape-vine. The next one to the right contains the "X. P.," with sheaves of wheat. Beginning with the panel next to the right of this, the several ones are filled as follows:--the Greek cross with the thistle; next, the pelican with the rose of Sharon; next, the emblem of the Holy Trinity with the [4/5] clover leaf; next, the emblem of the Holy Ghost with olive branches; next, the crown of glory with palm branches. The Paten is enriched with a golden medallion on the rim, in the form of a vesica, which shows the Agnus Dei, executed in colored, enamel.
The Chalice and Paten, enclosed in a suitable case of ash wood, and accompanied with a letter of presentation engrossed on parchment and bearing the names of all the subscribers, were forwarded to the Rev. Mr. Nichols, of the committee, who attended the centenary services at Aberdeen.
The following account of the presentation of the Memorial offering appeared in the Aberdeen Daily Free Press of Oct. 9th, 1884. The service at which the presentation took place was the one held for the opening of the Episcopal Synod of Scotland:
"At the close of the processional hymn, the Rev. W. F. Nichols, one of the delegates from the diocese of Connecticut, accompanying the Bishop of Connecticut, as his chaplain, on behalf of some of the clergy and laity of Connecticut presented the Bishop of Aberdeen, for the Scottish Church, a Chalice and Paten, with these words:
"MY Lord Bishop--It has been delegated to me by some of the clergy and laity of the diocese of Connecticut--not only those with whom it has been my privilege to share in the events of these ever-to-be-remembered days, but by many whose hearts are following us in all these services--to place in your hands this Chalice and Paten, and to read the explanatory address. By the happy foresight which has characterized the preparations for the centenary celebration, there is placed on the wall of this holy place it copy of that concordat in which the three Bishops of your Scottish Church and the first Bishop of our American Church plighted their troth. It was indeed a "great mystery;" it spoke concerning Christ and His Church. As I sat in this chancel on Sunday last, by one of those coincidences which I believe may occur for the eye of thankful faith as well as for the eye of sentiment, the sunlight which bathed your beautiful city with its warmth, so shone its colors through that south chancel window that at the beginning of the service they fell athwart the concordat hanging [5/6] on the opposite wall. Then, beginning at that, as the service went on, and as the sun circled its daily course, when the time came for the consecration prayer, the light fell upon the sacred vessels of the altar. So the sunlight took its way from the concordat which the exigencies and circumstances of that far-off time demanded, to the symbols of that perpetual concordat which exists in the one body of Christ--between the Head and the members, between the living members of that Body, between the living members and the members of that Body in Paradise. I could not but think that the brief course of the sunlight here might stand for the dial of the: century gone. Exigencies and circumstances that are special, require special concordats. Both Churches then had them, and they framed that agreement. The century has led us around from those exigencies and circumstances to a condition of prosperity, in which the only thought need be of the supreme concordat in the communion of the most precious Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May this Chalice and Paten, the symbols of the renewed troth of the Churches, be the symbols of all prosperity for both, as in the Master's work they enjoy 'the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.'"
The formal letter of presentation was then read, as follows:
"Diocese of Connecticut, July, 1884.
"To the Bishop of Aberdeen, representing the Church of Scotland.
"The Diocese of Connecticut has formally expressed, through its official representatives, its appreciation of the courageous and intelligent action of your predecessors one hundred years ago. But it has seemed to a few of the clergy and laity, who are confident that they represent herein the general feeling of our people, that a further memorial may be fittingly presented; and we beg you to accept, to keep, and to transmit to your successors, this Chalice and Paten, as a token of our gratitude to you and to God for the two great benefits which through you, in His providence, have come to us. Those benefits are the Episcopate and the Eucharistic Office,--the former, to use the very words of your own Bishop Kilgour, 'free, valid, and purely ecclesiastical,' the latter embodying features which are at once an expression and an earnest of those 'catholic and primitive principles,' both doctrinal [6/7] and liturgical, for which the Church of Scotland has long been distinguished, and to which she has pledged the Church in Connecticut.
"The gift which we offer, right reverend sir, is great only in what it thus symbolizes and the uses to which it is consecrated. In these vessels the memorial before God will be presented, and from them the sacrament of life and unity will be dispensed. May that memorial be graciously received whensoever, by whomsoever, and for whatsoever offered. May that sacrament of unity bind together in one us the children with them the fathers who kept that which was entrusted to them, committing it only to faithful men, and who, having departed this life with the seal of faith, do now rest in peace.
"And may the Lord accept the sacrifices and intercessions of His people everywhere, and speedily accomplish the number of His elect, that we, the living, together with them, the departed, may be made perfect in His glorious and everlasting kingdom.
"Faithfully and affectionately yours, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the unity of His Church.
"John Townsend,
John J. McCook,
Wm. F. Nichols, Committee.
"E. E. Beardsley, Chairman of Meeting."
