The Cowley Fathers in Philadelphia

By Steven Haws CR

This is the story of an Anglican Religious Community established in the parish of Cowley, Oxford, England in 1866—the Society of S. John the Evangelist. From their geographic location they soon became known as “The Cowley Fathers”. Four years later they expanded their work in America, first in Boston and later in Philadelphia where they were invited to take charge of S. Clement’s Church. Soon after their arrival there was suspicion and misunderstanding on the part of many in the Diocese of Pennsylvania who did not accept this mostly foreign group of priests from England. The deep compassion for the poor and marginalized, the relief work in the face of tragedy and disaster won their critics over and eventually opposition ceased. The Cowley Fathers whose influence attracted the poor and wealthy soon spread beyond the confines of the parish. Their ministry through teaching, preaching, retreats, missions and spiritual counsel attracted many. Interest in the Society grew. By the end of the 19th century there were branch houses in India, South Africa and Scotland. This book offers a unique account of the SSJE Community in Philadelphia and the parish they served.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728386799

Steven Haws CR

Steven Haws is a member of the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, England

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The Cowley Fathers in Philadelphia

Steven Haws CR

Dedicated to

the memory of

Brother Anselm SSJE

1914–1945–2000

Father Alan Bean SSJE

1913–1947–2009

Members of

The English Congregation of

The Society of St John the Evangelist,

Cowley St John, Oxford

who gave much encouragement and support when discerning my own vocation.

Their friendship, hospitality, and spiritual direction spanning more than twenty

years has been filled with many blessings for which I give deep thanks.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This brief story of the Cowley Fathers in Philadelphia would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of the Superior and brethren of the Community of the Resurrection, who allowed me study leave for this project. There are many people who contributed to this book through their own writings (which have been used and are mentioned in the endnotes and elsewhere), but I wish to record my thanks in tribute to the memory of the following: Miss Maisie Ward, Miss Mildred V. Woodgate, Father Herbert E. W. Slade SSJE; Father Robert C. Smith SSJE; Father Edward C. Trenholme SSJE; and the Revd Franklin Joiner. And to those who are still amongst us, I would also acknowledge my thanks: Father Adam McCoy OHC; the Revd Jervis S. Zimmerman, Father Peter CSWG and Mr Michael Hall.

A number of letters and reminiscences came from the pens of those who knew the Cowley Fathers personally in Philadelphia, including the Revd Erskine Wright, a former acolyte and choirboy and member of the parish, who later became a curate at S. Clement’s during the rectorship of Father G. H. Moffett; Henry Flanders, lawyer and a member of the Vestry of S. Clement’s; Caleb F. Wright, who also served on the vestry; and Arthur W. Howes, former choirboy who later served as an acolyte in the Guild of S. Vincent. I am indebted for the kind help received from the staff of the Oxford History Centre at Temple Cowley, Oxford; the Society’s Archives housed at the Church of England Records Centre, London, with special thanks to Simon Sheppard, who had the herculean task of cataloguing the entire archives of the Society in England; his assistant archivists Krzysztof Adamiec, Rachel Cosgrave, Susan Robin, Rosemary Munro; and others.

It was profoundly sad that the Society’s archivist in America, Brother Eldredge Pendleton SSJE, died on 26 August 2015. I was due to meet him in November 2015 and had so many questions to ask him about the early years of the Society as only he would have known the answers. I had read his biography of Charles Chapman Grafton, a co-founder of the Society who later became Bishop of Fond du Lac with great interest and was looking forward to meeting him, but this was not to be. However, the Superior at the time, Brother Geoffrey Tristam SSJE left the invitation open for me to visit the monastery, which I was glad to accept. After an eight-hour train journey from Philadelphia to Boston, I arrived at the monastery in Cambridge. Brother Geoffrey was away in England, but his assistant, Brother James Koester SSJE could not have been more helpful. After giving me a warm welcome, he gave me access to the Society’s library. Brother James is the current Superior. I am especially grateful to him and all the brothers for their kind hospitality, as well as the added joy of attending the daily office and Mass with them in their beautifully restored chapel.

