New Britain herald., 1916-02-04

of the Ascension, one of the wealthy Fifth Avenue churches of the Epis- cOpal denomination, invited the peo- pie of New York without regard to race or faith, to come to it's house 1 of worship for a sermon, and dis cussion on vital problems, every Sun- day night. One half of the attend
 ance on that service has usually been foreign. One third sometimes more
 than one half, has been Jewish The church made an effort to show an in terest in our new Americans and their problems, and many hundred of those
 who were entirely ignorant herewith l could go on to cite a number of il- lustrations of how the walls have fallen down and of how our older Americans are using our best insti- tutions for the solving of the new
 Americans problem. It is also our own problem.
 The Work in New Haven.
 I would like to speak briefly of two or three illustrations of the same sort 1 in New Haven. In the spring of 1913 l the Center church invited the people ! Sunday nights (our main second ser vice being in the afternoon), there in | our church house in a Christian at
 mosphere to discuss some of the vital l problems of our city;-such problems l as those of health, of housing, of con- l ditiOns in factories, hours of labor, l women and children in industry. The l response was immediate and most en- 1 couraging. The socialists gave up their | own Sunday night meeting in order to l come to our forum, and we have had | representatives of every aspect of our city life. This meeting has been val l uable not only that it has given people l of different training and different view | points a chance to become acquainted
 and to exchange opinion; it has also
 given some who held views considered ] by some others to be dangerous an opportunity to let off steam Some of
 them in doing so and in observing the ! way in which their views were re- l ceived, have considerably modified
 those views. Dr.. Lyman Abbot tells
 how, several years ago on visit of
 investigation in the south, an aged
 coIored man said to him, "You 'uns l in the north know somethin's that we
 'uns don't know, and we 'uns down { l know, and mixin' 1arns both" The
 benefit of such meeting as we have ! had in Center church house has been i mutual
 l The last three summers beginning in l May and lasting until October, the 1 people of Center church carried their l afternoon service out onto the porch l and there with organ and a cor l net sometimes with four or five or l chestral instruments, with a volunteer
 choir, and with their ministers, con- l ducted an open air service. We were l fortunate in our location in the very l center of our city green, which is the l centerFof the city, and past which l every trolley car in the city goes, but 1 our average attendance was in the 1 neighborhood of 200 Only once, I | think, did we have less than 100; Ut other times four or five hundred were 1 present. One Sunday, when the weather was somewhat threatening,
 we announced that there would be no | service, but, passing the green few
 minus before the regular hour. one of 1 our ministers observed a considerable group who had alread dy gathered, and so the service was held.
 I believe in special churches for the IL l it our ecclesiastical ministration to l such special service we arc mis~ing a l way of largest opportunitio' re we 1 could make them feel that ti4e.. were 1 welcome, they would come gladly and l in large numbers to our own churches l and this would do in my estimation, l more than anything else save one 1 thing, to undo the misinterpretation i of the church and the Christianity that 1 they have been subjected to and to 1 give them a proper appreciation of the ] meaning of our religious life and of 1 our highest ideals.
 l Personal Contact Counts.
 One thing which will go farther and | which seems to me most important of | all, is the personal contact with these 1 new Americans. We cannot afford for ] our own sakes to ignore them or to all
 low the barriers to separate us from
 them They are here in large num- bers; they are here to stay; they are
 here with ambitions, with high hopes
 and desires; they are here because ! they believe America has much for
 them; they have come hear at great
 sacrifice, in many cases and if we, i older Americans are to cut them off { from personal association from
 i selves we are depriving them and i ourselves of what we both need. Five 1 years ago, the superintendent of our Italian Congregational Sunday school 1 in New Haven, became acquainted with a group of boys. He found that l they were all connected with the Ro-
 man Catholic church, and were not