Waterbury Democrat., 1902-05-26
EXERCISES AT TRINITY.
Rev r. D. Buckley Gives a Review of
 Church Work

priately observed Saturday evening and
 yesterday. The exercises included the
 dedication of the parish house. This
 took place Saturday evening and at
 tracted a very large attendance. ID
 addition to the musical program pub,
 lished herein before, addresses were
 delivered by the Rev Francis T. Rus
 sell, Rev John N. Lewis, Rev Joseph
 Anderson, D. D. Bishop Brewster,
 read the prayer and pronounced the
 benediction. The dedicatory exercises
 were followed by an informal recep-
 tlon
 The church was crowded at the
 morning and evening services yester-
 day. In the evening Bishop Brewster
 confirmed class of forty persons. The
 sermon was delivered by the pastor,
 Rev Frederick D. Buckley, D. D., who
 spoke as follows:
 Language seems scarcely adequate
 to express the feeling of profound grat-
 itude, as looking back over these twen-
 ty-five years and especially over these slast ten years. 1 eXclaim with the
 Psalmist, ''The Lord hath done great
 things for us, whereof we are glad.
 He has heard our prayers. He has
 honored our faith. He has accepted
 our gifts. He has crowned our efforts
 For all of which my soul doth magn1-
 fy the Lord and my spirit hath re- joiced in God my Saviour. Robertson, the apostle of Brighton. said: ..Time flows through the hands of some men like water through the lips of marble statues, aimlessly and all unconscious of it's passing
 Not so, however. have these twenty live years gone to Us. since seldom has there been crowded into q like period of time more real self denying, loving work than has been put into the his tory of this parish by its members. young and old. rich and poor. Trinity IS pre-eminently q working parish and it's members believe with Carlyle that ''all true work is sacred,'' and with Browning that "being anointed with Gods odorous oil we are to reign by wrestling with life's duties." The sue cess age. the unique success of this parish, is due not to witchcraft. but to the fact that nothing is impossible to industry
 At the end of your first fifteen years you extended to me unanimous call To De your rector: and 1 came to you with q desire to merit your confidence and with a hope to win your affection. l found here q beautiful church. which it has been my pride and ambition to guard and to enrich I found here a parish united ill spirit, financially pros porous and with several parochial or ganizations doing most excellent work. There was no attempt made to reyolutioniZe things; the gospel of com mon sense prevailed and the usual commotion which marks a change in the rectorship of parish was in this case conspicuous by it's absence Time which year in and year out keeps going and coming," must inevitably work changes in the inyididual and in the parish. One organization. namely. the Brotherhood of St Andrew. soon passed ont of existence, and this not because the rector was not in sympathy with the brotherhood, but because Wa terbury has not been fertile soil for brotherhood growth. Three new or ganizations have come into being. namely, the Junior auxiliary. the Baby branch and the Altar guild all of Which are doing a helpful work in qulet way. The former rector and my self may differ in many things, yet We agree, l believe. in this that our faith IS in God rather than in machinery. anu we further agree that the church IS 10 Keep her steady way witnessing 70 the permanence of Christ's religion py fast adherence to ancient usages ol Worshlp and by unfailing loyalty to the ancient creed
 At our Easter meeting in 1883 a com mlttee was appointed to see what could De done to better the rectory accommo- datlons. This committee advised the purchase of the house No 65 North WiI- low street
 me house was new, commodious and well situated to be salable should the opportunity ever arise to purchase a rectory nearer the church. The pur- chase price was $12,000 S., 5000 of which was paid, and a mortgage of S7.O0O was assumed for the balance. The Charles Scott bequest of $5.O0O came the following year, which materially reduced this mortgage. and the balance was paid at Easter, 1897.
 At the Easter meeting in 1895 a con- mittee was appointed to take into con sideration the advisability of changing the choir from the gallery to the chan eel. and on the following Easter. 1896. the vested choir sang for the first time. This choir. under the direction of George M. Boyd. rapidly won for itself an enviable reputation for most excel lent work.
 Our late lamented Bishop Williams expressed himself as highly pleased with it's work, while the bishop of Michigan City, Dr White. called it the pest choir in the American church. June 6. 1896, the same committee. act ing under the authority of the vestry. I cut back the choir gallery to it's pres ont position, adding greatly to the at tractlyeness of the church.
 The cost of the work done by this was about S3,000. Early in the spring of 1900 the feeling was quite general that the time had come for a parish house. The parish was out Of iebt and the past year had been un- usually prosperous financially. The total Oeffrings for the year were re- ported as being $6.7SS.O5, which paid Tn overdraft of the past year of S402. .08, the annual expenses, and left a balance 1f $15S.36. This gave the people cour- age and April 24. 1900. the parish voted to build a parish house upon it's own land in the rear of the church. | Soon S1l,9 900 was pledged for the build-