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| Handbook of Dedications Church World Press, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, 1931 |
Church World Press, Inc., 1931
Cleveland, Ohio
155 pages
7.75 x 5.25 x 0.5 inches, 20 cm.
by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.
This little book published about 80 years ago, the text coming from an early publication, will still find some relevancy today.
Summary
Included are services, dedications, and covenant texts and liturgies under the headings of The Church, Furniture and Equipment, Worship and Consecration, Stewardship and Finance, Choir and Organ, The Church School, and The Home. Included are texts/liturgies for consecrating offering plates, service for mortgage burning, wedding anniversaries, dedication of parsonage, dramatized dedication for the home; dedication of an electric sign, bulletin board, baptismal font, pulpit Bible; breaking the ground for a new church, a room, a consecration service, dedication of infants, responsive reading for a masonic service, patriotic service of intercession, and more. There are 49 dedications listed in the Table of Contents. Material included in the different services and dedications dependent upon the purpose includes prayers, Scripture readings, commitment texts, hymn suggestions. Also included are source references as to person and/or church.
Text
Noting that there are churches in the 21st century that do use the formal "Thee," "Thy" and "Thou" as found in the King James Version of the Holy Bible without being archaic or stuffy but current with today's society (as much as they might wish to be), such terms can easily be replaced with You, Your, and You.
Inspiration
It does occur in people who have all of their faculties about them, that a starting point for writing liturgical, dedicatory, and covenant text just will not pop up like a light turned on with a wall switch. I am not degrading using Scripture as text--this is of course the most preferable option for worship services and the like. Yet, sometimes we do need inspiration. The Handbook of Dedications makes note of this point, by suggesting that changing a word or thought in the presented material is a good way to make it relevant for one's own use.
Ministry
People in ministry are writing and improvising this type of material as a regular course in their duties. As can be seen by what is included in Handbook of Dedications, such commitments are for the people involved, who may be participating or have donated toward what is being dedicated, giving the "credit," to the right place, which is God, the giver of all good things.
History and Genealogy
Compiling historical information can be a slow, tedious enterprise, one that takes patience and persistance. What I have learned is that by gleaning small bits and pieces on hard-to-find subject matter allows the researcher to create a reasonable timeline of events. The internet is a great help with such pursuits, as when documents now in public domain are available online. Also, through the careful use of keywords many facts that used to be hidden become unhidden on the internet.
For example....
By looking through the text in Handbook of Dedications, I came across a sample anniversary service resource for a church in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, my hometown, Simpson UMC. I discovered that Simpson Church is still active and participating in many good social ministries in their community.
Continuing my research, I came across a book in public domain that is within my personal interests: Church History and Minnesota History, written in 1895: Twin City Methodism: Being a History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. by John Wesley Hill. By going to this site you will be able to read this book contributed by the New York Public Library, available in many formats. Twin City Methodism has not only information about the Methodist Churches in Minneapolis and St. Paul, but other timely pertinent information and business advertisements as well.
Handbook
of Dedications
With which is included Forms of
Installation, Consecration,
Anniversaries and Other Services as they Originally
Appeared in Church Management
published by Church World Press, Inc., Cleveland
OH.
Copyright date is 1931.
The following information in Adobe PDF downloadable format: CLICK HERE
The following notes on this book are of places
(churches) and people for references in regard to church history, and for
family genealogy. References for each dedication
are not included, only those which reference a place or person.
Laying
of the Cornerstone: Crawford Memorial Methodist Episcopal
Church of New York City, June 10, 1928. Sermon:
Dr. Ralph Welles Keeler. Persons noted:
Mr. Charles D. Steurer, Bishop Frank W. Warne, Mr. L. M. Neckermann.
Dedication
of Church: Boulevard Congregational church, Detroit, Michigan.
Service
of Dedication [of a new church building]: First Presbyterian
Church, Kiel, Wisconsin.
