HomeMy WebLinkAboutHistory of Church Growth in AmericaVozella, Beth
From: Janice R. Norris<janiceracinenorris@comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2016 4:38 AM
To: Oliver, Duncan
Cc: Vozella, Beth; Horne, Sarah; Fries, Frederick; Mockabee, Julie; Bachand, Beverly; Lombardi, Gina;
Greene, Karen
Subject: Re: Church history
Thank you Duncan. This is useful for me, tying what T know in general about religious development in New
England to Cape Cod in particular.
Perhaps, we can make a brief list of questions for Mr. Akin and invite him to come to another meeting prepared
with some responses that might strengthen his case. Let him know that we would like to support Pius X Church
in the quest for CPA funding but need more input from him.
Jan
From: "Duncan Oliver" <oliver02675@comcast.net>
To: "Beth Vozella" <BVozella@yarmouth.ma.us>, foghorne1l_�verizon.net, phredf11(a)-verizon.net,
JaniceRacineNorris(@.comcast.net, vang uard31 averizon.net, "Beverly Bachand"
<bachandbeverlya,yahoo.com>, "Gina Lombardi" <sicilyms@comcast.net>, "Karen Greene"
<KGreeneayarmouth.ma.us>
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2016 6:51:47 PM
Subject: Church history
I combined my notes from the series that I teach Cape Cod history classes. I had to compile it from the six
different classes, and it's not in flowing prose. Unfortunately, I don't see much to help with historical
significance. Maybe we can find out why the Fall River bishop decided to have a church in Yarmouth in
1954.
Duncan Oliver
HISTORY OF CHURCH GROWTH
-Early Congregational — the only legal show in town -town and parish the same — called church the
meetinghouse; supported by taxes
-Quakers — to Sandwich 1654 — also Y and F — wherever Congo church weak
Early splits of churches over distances
-Too far to travel — Dennis/Yarmouth (1716 separate parish)
-Barnstable —West and East parishes 1716
-Harwich —south and north parish
-first south H minister buried in Brewster— God won't find me in Harwich
(Rev Edward Pell)
- First Great Awakening — 17305 -505 —Jonathan Edwards —George Whitefield
-Striking decline in piety
-Highly emotional preaching (New Lights) — Most New Lights became Baptists
(Still had to pay church tax if not in another religion)
-Old Lights were traditional (unemotional)
"sermons dry as powder — preach an hour and nothing worth remembering"
-Log College — started for new ministers during this time — later Princeton
-Baptists - benefited from Great Awakening — study of Bible at home
-first Baptist society in county West Harwich/Dennis Port 1757
-Baptists in SY in 1824
-More split over distances to travel
-West Yarmouth — church 1794 where WY PO is — moved to present site 1907
-Dennis split 1815 —along Old Chatham Road
-Second Great Awakening —1800-1830s
— Cape no longer homogenous group — many newcomers
-new issues —temperance, women's rights, abolition
-Others from Second Great Awakening— Mormons, American Bible Society
-Congregationalists - -early 191h century trinitarians vs unitarians — start of Unitarians and Universalists
-1830s — must separate church and state (town houses) —1839 — MA Toleration Act
-Methodists — itinerant preachers lower Cape before Revolution — drew from Baptists
-mostly working people — churches on edge of town
-Organizing before 1800 — liked revivals — music (Quaker story about thunder)
-Red Top Road in Brewster — named for red roof on Methodist church (Thoreau)
-1819 — Wellfleet — early music bass viol and clarinet; later melodian and seraphine
-Eastham by 1820s — Campground Landing beach — Millennium Grove — 5000 people
-Trains —Yarmouth 1863 — until WW2—3-7000 at revivals, 175 family tents --40 society tents
mid-1870s — gothic cottages
-Campgrounds had tabernacles — if sides of church open, it's a tabernacle
-Also at Oak Bluffs 1835 —small group of Methodists
1857 — 250 tents — covered 12-15 acres, turned to cottages during Civil War
early 201h century —African-American middle class there
1872 — Craigville —named for preacher —was at first Camp Christian
owned Craigville Beach
1886 — Harwich — Ocean Grove — between Ocean and Pine— natural bowl
-CHURCHES -Third Great Awakening —1880s —1900
-issues child labor, compulsory education, prohibition
-New societies — YMCA, Salvation Army, Christian Science, Nazarene
(Nazarenes split from Methodists not strict enough)
-Christian Scientists —first met mid-1800s — most churches much later —1954 Harwich
-Jehovah's Witnesses — some before WWI — church 1958
-OTHERS
-Episcopalians — not popular until after Wars with Britain over
-Many churches for summer visitors (late 1800s) St Marys in B started for summer people 1888
-St Davids —1966
-Swedenborgians — started 1823 —very influential in Yarmouth 19`h century
-Parnassus 2"d floor 1843 — church 1870 -Belief in spiritualism — after Civil War seances
-Catholics — persecuted —Acadians in 1760s — Papists— many to Cape — none stayed
-Churches followed workers
-1830 — Sandwich glass — Italian glass blowers -- wooden; 1850 stone -Keith Car in Bourne
-P Town a parish in 1874— Portuguese fishermen
-Fall River Dioceses created 1904
-Lady of Hope W Barn —design a reminder of Portuguese fishermen in area 1915
-Anchor on top as motif
-Sacred Heart in YP — built by Simpkins for governess Miss Jayne Byrne 1900
SOME FEDERATIONS OR COMBINING
-major decline in population on Cape Cod after Civil War — 25% less in 1920 than 1860
-Less in Yarmouth in 1920 than at time of American Revolution
-Unitarian/Universalist -Sandwich —Unitarians-Congo-Methodists 1918
-Dennis Union — Unitarians -Methodists (met in Carleton Hall) -Evangelical Congas 1866
-Congos built building 1828 —Thoreau commented on plantings needing work 1850s
-Churches changed hands amongst denominations
GROWTH OF CHURCHES —201h Century —
After WW 1 KKK against Jews and Catholics in NE — Mill Hill Pavilion 1920s
-St Pious X— becomes a parish 1954 — church 1969
-Many catholic churches for summer visitors
-Fourth Great Awakening —1960s & 70s
-mainstream weakened —evangelicals and fundamentalists expand
-conservatives fought gay rights, abortion, for creationism
OTHER LATER CHURCHES
-Jewish — in private homes after WWI — synagogue 1967 (remember KKK)
-Lutherans — Finnish — West Barn 1915 — not in English until 1943
-Greek Orthodox — to Cape 1903 mostly 20s &30s -
-mostly P Town, Falmouth, Hyannis —church 1939
THE THREE POSSIBLE CULTS — all after WW2
(These are from the May 2008 Cape Cod Voice article)
-Society of Jesus in Orleans
-Victory Chapel in Hyannis
-Twelve Tribes— East Main Street Hyannis near Yarmouth line Also called Common Ground
(restaurant next to Puritans — look like 50s hippies)