I owe a debt of thanks and gratitude to the Revd Richard Alton, rector of my home parish, S. Clement’s, Philadelphia, for allowing me access to the parish archives, where I spent many long hours of research. He has been supportive of this endeavour, which made it possible to access the extensive collection. I am also grateful to fellow parishioners Anne Bower, who gave much encouragement and provided relative archival material and to Elizabeth Nardone for the photograph of Father Convers. I am also indebted to the parish archivist Barbara Henry, who has been most helpful in locating some sought-after correspondence and photographs. Sister Mary Julian CHC provided a photograph from her community’s archives of Father Grafton SSJE who served as their confessor of the Community of the Holy Cross when they were living in Wapping, London in the 1860s.

Thanks to Lambeth Palace Library for permission to reproduce photographs from the SSJE Archives in London, to Ann McShane of the Library Company of Philadelphia for permission to use a rare early photograph of an interior view of S. Clement’s Church and to Martha C. Eischen, whose contribution about her late uncle Arthur Cooper, who joined the Society, was a welcome addition. I am grateful to Dr Serenhedd James, author of the History of the Cowley Fathers, who not only copy-edited the manuscript but also gave invaluable help and advice.

This book would not have been possible without financial assistance from the Yarnall Library of Theology of S. Clement’s, Philadelphia; a benefactress who wishes to remain anonymous, and Christ the Saviour Monastic Trust, Crawley Down, Surrey, UK. In dedicating this book to Brother Anselm and Father Bean I have included their year of birth, year of their profession in the Society and year of their death.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1     1859

Chapter 2     Foundation of SSJE

Chapter 3     Dr Spackman’s Successor

Chapter 4     Father Hermon Griswold Batterson

Chapter 5     Father Theodore M. Riley

Chapter 6     The Arrival of the Evangelist Fathers

Chapter 7     Father Oliver S. Prescott SSJE

Chapter 8     Father Basil W. Maturin SSJE

Chapter 9     Father George Edmund Sheppard SSJE

Chapter 10   Father Charles Neale Field SSJE

Chapter 11   Father William Hawks Longridge SSJE

Chapter 12   Father Duncan Convers SSJE

Chapter 13   Brother Maynard SSJE

Chapter 14   Beyond the Parish

Chapter 15   Withdrawal

Chapter 16   Memorials

Endnotes

Illustrations by Chapter

INTRODUCTION

The monastic or religious life can be traced as far back as the year AD 250, when the first monks and nuns lived in the desert of Egypt living a life of unceasing prayer. They heard the call of Christ to literally renounce all. These monks and nuns began monastic life as solitaries in the desert. Eventually they grew into communities, which developed further through their returning to the centres of civilisation, the great cities of the Roman Empire. Here they ministered to the needs of the poor, the sick, and the needy and contributed to the building up of social and cultural life through the spread of education in schools and other places of learning. Liturgical life of local churches was also enriched by the monastic patterns of daily corporate worship through the Divine Office and the Mass. Since that time, religious life, echoing the witness of the early Christian martyrs, has in its purest expression proved a mainstay of the church and provided powerhouses of prayer for living out the church’s faith with dedicated commitment, inspiring mission and service.

During the sixteenth century in England, there was upheaval in all the convents and monasteries when they closed or were destroyed. It wasn’t until the beginning of the nineteenth century that religious life was revived in the Church of England through the Oxford Movement. The first communities were active sisterhoods working in the slums amidst the poverty and disease of the cities. Their work soon spread to America and other parts of the world. Attempts were made to establish religious communities of men both in England and in America, but there was little success. It wasn’t until 1866 that the Society of St John the Evangelist (SSJE) became the first stable community to be established. It remains the oldest religious order of men in the Anglican Communion. Four years after its foundation in Oxford, the SSJE arrived in America, where they would later set up a branch house in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1875 the Vestry of St Clement’s Church, Philadelphia, invited the Society to take charge of the parish. Three of the SSJE Fathers arrived in that city the following year. The Diocese of Pennsylvania at that time was mostly comprised of low to middle-of-the-road parishes overseen by an uncompromising Evangelical bishop who had no sympathy for anything Catholic. While a number of parish churches were founded as a result of the Oxford Movement, there was little or no ritual practices being used that would cause offence, in part because these parishes were promoting the principles of the Oxford Movement at a time when Protestant suspicion and opposition was growing.

