THE COLLEGE CHURCH CELEBRATES ITS SESQUI-CENTENNIAL

An unusually interesting and successful program was arranged and carried through for the celebration of the 150 th anniversary of the founding of the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College.

The opening session took the form of an old-home gathering, being introduced by an episode of 1833 presented in costume and dealing with incidents taken from the old records of the Church. Particular interest was given to the occasion by the fact that a number of the participants were descendants of early members of the Church. Among them were Dr. Frederic P. Lord, great grandson of President Nathan Lord; Professor Herbert D. Foster, great great grandson of Reverend Eden Burroughs, first pastor of the Hanover Center branch of the Church; Professor C. A. Proctor and Mr. Charles Proctor, great grandson and great great grandson of Professor Ebenezar Adams; Professor W. K. Wright, great great grandson of Nathaniel Wright, an original member of the Hanover Center branch of the Church; Mr. A. D. Storrs and Mrs. George H. Parker, great great grandson and great great granddaughter of Augustus Storrs, an original settler of Hanover; and Mrs. F. M. Anderson and Mr. Gaylord Anderson, respectively great great niece and great great great nephew of Professor Roswell Shurtleff. Addresses were also made on the interesting men of the Church by Professor C. D. Adams and on the women of the Church by Miss Etta M. Newell. Lantern slides in illustration of the subjects accompanied the addresses.

The morning service on Sunday, November 6, was made memorable by the address of Professor J. K. Lord on the history of the Church. In the afternoon President Hopkins spoke on the relations between the College and the Church; Reverend Henry W. Hulbert, himself a descendant of Eleazar Wheelock and Bezaleal Woodward, spoke as a representative of the Wheelock branch; and Reverend Roy B. Chamberlin, the new pastor of the Church, outlined the possibilities and opportunities that lay before the Church.

In the afternoon, likewise, Professor J. K. Lord addressed the students in the regular vesper service on the similarity of aims of the Church and the College, with a brief reference to the early history of the Church.

The evening was devoted to an organ recital on the new organ presented to the church by Walter Clark Runyon of Scarsdale, New York, in memory of his mother, a direct descendant of Eleazar Wheelock.

The installation of Reverend Roy B. Chamberlin as pastor was held on Monday evening, November 7, and was preceded by a dinner at which several of the older members of the Church spoke briefly,' among the speakers being Dean-Emeritus C. F. Emerson, Mrs. Mildred Crosby Lindsay, Reverend Robert C. Falconer, Mr. Walter Clark Runyon, Professor T. W. D. Worthen, Reverend Mr. Fraser of Wells River, Vermont, and President Hopkins. Rev. William P. Merrill of the Brick Presbyterian Church of New York City delivered the installation sermon.

Mr. Chamberlin is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where he received the B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1909 and 1910. After teaching in the Tome and Taft schools, he attended the Union Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1915. Later in the same year he was ordained by the Presbytery of Champlain.

During the World War the Reverend Chamberlin served with the Foyer du Soldat organization of the Y. M. C. A., working among the French soldiers. He has served as assistant pastor of the Spring Street and the Brick Presbyterian Churches in New York City and was pastor of the Indian Carry and Island Chapel, Upper Saranac Lake, N. Y., under the Adirondack Mission, during the summer of 3,919.

The organization of the White Church took place January 23, 1771, when Eleazar Wheelock gathered his family, several students and a few persons connected with the college, and formed the first place of worship in Hanover. President Wheelock, the founder of the college was the first pastor and continued to act as such until his death in 1779.

At this time the college assumed responsibility of the church service and Professor Sylvanus Ripley, who succeeded President Wheelock, became pastor. In 1782 Professor John Smith was appointed minister of the church by the college administration and held the pastorate until 1804, when Roswell Shurtleff was appointed Professor of Divinity. Part of Professor Shurtleff's duties were to preach to the students and townspeople.

The Chapel, or what is now known as the College Church, was built in 1790 on the spot where it is now located. Professor Shurtleff was desired by the congregation as the permanent pastor of the church and to be relieved of his duties as Professor of Divinity, the congregation offered to assume responsibility for his salary. However, John Wheelock, who was then president, objected to this on the grounds that Professor Shurtleff would be too independent in his conduct of the church, and wished to make him a colleague of Professor Smith, whom he desired to make pastor.

A division of the church followed, resulting in the formation of a new church body. The original church, owing to the division, came to consist almost wholly of members living in Vermont and having their church at Dothan in the township of Hartford. The new church, organized in 1805, had a long struggle with the old church, which was led by President Wheelock. It was ' finally established with Professor Shurtleff as pastor in 1811 under the name of "The Church in the Vicinity of Dartmouth College." The name of the original church was "The Church at Dartmouth College." In 1907, after the church at Dothan had ceased to exist, the White Church here resumed its name, "The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College." As late as 1903 students were required to attend the church services, but since that time the church has been wholly independent.

The church has been entirely redecorated within and without and, with its new organ, offers a most attractive setting for the work of the new pastor and his congregation.