EVERY CHILD IN SUNDAY SCHOOL.
Town of 8000 Well Supplied With Church Buildings.
New Ones Completed, and Two Under Way.
Mon, Sep 12, 1910 – 16 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)
NORWOOD, Sept 12—There is not one child in the large town of Norwood who does not have a Sunday school connection. That is the statement made by the parish visitor of the Episcopal dioceses, as given out by Rev Charles Hastings Brown, rector of Grace Episcopal mission.
As Norwood is a town of about 8000 inhabitants, with a public school enrollment of 1552 pupils this year, this statement has aroused considerable interest, though it is not doubted by anyone. Norwood is indeed well supplied with churches, and her Sunday schools are as thoroughly organized as possible. Nevertheless, it is a pleasing commentary on the morale of the town to have such a statement made by one whose business it is to look into such matters.
That Norwood is well supplied with churches and religious societies is one reason who no child need be without a Sunday school connection. Several new churches have been built in the past few years, and two new ones are still unfinished—the Catholic, which is almost done, and the Episcopalian, which has only the foundation laid, but which will be finished by midwinter.
The Sunday school of St Catherine’s church comprises hundreds of children, and when the Catholics occupy their beautiful new edifice, so near completion, the little ones will find excellent preparations for them.
The First Congregational Sunday school is so large that it has been necessary to divide it into senior, junior, primary and beginners’ departments, with superintendents for each, and a general superintendent over all. The whole spacious basement of the church has been changed, with partitions and platforms, this summer, to accommodate this school.
The Baptists, the Universalists, The Methodists, all have Sunday schools, while Grace Episcopal mission, from which the statement, emanated, takes particular notice of its Sunday school work. The Lutheran, the Swedish Congregational and the Swedish Baptist churches all see their Sunday schools defying race suicide, while the German Lutherans, German Baptists and Finnish Lutherans, though they have no church edifice of their own, yet hold services and provide for the children. The Polish residents often have services of the Greek Catholic church, with a priest from Boston or its vicinity.
There are not many towns of this size which have nine Christian church buildings. Beside the Christian organization, the Hebrew congregation of Norwood is a large one, and is planning for a synagogue in the not distant future.