In 1976, America was celebrating its two hundredth anniversary of political independence. That same year, St Clement’s, Philadelphia, was celebrating its own religious freedom, commemorating the centenary of the arrival of the Cowley Fathers in the parish. Unique amongst many of the churches in the diocese, St Clement’s became the first parish to have the pastoral oversight of an Anglican Religious order of men living together under vows, and it was the only parish where their ministry was sustained for fifteen years. This story is an attempt to highlight some of the work in which they were engaged, particularly in the area of social welfare amongst the poor. In a diocese which has largely forgotten the contribution religious orders had made, one parish stood out in its decision to invite the Society of St John the Evangelist to take charge of its spiritual needs. The Society’s founder and a few others had been directly or indirectly involved in the formation of the early sisterhoods founded in the Church of England, offering advice and guidance in drawing up a rule and constitution. Two such communities of women had been invited to America in the early 1870s. They settled in Boston, Massachusetts, and Baltimore, Maryland. A decade later they established Mission Houses in Philadelphia. In the early part of the twentieth century a third religious order of women, an American foundation, came to Philadelphia, where they served in the diocese for nearly forty years. The history of the Diocese of Pennsylvania makes no mention of the life and work of these communities of Sisters who ministered in parishes and regularly led quiet days and retreats.

The All Saints Sisters of the Poor were the first to arrive at St Clement’s in 1880, and in 1889 the Society of St Margaret (whose founder was the Revd John Mason Neale) was sent to St Mark’s Parish, Locust Street, and its mission chapels. The Sisters of St Margaret for a time were in charge of the Home of St Michael and All Angels, West Philadelphia. When St Michael’s House closed, the Sisters continued working in parishes and were later invited to take charge of St Margaret’s House, a retreat house on the grounds of St Luke’s Church, Germantown. The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity (founded by Father Grafton) were invited to open a Mission House in St Clement’s Parish in 1924. Unfortunately with a shortage of vocations, the Sisters of the three religious orders eventually withdrew from these parishes.

This book is the work not of one person but of many people and includes anything from biographical information to personal reminiscences of the members of the Society of St John the Evangelist who were working in Philadelphia at the time. The first five chapters describe the early beginnings of St Clement’s Church, Philadelphia; Father Richard Meux Benson as Vicar of Cowley, Oxford, England; his foundation of the Society of St John the Evangelist; and the four rectors who served St Clement’s Parish prior to the Society taking charge. The next eight chapters relate to the arrival of the Evangelist Fathers, with personal accounts of the brethren and their parochial activities. The final three chapters are devoted to their ministry and witness beyond the parish, their withdrawal from Philadelphia, and the legacy they left behind.

I have made many visits to the Society’s archives, now located at Lambeth Palace Library in London. The SSJE Archives had been kept at the Mother House in Oxford until 1980, when they were sent to St Edward’s House, Westminster. In 2012 they were removed to the Records Centre of Lambeth Palace Library. A good deal of material has been found, including letters of correspondence and chapter minutes. However, the research for this book has left some gaps. Reporting in the Cowley St John Parish Magazine and in written accounts of the Society’s work in America says very little. Scant details of the movements of the SSJE members were rarely reported. In most cases the parish magazine mainly focused on the missionary activity of the Fathers at home in England, India, and South Africa.

Readers of this book will no doubt come across particular words, notably in Chapters 7 and 12, which should not be construed as something endorsed by the author. It should be pointed out that the words only appear in the context in which they were originally written in the nineteenth century. Such language that is now outdated, offensive, and unacceptable. The words merely reflect what had been described or reported in the newspapers and journals of a particular era in America.

