The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-09-24
decide that the minister is not needed

! in winter?
/ All this is quite natural and easily
understood, but 1t is fundamentally
wrong and subyersive OF something in
our village life that IS priceless. 1t
ignores the village and its spiritual
needs, and considers only the trans.
aient summer guests and the minister.
II is not too much to claim that such
policy cannot fail to contribute to the
moral disintegaratlon Of our Vermont
Village life
There is no time when the village
church and the ministry OF wise and
sympathetic minister of the right typo
are so much needed in our villages
as during long winter months, when
so many people are shut off from con.
tact with the world outside; when
communication is SO difficult, when
there is so much deadly dullness and
monotony. II the churches are to be
closed at any season in the year
which Is grave pestion-then, by
al means. let them be closed in the
summer, when il is possible for peo-
pie to get about; when they can con
/ yeniently 20 to some other church,
II they desire, or to visit their friends.
TO close the church in the winter
means nothing less than to add TO
that dreary dulnenss and loneliness
which drives our brightest and best
young men and women away TO the
cities. Instead of closing the church
in the winter-in any Vermont vii
/ lage-special efforts should be made
+ to keep it open, and to extend its
activities. The time for special SER
/ vices, for entertainments, for com.
munity sings and all similar actiyi-
ties, is precisely the long. drearY
winter season
I Is it too much to remind our
friends from the cities that the church
is an integral part of the village life;
that when they go back to the cities
they will have their fine churches,
and all the opulent secular resources
and all the opulant secular resources
Of the cities, While the simple village
folk who remain with have nothing at
all II the church door Is closed? Is
ii too much to ask that they refrain
from thus despoiling and desoating
our village life? If someone should
stand in the pulpit of any American
church next Sunday and tell OF an
4 American community in which for FIVE
or six months In the year no religious
4 service of any kind was held, where
/ there was no res dent minister during
that time, 1t would be easy to get
sympathetic response TO send some
missionary to the people there. And
yet that is precisely where closing
the church for the winter would place
+ the average Vermont village.
And what OF the children? Clos
ing the church means closing the
Sunday school and that means weak.
enihg stin further the already too
slight hold OF the church upon the
rising generation. Ia truth, it means
that they are to have no Sunday
school at all. For when the church
is only opened during the Summer,
when the city folks come. and the
Sunday school is like the Congrega-
ton dominated by city dwellers. the
village children will be too shy to
attend at all. There is not an ex.
perienced Sunday school teacher IN
any Vermont village which has a
large summer colony Who does not
know that already the village chill.
dren are painfully shy in the presence
OF the specifically smarter children
from the city, with their superior
airs and STYLES
a vii age church which is closed
en- Christmas Day and New Years
Night, a Sunday school which is not
= open for the celebration OF Christ.
mas-what a tragedy these things rep.
resent! Do they mean--can they
mean-less than that the village is
, spiritually abandoned?
Let the city dweller ponder well
. upon the significance of the church to
the village he leaves behind. Let the
J city-bred and city-hungermg minister
seek the city if he will aud must,
but let him not dare weaken the hold
r OF the church upon the village.
"rhe problem of the village church
l is. in the main, the problem of get.
ting q minister who loves and under
= stands village life. Such men are
S not scarce. Instead of demanding
S city pulpit orators in our village
D churches, efforts should be made tc
, find village pastors man with his
. heart in the village will not be dis
{ couraged by small congregations IN
@ the winter; he will understand his
a task and his problem too wei He
Y viii not forget the promise that con
\ Germs where two or three are gather
+ ed IN My Name" He will consider
e it worthy and useful service to hole
e individual services with the shut
ins" and their families. He will know
J. t1et the open parsonage and th,
Q friendly visit with the brief prayer
t week by week during the long winte
II months, will be quite as importan
Y and as effective as the brilliant nd
l. dross to the fashionable summer col
o on.
g "To close u village church durinl
e five or six months in the year is wors
e than q mistake. II is an offens
against all that the church stands TO
d and an injury to our rural life"