The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-04
MIR. CHALMERS ACCEPTS
THE CALL TO THE GRAND ATEN LIE
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.


 Saginaw Church sunday -WiIl Begin
 Hero About October 1-What is Said
 Of Him in Saginaw,
 It is gratifying to the congregation
 of the Grand Avenue Congregational
 church to know that Rev. Andrew
 Burns Chalmers has accepted the cal
 to Grand Avenue Congregational
 church. A telegram has just been re-
 ceived announcing his acceptance by
 the church committee on new pastor
 Mr. Chalmers will begin his work here
 about October 1 and will remove his
 family here in the meantime. He hand
 ed in his resignation to his Saginaw
 church last Sunday, preliminary to ac-
 6epting the call here. The committee
 are now negotiating for the rental of a
 suitable home for him as the church is
 not the possessor of a parsonage. As
 all are interested in the coming of
 the new pastor the following from the
 Saginaw Evening News will be of
 much interest:
 Rev. A. B. Chalmers, of the First
 Congregational church, has received a
 call to the pastorate of the Grand Ave- nue Congregational church of New Haven, Conn. Yesterday meeting of the prudential committee of the First Congregational church was held and MT. Chalmers announced the fact to them.
 The announcement has been received with consternation by the committee for the relation between the pastor and people has been of the pleasantest and the thought of losing him comes as blow which is severely felt.
 The call comes from one of the best churches in the home of Yale college. The church stands second in size among the eighteen Congregational of New Haven, has a membership of nearly 800 and is very strong both spiritually and financially. The call grew out of the supply work which MT. Chalmers did for the church last summer, year ago this and last months, when he preached in the New Haven church four Sab baths to relieve Dr. James Lee Mitchell, the pastor. Dr. Mitchell resigned April to go to Attleboro, Mass, and the church finding itself without pastor turned to MT. Chalmers. The call was voted upon by the church with abso- lute unanimity upon the first ballot taken for a pastor, though there were between 156 and 200 applicants for the place, and despite the fact that MT. Chalmers had never appeared before the congregation as an applicant for the place. MT. Chalmers was asked to come to New Haven this summer and preach for the church again, and at the same time was asked to consider the call
 The offer is very fine one. The church organization is seventy-five years old. Dr. Burdett Hart, now pas tor emeritus, has been with 1t for for ty-six years, living for the last eleven years in Philadelphia, since he was made pastor emeritus. The salary ] which is offered MT. Chalmers is a very | increase over that which | he is receiving here, though the church | has shown its appreciation of its pastor | by increasing his salary once since his | coming here four years ago. Mir Chal- mers has reason to feel gratified at the | offer, though his powers as a preacher | and his ability as a pastor have won him the highest esteem in the fields in which he has worked and this has been by the people of the New Haven church,
 MT. Chalmers In advising the pruden- tial committee of his church of the call which he has received, did not present his resignation, but told them that he 'elt much drawn to the new field, for various reasons. Not the least of these s the fact that his brother, Rev. Thom- IS Chalmers, Is pastor of the First Congregational church of Manchester. N H., and Mrs. Chalmers brother, the Rev. William Knight, has charge of the Central Congregational church of Fall River, Mass. There are many attrac- i've things about the place also it's To- .ation, near New York, the fact that he town Is the home of Yale college, md the unamimity of the call, with the Advantages of probable long pastorate which the record of predecessors makes 
 Mr. Chalmers was asked by the News his morning whether or not he expect d to accept the call. He replied that e could not state at the present time, g he is not yet in position to take ction, for the reason that the New Haven church as a legal body has not ct taken action upon the call, and hough this is a mere formality, 1t Is till necessary before he .can~give his ecision. He admit ted, however, that he field is very attractive to him, and
 is probable that he will accept. Tn l peaking of the matter he said that he , elt the deepest regret in the thought : f leaving his pleasant charge here, .here he has received uniform kind , ess and support and he spoke in the [ terms of the attitude of the , eople here toward him and of the en- ,yment which he has found in his ork here. If he decides to leave Sag law it will be with the sense of sev- I ing close ties. | The people of the church feel that the ' se of MT. Chalmers will be ~great I 1e to them. He has been with the ! lurch for four years, lacking but five r onths. In that time the debt of four en thousand dollars, which was upon le church when MT. Chalmers came \ gre, has been wiped out largely c trough his efforts. Four hundred and D