Although the Society archives in America are temporarily in storage, on a visit to the Monastery of St Mary and St John in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I was privileged to access their library and peruse the many volumes of early Cowley St John Parish Magazine and Cowley Evangelist. The archives at St Clement’s, Philadelphia, produced a sizeable amount of material, but unfortunately several volumes of the parish magazine were missing from the collection, including the years 1872 to 1882. This was unfortunate since they probably would have given an account of the first parochial mission conducted in the parish by Father Grafton and Father Rivington, as well as accounts of the incumbencies of Father Riley and Father Prescott. The magazines that survived from 1883 to 1891 advertised the rector and his curates living at the Clergy House, though the Fathers themselves tended to use the name Mission House, which they adopted in deference to the Society.

The Cowley Fathers in Philadelphia highlights the Society of St John the Evangelist during their fifteen years of ministry in the City of Brotherly Love. In spite of the hardships and struggles the Society and parish faced from opposing factions within and without the diocese—and it is easy to perhaps focus on the negative—this story speaks on a positive note of their lives and work in the nineteenth century. This is not a history but merely a story through the eyes of many. It commemorates the Cowley Fathers’ presence in Philadelphia. While much emphasis is made these days in the Anglican Communion of vocation in terms of the ordained ministry, one of the Church’s best kept secrets, according to Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, is the Religious Life which is not something that is very well talked about or promoted. We cannot seriously claim to be part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church if it lacks monastic/religious life. Few people choose this radical way of Christian life and service, yet it is vital for the church in our own day. Friars, Monks, Nuns, Sisters, and Brothers are no different or better than anyone else but are simply answering a call to serve God in a particular way that involves stability, sacrifice, and a sense of humour. God calls both men and women to follow him. The Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist taught his spiritual sons to become Men of the Moment—living the religious life in the present.

Steven Haws CR

House of the Resurrection,

Mirfield

Feast of the Epiphany 2019

The Cowley Fathers in Philadelphia

A Chronicle Commemorating the Society of St John the Evangelist and Their Ministry in St Clement’s Church, Philadelphia

CHAPTER 1

1859

In the Quaker city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the first Sunday of the New Year 1859, a new church opened its doors in the Logan Square section of Center City. St Clement’s Church held its first service of Morning Prayer and sermon. The parish had been founded on 13 September 1855, and its charter was incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The first rector was the Revd Dr Henry S. Spackman, who had been an assistant minister of St Matthew’s Church, Eighteenth Street and Girard Avenue, in the Francisville section of the city. Dr Spackman had been a politician before he entered the ministry of the Episcopal Church. Ordained deacon in 1846 in St Philip’s Church, Philadelphia, he was ordained priest the following year. He became an assistant and then the rector of St Mark’s Church in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, a position he held until 1853. That year he became assistant minister of St Matthew’s, which lasted until his election as rector of St Clement’s.

Although there are no records of the first congregation of the newly organised parish of St Clement, it is more than likely that several members of St Matthew’s joined Dr Spackman in this new venture. Amongst the first vestrymen of the new parish were George W. Biddle, John Cook, C. Campbell Cooper, George H. Kirkham, John Lambert, J. Dickinson Logan, Charles S. Pancoast, and John R. Wilmer. Dr Spackman was a cousin of William Savory Wilson, who owned the land on which St Clement’s Church was built. William’s mother was Rebecca Bellerby, who married Edward Wilson in 1802. Elizabeth Anne Bellerby was her sister, who married Samuel Spackman in 1804. They had several children, among whom was Henry Spencer Spackman, born on 24 January 1811 in Philadelphia, who officially assumed the rectorship on 1 January 1856. Four months later, on 12 May, the foundation stone was laid by the Right Revd Alonzo Potter, bishop of the diocese. An early photograph taken sometime between 1856 and 1857 shows the exterior of the apse and nave in its final stages of completion. The first storey of the tower was nearly completed with the spire yet to be added.

We do not know where that first congregation met for divine worship before the church was finished. That seems to be shrouded in mystery. When Dr Spackman was elected rector, he was living at 993 Jefferson Street. In 1858 he moved to 2101 Jefferson Street, where he lived until 1860, which was the year he moved to 2001 Cherry Street, directly across from the completed church. At this time the church was surrounded by fields with only a few houses built on the north side of Cherry Street, west of Twentieth Street. A number of houses were built on Arch Street. The church stood roofless for some time because of financial difficulties. However, the church, designed by John Notman in the Romanesque style of Connecticut brownstone, was finally completed in December 1858 and accommodated one thousand worshippers. Associated with Notman was George Wattson Hewitt, who designed the two-hundred-foot spire.