The Bishop of Aberdeen, in reply, said:
"Right reverend father in God, my reverend brethren, and the whole Church in the Diocese of Connecticut, elect of Cod and precious, we receive these sacred vessels at your hands with such feelings of gratitude and thankfulness, both toward God who hath put this into your hearts, and toward yourselves, beloved in the Lord, as no utterance of our lips can ever express. In this beautiful Chalice and Paten, so graciously bestowed on us, we recognize, venerable father and dear brethren of the Church in Connecticut, the expression both of your faith toward God and of your love toward us. In this gift we behold the visible evidence of your faith in the promise of God that endureth from generation to generation: 'When I see the blood I will pass over you;' and your trust in the assurance of His Holy Word: 'The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of [7/8] Christ?' And here, too, is the evidence of your love toward us in that ye long that we should be 'partakers with you in the One Bread and One Body; for we are all partakers of that One Bread." As we use these sacred gifts in our highest act of worship and nearest approach to God, we shall ever rejoice in the consciousness of your love toward us in the communion of saints, and that you share with us in the precious heritage of the great liturgy bequeathed to us by our fathers in the faith. Venerable father and dear brethren, these days of praise and thanksgiving to Cod and communion one with another, will assuredly leave their impression on the Church in America and Scotland for all eternity. Our Eucharistic worship to-day is surely blended with the same worship offered a hundred years ago by our fathers in God and your saintly predecessor in that humble upper chamber. May we who have knelt to-day in the unseen presence of our Divine Lord and Master, unite with them and with one another in the adoration of the unclouded glory of His visible presence for all eternity."
The Holy Communion service was then proceeded with. The Bishop of Aberdeen was the celebrant, the Bishop of Glasgow, epistoller, and the Bishop of Edinburgh, gospeller. The Chalice and Paten were used in administering to all who received the Sacred Elements on the occasion.
The following is a list of the subscribers whose names were appended to the Letter of presentation:
The Bishop of Connecticut, The Rev. F. W. Harriman, The Rev. Prof. Samuel Hart, The Rev. John H. Rogers, The Rev. P. L. Shepard, The Rev. L. T. Bennett, The Rev. G. Rumney, J. Atwood, The Rev. A. T. Randall, G. R. Curtis, The Rev. H. T. Fitch, Mrs. H. Hart, The Rev. C. W. Colton, E. M. Chapin, The Rev. B. M. Yarrington, Mrs. M. Yarrington, Miss Addie L. Sayre, The Rev. W. E. Vibbert, The Rev. C. G. Adams, O. Bulkley, Mrs. H. Perry, Mrs. B. Potneroy, F. Jelliff, The Rev. S. O. Seymour, The Rev. J. F. George, The Rev. K. T. Thorne, The Rev. S. Clark, Mrs. E. F. Bishop, Jarratt Morford, The Rev. Wm. Tatlock, The Rev. Collis I. Potter, Mrs. S. E. J. Hudson, John C. Bach, R. H. Russell, Wm. Nash, Lewis H. Todd, The Rev. J. H. Barbour, The Rev. E. H. Jewett, E. D. Roath, H. L. Parker, C. B. Chapman, P. St. M. Andrews, W. H. Cardwell, N. D. Sevin, H. King, F. D. Wasley, Mrs. Wm. Fitch, R. D. Jones, W. H. Harder, P. Brewer, W. A. Thompson, W. D. Manning, R. F. Goodwin, The Rev. B. E. Warner, E. N. Shelton, A. B. Glover, The Rev. O. Witherspoon, T. L. Cornell, W. T. Bowman, S. G. Wilcoxson, J. H. Barlow, C. E. Clark, C. A. Sterling, J. B. Howe, C. H. Nettleton, E. Lewis, Jr., N. B. Ruggles, The Rev. O. H. Raftery, H. Morgan, T. J. Driggs, S. M. Buckingham, E. R. Lampson, J. C. Booth, N. J. Welton, F. L. Curtiss, E. M. Burrall, Mrs. F. J. Kingsbury, Miss C. Merriman, The Rev. T. R. Pynchon, The Rev. L. P. Bissell, The Rev. T. O. Tongue, The Rev. J. Bradin, The Rev. W. F. Nichols, The Rev. E. E. Beardsley, The Rev. S. J. Horton, The Rev. E. Harwood, The Rev. E. S. Lines, Boardman Wright, M. B. Copeland, The Rev. P. H. Whaley, Mrs. C. J. Russ, The Rev. J. J. McCook, Percy S. Bryant, Miss May L. Sheldon, Arthur C. Leibert, Miss Henrietta S. Wilkins, Charles M. Bidwell, The Rev. Leopold Simonson, Miss Nellie Hutchinson, The Rev. J. H. Watson, Gen. W. B. Franklin, Mrs. E. H. Colt, C. H. Colt, R. W. H. Jarvis, The Rev. Emerson Jessup, The Rev. T. W. Coit, The Rev. W. A. Johnson, The Rev. J. T. Huntington, The Rev. F. Goodwin, Miss M. Seabury Starr, The Rev. John Townsend, The Rev. John The Rev. G. Wilkins, The Rev. Howard Clapp, Mrs. Howard Clapp, The Rev. Francis Russell, The Rev. S. F. Jarvis.
