Part 1 (2/2)
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”Tell the rector of Christ Church that if he doesn't call off the Wo the women of the streets to the polls” And he added, ”He knows I can do it” The boss of old Ward Eight, in which Christ Episcopal Church in don Cincinnati is located, had becoh this incident took place long before the coe, Reverend Frank H
Nelson, the young rector, had discovered that woht to vote in public schoolhis leadershi+p, the Wo as a candidate for the Board of Education John R Schindel, a fearless young lawyer in the Ward This independent action was an open challenge to the doh the courageous laas defeated, and without the aid of the woed the uprising that eventually wrenched the control of Cincinnati fros in Ae of arin in the work of Christ Church a boys, and ultimately involved the boss of the entire city and his powerful hout Cincinnati had been alloted to one of the higher-ups in the organization Within a block of the Parish House of Christ Church was a flourishi+ng candy store, so-called, but the chief ”confection” was a crap gahborhood under the direction of a e and acquiescence of the police department It was inevitable that some s, and whatever of character the church was building up was thus broken down
To ood citizenshi+p club aa especially to boys, and found nearly one hundred throughout the city The publication of their findings was one of many ”shots heard 'round the ward”[2] When in later years Frank Nelson spoke for the City Charter or Reform Party, he knew froood govern overnious faith, without which he was convinced social service and reform work can never attain the best results
Frank H Nelson was Rector of Christ Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, fro been the assistant minister in the year 1899 These forty years in the one parish constitute a career seldom paralleled for breadth of vision and devoted service He becareat city, a crusader for honest yious convictions, oneof his early life and family, and the preparatory years
Frank Howard Nelson was born in Hartford, Connecticut on September 6, 1869 His father, Henry Wells Nelson, the nephew of the Reverend E M
P Wells, a pioneer in early Christian social service in Boston, was the Rector of the Church of The Good Shepherd in Hartford Before Frank was ten years old, his father accepted a call to Trinity Church, Geneva, New York, and there exercised a distinguished e town situated on lovely Seneca Lake, was an ideal place in which to bring up a fae, Frank, Mary, and Dorothea George now lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, and Mary, who married Edward L Pierce, lives in Princeton, New Jersey After the father's retirearet and Dorothea lived with their parents in the family home at North Marshfield, Massachusetts where they still reside Frank was not a strong child, but in the freedoained strength rapidly A sister relates that he was unusually venturesome, and so on stilts on open rafters, and by frequenting the canal, where once he fell in and was pulled out by a bargee As all boys do, he roamed the environs of his ho into all kinds of o unpunished because of doting parents, he was always firmly chastised for his pranks
The influence of both father and - The father possessed that happy coion As he was deeply and naturally spiritual hiion in his ho The last twenty-five years of his life were spent in blindness, but his courage and his deepened understanding of the ways of God because of this affliction led him to a thankful acceptance of his li interest in people ”made the latter years of his ministry,”
to quote Bishop Lawrence, ”as fruitful as the more active ones” His devoted wife, as Hortense Cheis of New London, Connecticut, guided the children through their forent ood literature, the fa to her readings froreat writers Her fine gifts of interpretation lish prose and poetry come alive In later years, Christ Church people were to love Frank Nelson's readings at Christmas parties in the parish house and in his own horew the deeper became his appreciation of the character of his parents An intimate friend once said to him, ”You are a fortunate and a blessed man to have had such a father ande of thirteen, was sent to aristocratic St
Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshi+re The head teacher of the old New England type, stimulated the natural student, and under his influence Nelson achieved a scholastic standing a the first five in his class He was not particularly skillful in athletics, and had even then a cough which persisted throughout his life The lad was not noticeably popular, and had e measure of shyness peculiar to adolescence He was extremely sensitive, somewhat unhappy, and in many accomplishments and activities was overshadowed by his older brother as in the saraduation from St Paul's School, Frank returned to Geneva and entered Hobart College, a san to find himself, and becae he took more active interest in athletics and participated in rowing, tennis, and track, he never excelled in sports At his graduation in 1890 he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, _Magna cu valedictorian and a hout his life heto know the successive presidents, and in 1907 was instruye In 1906 Hobart bestowed upon hiy
In the course of his undergraduate days at Hobart, Frank Nelson had seriously considered the profession of the raduation found hi the close of his college years was one of critical i expedition to the state of Washi+ngton
The party put up for a while in Merrysville, a rough- town of the old West Into this place there came one day a circuit rider who fearlessly preached the Gospel in the face of opposition and outright hostility This Methodist minister was utterly sincere, and Nelson sahat could be done by the sheer power of the spirit against the forces of evil It surged over hi, an inner conviction which at the same time was set aflame by a Communion Service held for the surveyors in the out-of-doors The circuly different from those associated in his mind with such a service
