method of patience, tact, and
a sense of humor did change many of us. And a controlled sense of
humor has a marvelous effect at times. There was the instance
when the Rector went to conduct a funeral service on Mt. Adams.
It was a very hot day, the little rooms were crowded, and family
and neighbors were close to the coffin. Mr. Nelson put on his
vestments in the stuffy kitchen. He had begun the majestic words
of the service when there strolled into the room the small boy of
the family nonchalantly carrying a very large slice of
watermelon! He found a spot on the floor at the foot of the
coffin, and proceeded to eat the juicy treat. The Rector
continued with the service, and the mourners gave him absorbed
attention until the last prayer. No incongruity could possibly
change the beauty and dignity of that service as conducted by our
Rector.

Frank Nelson was shepherd to all. To be sure, there were complaints that
he did not call in every home, and to some who did not have the
opportunity to experience at first-hand his sympathy and concern, he
seemed aloof. But when a need arose he met it; and as years were added
to years he won the confidence of all types of people. To the rich he
said, "Your money is the smallest gift you can offer. Yes, Christ Church
needs money, but it needs you yourself far more." He said to the poor,
"You are splendid in the way you are helping us. The parish could not
get along without such workers as you. Keep it up!" In the warm climate
of his enthusiasm and appreciation, young and old, rich and poor
discovered within themselves an undreamed-of capacity to respond to his
faith and to his demands for service. In turn he was generous in
gratitude. At the time of his twenty-fifth anniversary he wrote the
following acknowledgment to a parishioner who had written to him of all
that Christ Church and his ministry meant:

Thank you indeed, and thank you still more for these seventeen
years of most extraordinary service, and personal loyalty and
friendship. I can never tell you how much I have appreciated
them, and do appreciate them. I know I have made life harder for
you--both in the work I have put on you--and by the way I have
often left you to carry the burden unaided. But I know too that
the Spirit has carried you on and filled you with new visions and
powers of life. And that makes all the rest worth while. I am so
glad that you are coming up to us