By December 16, 1923, the Reverend Dr. Leighton Parks had been rector of St. Bart's for 19 years and had successfully brought the parish to its splendid new building on the corner of Park Avenue and 51st Street. On that Third Sunday of Advent, it had seemed, more or less, like a normal Sunday morning service until Dr. Parks' curate read a "pastoral letter" written by the House of the Bishops of The Episcopal Church. Then, having dramatically stripped himself of his clerical vestments, Dr. Parks donned a black academic gown to deliver a lengthy sermon. Its not-so-scintillating title was "Intellectual Integrity, or The Equal Rights of Fundamentalist and Modernist in a Comprehensive Church."
The sermon was not just long; it was also quite dull and academic, at least by modern standards. If it was preached at St. Bart's on the Third Sunday of Advent in 2023, it would likely cause more controversy because of its extended focus on the role of bishops and its wanderings through relatively arcane ecclesiastical history than because of its bold theological questioning of established Christian doctrine. Indeed, while the sermon's skeptical attitude towards the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Jesus would still be controversial in many circles today, I suspect that the sermon’s more incendiary elements would go completely over the heads of most of our current members.
But in 1923 the sermon had an explosive effect. In the eight days before Christmas, it landed both Dr. Parks and St. Bart's on the front page of The New York Times--not once, not twice, but three times. Disciplinary charges were threatened against Dr. Parks, though none were ever filed. Scandalized by the sermon and the controversy it created, Mrs. Corenlius Vanderbilt, Sr. left St. Bart's for St. Thomas Fifth Avenue and took her pocketbook with her.
It was not the last time St. Bart's would appear on the front page of The New York Times nor was it the last time that a leader of St. Bart's would take a stand in a way that made other people uncomfortable. In the century since Dr. Parks' oration, St. Bart's has shown a willingness to stick its neck out in a whole host of arenas. We've hired women clergy, openly gay and lesbian clergy, and clergy of color. We’ve prioritized the needs of our hungry neighbors. We’ve celebrated the love of two people of the same gender. We’ve broken down the barriers between religious traditions and stretched the limits of stodgy old liturgies. We’ve welcomed everyone—baptized and unbaptized alike—to the feast of Holy Communion. The specifics of the fights themselves have shifted plenty over the years, but what has not changed is our willingness to push the envelope.
I hope you'll come to The Forum this coming Sunday to hear Percy Preston reflect on the words Dr. Parks spoke a hundred years ago, and I hope you'll honor this fascinating anniversary by thinking about how God is calling us anew to take a stand—all these years later.
