I was elected a member of the teamsters’ union while the teamsters were on strike.  I was in their headquarters night and day, doing what I could for them; but I was unable to offset the bad leadership which landed nine of them in jail.

On May 1st, I left Pilgrim Church.  My farewell sermon was a fair statement of the case.  The sermon was published in the press.  The Hartford Post made the following editorial comments on it: 

  “ONE CHURCH AND ITS PASTOR

“Plain speaking is so much out of fashion that when examples of it are discovered they rivet attention.  Undoubtedly there was a good deal in the farewell sermon of the Reverend Alexander F. Irvine, who has just closed a pastorate of four and one-half years in the Pilgrim Congregational Church in New Haven, that was applicable only to that church, but possibly some statements have more or less general application.  At any rate, it is an interesting case and the sermon was remarkable for its almost brutal directness, its cutting satire, its searching exposition of the wholesale spirit of charity mixed with kindly humour which runs through it.

“After four years and six months of labour, a clergyman is certainly qualified to speak of the characteristics of the pastorate.  In most cases the farewell sermon is, however, a mass of ‘glittering generalities,’ a formal, perfunctory affair.  Often it is omitted altogether.  The pastor simply goes out, leaving the church to its fate, commending it to the care of the Almighty.  His private views are not expressed.  Mr. Irvine retired in considerable turmoil, but he made his parting memorable by expressing his sentiments, and his frankness was absolute.

“In reviewing his pastorate, Mr. Irvine spoke of the children’s services on Wednesday nights, the men’s Bible class and a group of sixty added to the church at its fiftieth anniversary as among the happy features of his administration.  But he went on to say that those new members were not welcomed by the ‘Society’ because they brought no money into the treasury.  The clash that went on during those four and one-half years is revealed by what the pastor said on this matter.  He tried to democratize the church.  He wanted to get in ‘new blood.’  He tried to interest the workingmen, as many other pastors have tried to do and are trying to do, with varying success.  We hear a great deal about the church and the masses, how they are drifting apart.  Here is a minister who tried to bring them together.  He had services when all seats were free, and workingmen were invited.  He interested many of them, and many joined the church.  But the attempt was a failure, for the church as a whole didn’t take kindly to people without money.  ’In the making of a deacon,’ said Mr. Irvine, ’goodness is a quality sought after, but the qualifications for the Society’s committee is cash—­cold cash.  If there is a deviation from this rule, it is on the score of patronage.