The church was built by Archibald Catanach, who was born in Scotland in 1808 and later immigrated to the United States around 1828. He settled in Philadelphia in 1855. Catanach was related to Notman through marriage, having married Notman’s sister Margaret. When St Clement’s was officially opened, it was quite plain and simple. According to the Revd Erskine Wright in his Recollections, the chancel was first located in a shallow apse at the west end of the church. At the east end facing Twentieth Street was a large round baptistry in the middle, in which stood the baptismal font under a great hanging gas chandelier. The entrances to the church at this time were through the tower and the corresponding door at the south-east corner of the south aisle.

The location of the sanctuary at the west end of the church seems to have been short-lived under the rectorship of Dr Spackman. Although there is only an oral account of where the altar might have been originally at the west end, it is mere speculation without any visual photography or floor plans to prove otherwise. Notman’s earlier drawing of the exterior suggests a Gothic design, showing an altar in the apse at the east end of the church in the interior floor plan. However, when the plans were modified to use a Romanesque design, the altar may have been placed in a recessed alcove at the west end, with the font located in the east end where the present high altar is.

The interior of the church was rather plain inside—the walls were neither adorned nor decorated. To the casual observer it resembled a huge cavernous barn with a very high-pitched roof. The windows were filled with plain frosted glass. A gallery was later erected at the west end where a harmonium was installed. An altar made of oak designed by Notman was placed in the tiny apse. In those early days the church was lit by kerosene lanterns. Nothing was unusual about the worship services taking place. The edifice was built to serve the needs of Episcopalians who were moving into the neighbourhood. For the next ten years after St Clement’s Church was opened, it would maintain the Low Church tradition of its congregation. Other churches were being built in 1859, including the neighbouring Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square. This was another John Notman church, built in the Romanesque style, unlike the high Victorian Gothic St Mark’s on Locust Street, which he built in 1849. People of means were being attracted to the worship of these parish churches. St Mark’s Church was a product of the Oxford Movement, which had its origins in England. Both the Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, and St Clement’s at Twentieth Street and Cherry Street were built solely for Low Church congregations. Their style of worship reflected this.

Prior to the opening of the church, Dr Spackman ministered to the few souls that made up his congregation. During the month of January 1859 he continued on his own, ministering to the growing congregation, but this arrangement ended because on 9 February 1859, the Revd J. Andrews Harris, who had been engaged in missionary work at St Luke’s Church, Germantown, from the time of his ordination on 19 December 1858 in St Philip’s Church, Philadelphia, had been appointed assistant minister of St Clement’s under Dr Spackman. Mr Harris was to remain on the staff until the rector’s resignation on 1 January 1863, but he continued to serve for a short period under Dr Spackman’s successor.

By the mid-1860s Dr Spackman’s cousin William S. Wilson was continuously building more houses in the vicinity of St Clement’s. The houses of brick on the south side of Cherry Street were large and commodious, each with three stories. Before long, a new road was added to the south of the church. It was named Tower Street, in view of the tower and two-hundred-foot spire of the church. Tower Street ran from Twentieth Street to Twenty-Second Street, between Cherry and Arch. The houses on Tower Street were also made of brick but were not as large or as deep as their Cherry Street counterparts.

When the church was officially opened on 2 January 1859, most of the pew holdings were held by William S. Wilson. Those that were not his were held by some of Philadelphia’s more prominent families.¹ There was not much fanfare to the opening of the new church at Twentieth and Cherry Streets, though it did receive a brief mention in The Evening Bulletin on Friday, 30 December 1858: St Clement’s Protestant Episcopal Church at the corner of Twentieth and Cherry Streets will be open for the first time on Sunday next … Rev. Spackman is the Rector. It is expected that Bishop Bowman will preach in the morning.

For most of 1859 there