Asylum Hill Congregational Church Held a Conference on “The Urban Church”

Bernard Drew was installed as pastor on September 28, 1949.

The church would celebrate its centennial on March 21, 1965.

1. “’We can mount a ministry’ to metropolitan inhabitants, in spite of differences in ‘economic and social needs,’ [Hackett] said. But ‘we can’t make them feel at home if we don’t like them,’ he added.  ‘Nothing phoney will work.’”
2. “[Hackett] recalled the St. Louis church as formerly ‘attempting to maintain its stance as an aristocratic island’ in the midst of a changing community. Later, he said, its members found they could retain their rich heritage and at the same time share it in ministry and fellowship with the community at large.”
3. “The church he concluded, exists ‘not as an end to be served,’ but as a means to serve the needs of its community.”

1. Hackett was the keynote speaker at a two-day conference on the urban church organized by Asylum Hill Congregational Church as part of its celebration of its centennial. This was the first day of the conference, and the conference was the fourth event in the church’s centennial program.
2. According to the Courant, Allen C. Hackett was an area minister to the pastors of metropolitan Boston and associate minister of the Massachusetts Congregational Christian Conference.

Unattributed, “Minister Urges Church to Follow Urban Needs,” Hartford Courant, January 19, 1965, page 13.