Charles Parker Connolly

In 1913, when the search for a new minister began, The Rev. Barney Thompson of Second Congregational Church recommended his successor at Plymouth Congregational Church in Milwaukee, Dr. Charles Parker Connolly. Following a well-received sermon, unanimous approval, and his acceptance of the call, Dr. Connolly assumed the post he was to hold for 29 years. During his ministry, he helped launch the Rockford Social Service Federation (now the United Way), the Booker T. Washington Center, the Public Welfare Association, the War Camp Committee, Kiwanis Club, and Winnebago County Tuberculosis Association. Early in his ministry he earned half his salary by serving as first Executive Secretary of the Social Service Federation. He was a member of the Library Board and received the first honorary Doctor of Divinity degree given by Rockford College.

During World War I, every organization in the church co-operated in sponsoring Saturday night socials for Camp Grant soldiers. It is noted that fundamentalist groups considered the Unity Club, and this church, godless because sinful dancing was allowed in the church basement. (Unity Club became inactive in the 1920's with many of the chores assumed by the Laymen s League and Women s Alliance.)

On three occasions, the members of the church rejected invitations to join both the Unitarian and Universalist organizations, even though the congregation was predominantly Unitarian and Dr. Kerr had been listed as in fellowship with the Unitarian ministry. In 1927 the church voted to seek affiliation with the American Unitarian Association.

In 1932, the Treasurer announced that $8,000 was due Dr. Connolly; unpaid bills totalled over $1,000; two church accounts were frozen in closed banks; and he had $51 in currency as the treasury nest egg. A Sunday Evening Club was formed, a gamble which paid off in heat for the church, and which provided inspiration and entertainment for hundreds of townspeople each Sunday night for three years. Dr. Connolly s sermonettes were printed in a brochure and broadcast via radio, resulting in many new members from various denominations.

The Auburn Street Church

As depression years faded, the congregation voted to sell the downtown property ($85,000) and build in a less con.gested area. The traditional New England-style building at Ridge and Auburn Streets (now the Girl Scout Headquarters) was dedicated in 1941.

The Rev. George Huntston Williams, later to become a renowned church historian, served as Dr. Connolly s Assistant in 1940.

Dr. Connolly served as minister of the congregation for 29 years, when he was named Minister Emeritus. His death eighteen years later (in 1960) was prominently announced by the Rockford Newspapers which observed:

Dr. Charles Parker Connolly brought together in his approach to life, intellectual and esthetic interests that were almost Hellenic in their breadth; a concern for raising the status and dignity of humankind everywhere that was intense and of his own century; a mission concerning the spiritual enrichment of people that transcended any rigid lines of theology but was in fact mystical. . . Our city knew him as a lover of music; as a poet of classical skill; as a speaker who combined almost Emersonian content with a marvelous voice; . . . as a logician who scorned sophistries and gave us pure thought.

After Dr. Connolly's death, an endowment fund was created, the income of which was used for several years to being prominent speakers to Rockford, and has in recent years been used in support of the broadcast of FUSION.

The Rev. John Ruskin Clark, who succeeded George Williams as Dr. Connolly's Assistant, became minister upon Dr. Connolly's retirement in 1942, serving one year before enlisting as a Navy Chaplain.

Click here to read a sermon delivered by Dr. Connolly in 1916