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The Ministry of Abel McEwen,
D.D. The
church has helped to restore the portrait of Abel McEwen.
And I’ve been asked — in my capacity as Historian — to write a few
lines about this man’s life with First Church.
But how do you put 54 years into just a few lines? McEwen graduated from Yale in 1804, having studied with some of the leading theologians of the time. When the invitation to come to New London was issued to him, McEwen replied, “I have sought divine direction and the advice of pious and judicious counselors … Hoping that the Church and Society have both formed just opinions of my theological sentiments, of my qualifications and character as a preacher of the gospel, as a man, and as a candidate for the pastoral charge; relying on your prayers for my faithfulness, on the countenance and assistance with which you can afford me in discharging the duties of a clergyman at this trying day, and on your candour and charity to forgive the imperfections of my life and performance, and praying for the direction and support of divine Grace, I comply with your invitation.”
McEwen was an interesting mix of conservative
theology with a liberal bent. Congregational
churches had been joined by other Protestant sects — Baptists, Episcopalians,
Methodists — but there was still no formal Roman Catholic presence in the
community. When McEwen learned that
a French bishop was visiting a neighbor and friend over the Sabbath, he opened
the doors of First Church for a Roman Catholic service — said to be the first
such service to be held in a house of worship in New London.
McEwen was a reformer who pushed the community to
abandon the vices common to a port city and to embrace the Sabbath and keep it
holy. He hated slavery, but he
chose not to turn his back on slaveholders, choosing instead to side with those
who thought it possible for slaveholders to be Christians. McEwen’s influence was also felt beyond the New
London parish. He was a prime mover
in the Home Missionary movement. Many
communities in Connecticut were seen to be drifting away from the true way —
the congregational church. Churches in many towns stood vacant or were opened
only for occasional services. When
he came to this community, he was the only settled pastor in an area 12 miles by
50. In 1815 McEwen petitioned the
General Association of the State to establish a society to restore the church in
those communities where it had lost its presence.
The Association agreed, and it fell to McEwen to oversee the effort.
And not too many years later, there were a dozen settled pastors in the
same area. People who didn’t know him well had the impression that he was a cold intellectual — at least one of his fellow pastors referred to him as “Iceberg Abel.” But people discovered that he was actually an excellent story teller and a man of considerable wit. Take the time he invited the Rev. Jared Avery of Groton to accompany him to an association meeting: Dear Brother — My black pony starts for Griswold tomorrow morning, at 8 o’clock. Ballast wanted. A. McEwen.
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