The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-05-07

A large number of parishioners of the Second Congregational church witnessed the installation of Rev Moses R. Lowell, former pastor of the Mount Pleasant Congregational church of Washington, D. C., as min ister of the Second church last night Present at the ceremony were mem bers of his former church in Wash ington, ministers from other cities in the state, delegates from the Nau- gatuck Valley Association of Con- gregational churches, and members of his present pastorate. He takes the position left vacant by Rev. Dr. Albert Buckner Coe, who is now pas tor of the Oak Park Congregational church, Oak Park, Ill.
 | The sermon was delivered by Rev i Dr. James Gordon Gilkey of Spring field, Mass, while the contralto solo, ist at the affair was Miss Mary Ap- pie of the Mount Pleasant church ir Washington, D. c.
 | Rev. Dr. James E. Gregg of the First church extended the right hand of fellowship to the new pastor in behalf of the Naugatuck Valley Asso- citation of Congregational churches delivered by Rev. w. Moreton owen of the Bunker Hill Congregational church, while the scripture passage was read by Rev. John R. Coombs. assistant minister of the Second church. Other participants in the ceremony were Rev. Clarence E. Wells of Watertown, Rev. Alexander B. Macleod of Poughkeepsie, N. Y.. and Rev. John Stapleton of Phila- delphia, Penn.
 The valley association ministers and delegates met at 5 o'clock and approved the call sent by the com- mittee to Rev. MT. Lowell. this be- ing followed by supper for G2 guests.
 Rev. MT. Lowell. speaking at the meeting of the ecclesiastical council, stated in part:
 ''To those of us who live in such days as these when investigation with it's multitudinous shafts of light Is searching the farthest hooks and corners of the universe. when time has been unrolled like Q mighty scroll and the horizons of space have been pushed back revealing that we live and move and have our being in the midst of limitless vastness when each new day brings forth it's discoveries and adds fresh evidence from far and near as to the nature or the world Tn which we ourselves are a part,-in the light of all take it to be the bounden duty of the he- ligious man to keep an open mind, to look on truth as something neither fixed nor final but continual ly growing under the Accommodating evidence of the new facts.
 T take it to be the duty and the privilege of the Christian minister to forego the quiet seclusion of living on any cabined, provincial claim to spiritual certainty. staked out by gen. erations past. It Is for him to ven- ture boldly forth, to enter into the God given inheritance of this new day and generation and stake out, in- elusive of the latest discoveries ever new and broadening claims to truth commensurate with the facts.
 "If this is Gods world, we need not be afraid to strike a match in 1t, let the light shine where 1t will 1t can only reveal Him at work in His continuing creation. And I am inclined to feel that the rising gen. eration, the educated men and wom- en of our time. with whom more than any other lies the leadership of to-morrow's world, are being estrangd from the church and much that goes with organized religion be-