laque at Entrance
to Christ Church._

5

"You can't change me, old man. I am the last of the black Protestants."
In this whimsical way Frank Nelson spoke of himself one day in
conversation with a friend on some point of ritual. It is abundantly
evident that he was in no way a bigoted churchman, and with all his
fine, broad sympathies he stood forth as a Protestant. He represented
that aspect of the Catholic-Protestant structure of the Episcopal
Church, he conducted the services in Christ Church from that angle, his
preaching reflected it, and the absence of the clerical collar
emphasized it. There is a measure of truth in his droll description of
himself.

In the first decades of this century Mr. Nelson was one of a group of
broad-churchmen whose influence was just beginning to be felt.
Theologically he was a liberal with reservations, and stood in what is
now called "Central Anglicanism" in the sense of "essential orthodoxy,
continuity, and breadth and liberality within limits, checked by the
principle of discipline, and an outlook, above all, theocentric;
fidelity to Christianity as the religion of the Incarnation, and of the
Church viewed as Christ's mystical body."[13]

The truth is that he was different from certain brands of so-called
liberals. Like many of them he was an individualist but not, as in the
popular conception of that word, an eccentric. His individualism resided
in his strong personality, whole and complete rather than partial. He
had an immense scorn of the petty narrow-minded points of view. He said,
"There is no one so narrow as the broad-minded liberal! Look out! Be
sure that you do not develop a closed mind toward the other man's point
of view!" Frank Nelson stood in the stream of the best traditions of
historic Anglicanism. He had, for instance, a tremendous feeling of
reverence for the Altar and the appointments for the celebration of the
Holy Communion; and his manner of conducting the Lord's Supper brought
that service very close to the most sensitive of worshipers. On the
first Sunday of each month the Holy Communion was celebrated at eight
and at eleven A.M., and he made it the chief factor in building
up the younger members of the parish into the Church. Usually Christ
Church was crowded for the first as well as the later service, and it
was immensely impressive to contemplate the congregation that came at
the early hour of eight o'clock from all parts of the city and from
d