Dedication
of a Room: Alumni Room
of Presbyterian College of Religious Education.
Person noted: Mildred R. Perrin.
Celebrating
a Church’s Birthday: On May 7th, 1882, six children met in a
little lodge hall in the suburbs of Minneapolis, and were organized into a
Sunday School by a devout layman. Two
weeks later eleven people met in that same hall and organized Simpson Methodist
Church. Three weeks later a lot was
purchased, and soon afterward work was begun on a small chapel to house the
congregation. Today that church has a
membership of twenty-seven hundred and a Sunday School of sixteen hundred.
On May 19th of this year the people of
Simpson celebrated the forty-seventh anniversary of the founding of the church. One of the features of the day was to be the
reception of forty-seven new members, but fifty-eight were actually
received. Because of the simplicity of
the plan used, and the ease with which the result was accomplished, the
following details will be of interest.
The Easter ingathering had seen a very large group
coming into membership, and our constituency roll had been fairly well
worked. Therefore these new recruits had
to be new folk.
A card was printed (see illustration accompanying)
and placed in the hand of each person in the congregation for three Sunday
mornings and two Sunday evenings. The
people were urged to secure signatures to the cards and bring them, signed up,
to the church office. There the names of
the workers were recorded and an “honor list” was compiled. This honor list was published in the church
paper from week to week, new names being added each week as new cards came
in. To each person who brought a signed
card to the office an award was given, consisting of a religious book. Thirty-seven such books were given away to
these volunteer workers.
The programs of cultivation went on for five weeks
with frequent references to it from the pulpit, weekly reference to it in the
parish paper and frequent circulation of the blank cards. A total of five thousand blank cards were
distributed during the campaign, for it seemed better to use more than was
necessary than to be lacking a few.
During the week just preceding the anniversary
Sunday each person who had signed a card received a personal letter from the
pastor urging them to be sure to be present to complete the “47”. Each person was likewise called by telephone
by one of the assistant pastors. The result
was that only five persons who had promised to be present failed, and sickness
was the cause in each case.
A section of seats was reserved for the incoming
members, and a card entitling them to one of these seats was enclosed in the
personal letter that went out from the pastor.
Thus, at the opening of the service, the entire group of new recruits
were seated in a body, down in front, easily accessible when the invitation
came for those desiring membership to come forward.
On the Sunday following the celebration of the
birthday, the thirty-seven people who had done the work were honored by a
public recognition service, at which time the books were presented.
One of the chief values of this method is the fact
that the people, themselves, did the work.
Of the fifty-eight who united with the church only eighteen were
actually secured by the pastors.
Simpson’s Birthday Party
On May 7, 1882, Mr. M. D. Cone, a devout layman, met
six children in Avery Hall (still standing at 26 West 26th St.), and
organized a Sunday School. Three weeks
later eleven persons met in the same hall and organized Simpson church. May 19, is to be observed this year as Simpson’s 47th Birthday.
Person noted: Roy L. Smith
Dedication
of a Baptismal Font: State Street Methodist Episcopal
Church, Fulton New York. Pastor: Dr. W.
M. Caldwell. Person noted: Rev. Lisle B.
Caldwell, Clark Mills, New York, Mr. and Mrs. Karl P. Dryer (gift of baptismal
font), Alice Jane Dryer, William J. Hart.
Service includes: Prayer of
Dedication, Prayer for Donors, Prayer for All Those Baptized at the Font, Consecration
of the Water for Baptism.
To
be said by the Minister, after he has filled the Font with pure water:
Almighty, everliving God, whose most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, for the
forgiveness of our sins, did shed out of his most precious side both water and
blood; Regard, we beseech thee, the prayers of thy congregation, sanctify this
Water to the mystical washing away of sin, and grant that these persons now
baptized therein, may receive the fullness of thy grace, and all the benefits
of this Holy Sacrament; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dedication
of the Memorial Bell: Broadway
Baptist Church, Denver, Colorado, March 13, 1927. In loving memory of Mary P. Walker.