After this service the gift of a Pastoral Staff was made to Bishop Williams, "as a testimonial to himself and to the Church in his diocese." As it was a corresponding expression of kindly feeling to that indicated by the offering of the clergy and laity of Connecticut, it has been thought that gratification would be afforded by adding here a copy of the address of the Bishop of Aberdeen in presenting the Staff, together with that of the Bishop of Connecticut in accepting it.
The account of these is taken from the newspaper before alluded to:
"The Bishop of Aberdeen then intimated to the Bishop of Connecticut that he had been entrusted with the duty of presenting a Pastoral Staff on behalf of the Scottish Church, and requested the dean of the diocese and the Rev. J. M. Danson to bring forward the sacred symbol. This having been done,
The Bishop, addressing Bishop Williams, said: No words of mine can convey to you the feelings of gratitude which animate the hearts of all Scottish churchmen for your remarkable kindness in coming to our shores at this time to celebrate with them their service of praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for the blessing He had bestowed upon the work of their fathers. And as a small testimony to their venerable father and to the Church of his diocese, they asked Bishop Williams to accept this Pastoral Staff. Might he point out that there were portrayed on this staff those figures which represented the history of the Church in this land, and therefore a great chapter in the history of the American Church. He would find on the staff the figure of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. He would find also the figure of St. John, and he [10/11] would find also the figure of St. Ninian, uniting the Scottish succession and ministry with the Celtic Church. He would find also the figure of St. Augustine, signifying that act of brotherly love and communion which they received from the English Church, restoring to them the Episcopacy which in troublous times had been lost. He would also find the figure of that Primus of the Church who was the chief consecrating Bishop of their venerable Seabury, and he would find also the figure of Seabury himself; and in the staff, which he trusted would be borne for many ages by his (Bishop Williams') successors, he would find the figure of himself, who had come to keep this great feast and thanksgiving unto God. In this staff he would recognize the figure of the great Head of the Church giving His divine commission to St. Peter and to all others ordained and consecrated in the same sacred office, "Feed My sheep; feed My lambs." He rejoiced to think that this staff which he and his successors would carry on their confirmations and visitations, and other episcopal acts, would remind them of the sanctuary where they had held their great service to God, and the figure of the Great Shepherd which stood over the altar would not only recall to him the pastoral work which it was his high office and privilege ever to minister, but to seek also the blessing and the favor of the Chief Bishop and Pastor of Souls. Many of the offerings that had been given toward this staff had been the pence o! the very poorest in the land.
The Bishop of Connecticut, in acknowledging the presentation, said there were times and things concerning which words utterly failed, and must fail, to give utterance to the feelings of the heart, and this, let him say, was one of those times,--a day that he could never forget, a day which--though most unworthy of what had been given him he must always feel the devoutest thankfulness for to Almighty God. A hundred years ago they gave his great predecessor there in Scotland the office of Bishop in the Church of God; and now that day, a hundred years after, in the fulness of their loving hearts and kindly remembrances of that great act, they gave Bishop Seabury's successor the sacred symbol of that high office in the Church of God. He only wished it were given to worthier hands; but he could pledge himself to this, that to his successors as they followed him year after year, and, if God so willed, century after century, the staff would be [11/12] handed down as a most sacred deposit and memorial. It would drop from many a hand before another hundred years went by, and there would be another gathering there in that place of sacred memories, but the office of which the staff was the symbol--that office, he thanked God, never died. Men passed away, the office lived on, and though many hands that would hold it might by that time be folded in the sleep of death, he trusted that when the hundred years came round again his successor might come there, as he, Bishop Seabury's successor, had come, to offer to the bishops of the Scottish Church, to its clergy, and its faithful laity, the assurance of their deep love and undying gratitude, that they were bound together in one common bond of one holy faith, and in a common love of one living Lord and of each other. He trusted that day would show the whole world, as this day had done, how 'good and joyful a thing' it was for brethren to dwell together in unity."
From those who witnessed this interchange of tokens of esteem and respect, the assurance is given that the offering from Connecticut gave great gratification, and was received as an expression of that churchly sympathy which is calculated to conduce to the promotion of God's glory by stimulating the scattered members of the one Household to the entertainment of a feeling of more ardent faith and love, elements so needful for the building up of Christ's Holy Catholic Church.
Relieving some record, in a form capable of preservation, of the proceedings connected with the preparation and presentation of the Seabury Memorial Gift from Connecticut to Scotland would be of interest to the subscribers, this letter containing the same is respectfully submitted by the Committee having charge of the matter.
John Townsend,
John J. McCook,
Wm. F. Nichols.
EDWARD C. BEARDSLEY,
Chairman of Meeting.
DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT,
November, 1884.