A Friend of the Immigrant Church
In the account of the organizational meeting of the Covenant Church in By One Spirit, Karl Olsson (1962) writes the following colorful paragraph.
At the conclusion of Thursday’s deliberations there came to the scene of the impending nativity the three Magi of the infant Covenant: the Congregationalists S.E. Curtiss, H.M. Scott, and F.E. Emrick.
Olsson continues:
The American churchmen who visited the lowly Swedish brethren on that wintry day in 1885 were not wealthy or noble or even wise in the ultimate sense; they were, nevertheless, much different from the people whom they were addressing. They walked in the serenity of 250 years of American tradition. They were conscious of having behind them a not inconsiderable part of American wealth. At least two of them were dignified by the erudition of German universities.
Their motives need not be questioned. They were there to render a service, perhaps to perform a charity. They offered the denomination not yet born but about to be born what amounted to gratis education for ministerial candidates. A Swedish professorship would be established at Chicago Theological Seminary according to the already existing pattern, and a suitable instructor would be secured at Congregational expense from Sweden.
Like the original wise men, the Congregational triumvirate came not only to give but to receive. Something about this crude movement struck them as the work of the Holy Ghost. They saw in the simple koinonia the grace and livingness of the primitive church. And they were unquestionably drawn to it. (pp. 316, 317)
One of these “wise men” was called to my attention early in my ministry at the Covenant Congregational Church in Boston, Massachusetts. I remember that, as I called on many of the older members of the congregation during my first years there in the 1960s, they fondly recalled a man by the name of Frederick E. Emrick, who played an important role in the immigrant churches during the early years of the 20th century.
Though he was a staunch Congregationalist, this unique individual went far beyond denominational lines to become a representative of the Church Universal. Those of that generation who first told me of this man recounted how he visited the Boston church and the other Swedish churches in the area and how, in time, he helped form the East Coast Conference of the Covenant Church. He preached to them in the Swedish tongue, encouraging them in the early struggles of their ministry. One of my older parishoners gave me the book, Frederick Ernest Emrick, Lover of Humanity, by Winfred Rhoades. The material for this article is taken from that biographical account.
Mr. Emrick began his ministry in Maine. After a few years, he was called to the Congregational Tabernacle Church in Chicago. During this time, he came into contact with the Mission Friends. After a fruitful ministry in Chicago, he was called to Framingham, Massachusetts. From that parish he was elected to the position of Secretary of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. He was often called “Bishop of Massachusetts for the churches of the Congregational Order.”
To share the flavor of this man’s spirit, I offer the following quote from the Rhoades biography.
When he went to the homes of the people, it was in the spirit of oneness. Here is an Armenian pastor. “Dr. Emrick had,” says this man, “what we call a sympathetic imagination, and the ability to identify himself with the people whom he was serving . . .[and] when in our home, he acted like a father to us.” Or an Italian home. Dr. Emrick “spent may weekends with us and used to praise the good meals prepared by my wife; he was interested in the way in which we managed things.” Or a German home. “When he visited my parish, he usually enjoyed spending two days with us in the parsonage . . . he was fond of German food and remarked very often that the meals remind him of those his mother cooked.” Or a Swedish home. “Dr. Emrick was very fond of Swedish food. I once overheard him giving a young Swedish minister instructions regarding his ordination service. After giving him instructions about the religious part and appointing the hour of his arrival at the railroad station, he said: ‘I want you to meet me there and take me to your home and give me a good Swedish meal of meat balls, pickled herring, and potatoes and Swedish hard bread!” .. .
Once when he went to speak to a group of Swedes, “So you are Pastor Emrick,” said one of them, “I have heard that you can speak Swedish, but I have never heard if you are a child of God.” This pleased Dr. Emrick immensely, says the one who tells of the occurrence, and he promptly responded, “If you have not heard it before, I can tell you now that I am a child of God.”
“Dr. Emrick stood alone in this great land as an American with the fullest understanding of the Swedish people in this country,” is the high tribute paid by one of their leaders. He was “the interpreter of this people to the American church neighbors and an interpreter of the Congregational church to the Swedish people.”
In 1903, P.P. Waldenström came to the United States. Emrick had read his writings and, while still a pastor in Chicago, had translated into English one of Dr. Waldenström's books, which he titled The Lord is Right. Emrick took pains to get acquainted with the honored visitor. He entertained Waldenström in his home and accompanied him in later years on some of his travels in the Eastern states. A lifelong friendship developed. He acted as Waldenstrom' s interpreter at the International Council of Congregational Churches in London, and then went with him for an extended tour of Sweden. No doubt this was one of the special ties between Emrick and the Swedish churches of the Eastern Missionary Association, which one day would become the East Coast Conference of the Covenant Church of America.
When Dr. Emrick died in 1933, the revolving bookcase by the side of his desk in the book-lined study of his little Boston apartment contained a remarkable collection. According to his biographer, it included Martin Luther’s German Bible, Waldenström's New Testament and Psalms in Swedish, Abbe Crampton’s French translation of the Old and New Testaments, and the entire Bible in Swedish, Norwegian, German, Italian, Hebrew, Greek, and English. Also, according to his biographer, were miscellaneous newspapers found on a chair; two or three British weeklies; several American religious weeklies; Forbundets Veckotidning, a forerunner of the Covenant Companion; Der Kirchenbote, a German Congregational weekly; and Evangelisten, A Norwegian biweekly from Minneapolis.
This man’s parish included Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Finns, Germans, Dutch, Swiss, Icelanders, French, and Italians. Many of these people had come so recently to America that English was still an unlearned means of communication. Emrick wanted to meet them on common ground with which they were familiar. They were strangers in a strange land, and he desired to make them feel that someone understood them and cared for the things native to them. He already knew German and French. He began to study Norwegian with a Norwegian pastor named Tranberg. In Chicago, while on a call, he picked up a Swedish paper, Chicago Bladet, and started to study Swedish. Not long after that, he astonished a Swedish audience by preaching in their own tongue.
Of course, he was interested in recruiting the immigrants of many lands for the denomination he represented. But, basically, he was thinking of the immigrants and their needs; he was thinking of America and its development. Beyond all this, however, he was thinking of the Kingdom of God. In one of his reports, he said, “My motive for another year is to be a participant, a fellow worker; to have communion, fellowship, participation, partnership with every movement of God’s Spirit, with every man, every race.”
Through his influence, much needed money from the Congregationalists helped start the early Mission Friends’ churches on the East Coast; and, by his devoted friendship, he helped them get a foothold so that they were no longer strangers in a new land.
Winfred Rhoades writes that he preached his last Swedish sermon at the Julotta Service of the Swedish Congregational Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts (now the Lexington Covenant Church) two months before he died. The familiar hymn that he loved, “All Hail to Thee O Blessed Morn,” was sung. Why recall some of the pilgrimage of this person of God from the past? May it be a reminder to us that, even like individuals, so also a denomination is a debtor to many gracious forces that have molded its identity.
References:
Olsson, Karl, By One Spirit, Covenant Press, Chicago, 1962.
Rhoades, Winfred, Frederick Ernest Emrick, Lover of Humanity, Pilgrim Press, Chicago and Boston, 1933.