Possibly for the first time in his life he was intensely conscious of the presence of God As in all such experiences the vision illu It has been said that in all great Christian leaders and reformers are found two elements: ”The imperious commission from above, and the tumultuous experience within” Both these elements were present in the experiences of that eventful su thecalled to preach the Gospel
In the light of this happening one is not surprised that later when a professor dogmatically stated that there could be no true Sacrament without the Apostolic Succession, Nelson walked out of the classroo to hih his forty years' ministry in Christ Church, this experience in the far West sheds light upon his burning sense of mission, for in those hours of inward tu of bread and in the society of his fellows, conditions which he preached throughout his life as being always the essence of fellowshi+p with God
On Septeical Seminary in New York City The General Seovernment of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, and while it has always been characterized by a conservative type of churchmanshi+p, all shades of opinion were and are to be found within its faculty and student body At this time the respectability of the Episcopal Church was considered an asset and not a liability, and the Seminary co round ell-known and whose intellectual gifts and social graces were obvious, entered this environment, it was inevitable that he should iraduate body His tall, coure naturally attracted notice, and within a few days he was elected president of his class There wasthe socially distinguished in both seminary and city His fellow-students at General, when speculating about the future, as students do, always considered hihout those now remote years he clearly revealed the qualities of the born leader His class was a notable one, and through the passing years gave a good account of itself, listing four bishops and ten honorary degrees, Frank Nelson hiy from the General Seminary in 1934
As a student he excelled in Pastoral Theology, Biblical Learning and Evidences, subjects which in their nature give some indication of his intensely huical students, he was groping and feeling his way through the ht of God One of his classmates says that the curriculum and the methods of instruction in that day bear poor comparison to modern standards, but Nelson, unlike many students, was never in a state of open or even tacit rebellion He did his work faithfully and well He was graduated in 1894, but for soree of Bachelor of Sacred Theology, which is the mark of scholastic distinction at General On May 19, 1894, he was made a deacon in his father's church in Geneva, New York by the Right Reverend Arthur Cleveland coxe, the Bishop of Western New York During his senior year he had assue's Church, New York City, and after his ordination was quickly absorbed into the work of that great parish Because he did not feel ready, Frank Nelson, at his own request, was not advanced to the priesthood until Novee's Church by Bishop Henry Codman Potter of the Diocese of New York
Another important element in Mr Nelson's preparation for his unique ministry in Cincinnati was this experience on the staff of St George's Church from 1894 to 1899 under the prophetic leadershi+p of the Reverend Williaifts and exerted an incalculable influence upon the Episcopal Church He gathered about hi e's stands as the pioneer of as known as the ”institutional church,” and in theactivities of the parish house and a heterogeneous congregation, Dr Rainsford set loose his young and enthusiastic assistants They experienced a training coained by an intern in a e these ion, and their rector set a standard of preaching, parish administration, and pastoral care that not one of his ”boys,” as he called them, failed to practice in an unusualof the essentials of Christianity as opposed to those aspects which are merely traditional, and his forceful efforts, radical for those tinificant contributions to church life throughout A influence upon all his young assistants, he set his staree upon Frank Nelson For the first ti of a cultured ho his afternoons clis in the parish house He caling humanity If ”The Rector,” as Dr Rainsford's ”boys” called him, bade them preach on the street corners, he hiious faith were those of a living St George touched with the heart-stirring Gospel of Love Under hi Nelson found the services and work of the church taking on a s concerning the Church, doctrine, and ritual, which had formerly perplexed his youthful mind, now seemed subordinate
Dr Rainsford evoked a loyalty which held his young raduated,” and when he died in 1933 at the age of eighty-three, many of his fore's for the burial service One as present said, ”We shall not see a service like that again, for we shall never see and know another Rainsford” Eulogies are not customary at funerals in Episcopal Churches, but on this occasion the tradition was fittingly broken, and Mr Nelson delivered a brief address fro voice, barely audible at ti tribute, the speaker reveals much of himself:
I am not here to presume to speak of the h the imponderable, to measure the immeasurable--but only to say a word out of our hearts of thanksgiving to God that the rector was our rector in the days that are passed, was The Rector always and will be always, for those who knew hiave that tremendous love of his
A book ritten by a friend of his soo, and the dedication of that book was this: ”To William Stephen Rainsford, who has seen the Christ and has shown Him to men”