Unveiling
a Religious Painting:
Person noted: John P. Sala.
Dedication
of the Cross:
Pilgrim Congregational Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Responsive dedication: Walter H. Stark. Persons noted: Dr. Beadley, Mr. John G.
Jennings.
Dedication
Service for an Electric Sign: First
Baptist Church, Des Moines, Iowa.
Dedication
of Chancel Furniture: Oneonta
Congregational Church, Oneonta, California.
Pastor: Holland F. Burr.
Dedication
of a [Stained Glass] Window: Person
noted: Elisha A. King.
The
Feast of Lights [Dedication for New Electric Lights]: Parkhurst Memorial
Presbyterian Church, Elkland, Pennsylvania.
Written by Jams A. Hamilton.
Consecrating
the Candelabra: Trinity
Lutheran Church, St. Petersburg, Florida.
Pastor: Theodore K. Finck.
Persons noted: Mrs. Mathilda
Johnson (donated candelabra), John Emile Johnson.
A
Consecration Service:
Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
Person noted: Frank Fitt.
A
Service of Installation of Officers in Non-Liturgical Church: Person noted: J.
Richmond Morgan.
Responsive
Reading for Masonic Service: Christopher
G. Fox Lodge, Number 1021, F. & A. M., Buffalo, N.Y.
A
Service of Intercession for Our Nation: Person
noted: William Horace Day, D.D.
Church
Covenant in Responsive Reading: Clinton Avenue Baptist Church, Newark, New
Jersey.
An
Anniversary Service: First
Congregational Church, Waterloo, Iowa.
Pastor: J. Richmond Morgan.
The
Dedication of Infants in Churches That Do Not Practice Infant Baptism: Person noted: C. L.
Kenagy.
Commissioning
Service for Delegates: Central
Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, Missouri.
Person noted: Elizabeth Williams Sudlow.
Service
of Mortgage Burning: Oak
Park Methodist Episcopal Church, Flint, Michigan. Pastor: Frank M. Field.
Service
of Mortgage Burning: First
Congregational Church, Yuma, Colorado.
Pastor: S. D. Goodale. Person
noted: A. W. Beaven.
Dedication
of Church Pledges: Rose
City Park Methodist Church, Portland, Oregon. Pastor: Fred C. Taylor.
A
Stewardship Responsive Service: Person
noted: Rev. Lyman N. Lemmon.
Dedication
of an Organ: Church
of the Saviour (Methodist Episcopal), Cleveland, Ohio.
Quakers
Dedicate an Organ: First
Friends Church, Long Beach, California.
Pastor: Neal O. Newlin.
Children
Dedicate Organ: Arbutus
Methodist Church, Baltimore, Maryland.
Consecration
of the Choir: Clinton
Avenue Baptist Church, Trenton, N. J.
Dedication
of Chimes: Pilgrim
Congregational Church, Cleveland, Ohio.
Breaking
Ground for an Educational Building: First
Baptist Church, Hoosick Falls, New York.
Dedication
of Recreation Rooms: First
Presbyterian Church, Binghamton, new York.
A
Sunday School Installation Service: Person
noted: Mills M. Anderson.
Decision
Day Consecration: Kent
Avenue Evangelical Church, Terre Haute, Indiana. Person noted: Reuben A. Stauss.
Dedication
of the Y.M.C.A.: Young
Men’s Christian Association, Warren, Ohio.
Dedication
of a Parsonage: Person
noted: Clifford C. Jordan.
Home
Dedication Service: Person
noted: (A five minute Service of Worship arranged by) H. Augustine Smith.
Golden
Wedding Anniversary Service: First
Christian Church, Puyallup, Washington.
Pastor: Lee Sadler.
Service
for a Wedding Anniversary: Persons
noted: (pencil notation, upper margin): Sarah and Frederick Dole. Person noted:
Milton B. Williams.
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