Norwood in Nova Scotia

What can a minister believe? A minister can believe in anything that suits him, from the doctrines of Pythagoras to those of Mahomet. What can a minister say?

His utterances must correspond roughly with the creeds of his church. Thus, if he is a Protestant Episcopal clergyman who believes in reincarnation of souls he must conceal at least this part of his faith from the more conventional Christians who come to hear him preach.

It is doubtful whether the conventional Christians who come to hear Rev. Robert Norwood preach in St. Bartholomew's Protestant Episcopal Church, Manhattan, are principally pleased with their pastor's somewhat individual credo or with the elegance of his oratory. These conventional Christians are mostly persons of wealth and fashion. Dr. Norwood has wavy hair, patched with grey, cut long on one side; his grey-blue eyes are narrow and brilliant; his mouth is straight and kindly. When he is in the pulpit he speaks intelligently, passionately and with skillful gesture; his church is the only fashionable one in Manhattan which is regularly filled every Winter Sunday.

For a man who holds so important a position in the Episcopal hierarchy. Dr. Norwood holds views which are liberal to the point of peculiarity. But, even though the Bishop at the head of his diocese should be sufficiently displeased with Dr. Norwood's ideas to risk rebuking him, it would be hard for the Bishop to find a specific instance of uttered heresy. It remained for inhabitants of Nova Scotia, unafraid, to rebuke Dr. Norwood last week. Dr. Norwood was resting in Nova Scotia, near his birthplace, the village of New Ross, when he heard that certain Anglican rectors had objected to his modernistic utterances in Nova Scotia pulpits. These, said the Anglican rectors, were disposed to "shake the faith of the people." Dr. Norwood, with his customary grace, received humbly the rebuke of his country fellows. Said he: "In view of the protests, I have reached the conclusion that I will not again enter the pulpit of an Anglican Church in Nova Scotia."

It is interesting to compare the courtesy with which Dr. Norwood suffered himself to be ousted from Nova Scotia pulpits with the vehement protest which he made against Philadelphia pastors' attempt to prevent Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick from speaking there. Dr. Norwood, at that time also a Philadelphia pastor, denounced the action as "the biggest crime that has been committed in this city within the last year." Nor must it be supposed that Dr. Robert Norwood is a lax and slovenly believer who regards the Bible as a holy myth. Last spring he thundered: "Jesus lived as surely as we live. He was born as we were born and brought up as others of His day. The narratives handed down to us may represent wide-woven fancy and contradiction but no one can refute the reality of His beautiful living. Those who seek to deny ... are malignant liars."

It must have been doubly painful for Dr. Norwood to hear his sermons protested by Nova Scotians. Not only was Nova Scotia the place where he was born, 54 years ago, and where he had written the timid verses which were later to cause the ladies of his congregation to refer to him as "a poet rather than a preacher," but it was in Nova Scotia, four years ago, that Dr. Norwood's son was shot to death by a friend, while trying to take a photograph of a moose. This was a tragedy which time has not made vague for the clergyman, nor has his faith in eternity made his sorrow disappear. Nova Scotia must seem to him, however much he loves its hills and rivers, a harsh country and a savage home.