ways Cody would have been the logical successor, the man to carry on in the Sheraton tradition. He was offered the position of principal. It must have presented many attractions for him, but he decided to stay with St. Paul’s. On February 20, after an interview with S.H. Blake, he declined the principalship but accepted further responsibilities at Wycliffe, taking over Sheraton’s major course in systematic theology. The Wycliffe council then appointed T.R. O’Meara, a devoted but less brilliant man, as principal.
Cody continued to preach good scriptural sermons at St. Paul’s. A selection of his texts in this period indicate the character of his approach: Romans 13:12, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand”; Isaiah 26:4, “Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength”; Luke 2:15, “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass”; John 14:19, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Cody was continuing to preach the gospel of love, forgiveness and hope.
While St. Paul’s and the University of Toronto, including Wycliffe, occupied much of Cody’s time, there were many other commitments. There was a crisis, one of many, at Havergal. In April 1906 Miss Knox threatened to resign. The problem was resolved after a series of meetings, but it arose again in 1907. In a special service for the Havergal girls, Cody preached on the text I John 5:21 – “Little children keep yourselves from idols” – which suggests an approach similar to that of Charles Kingsley, “Be good, sweet maid.”
Other commitments added to the activities of a busy life: a meeting of the Missionary Society of the Church in Canada executive in October 1905; a Ridley Old Boys dinner in December 1905, at which Wrong spoke on the Irish question; the annual ceremonial call on Bishop Arthur Sweatman on January 1; a meeting of the synod board of governors in March 1906; an ordination at Little Trinity on April 29, at which R.B. McElheran, one of Cody’s proteges, was an ordinand; meetings of a synod subcommittee in May in regard to the election of a coadjutor (assistant) to Bishop Sweatman (the negotiations were abortive). And so it went.
* Many Canadian universities have tried to preserve this distinction between the board’s control of finances and the teaching staff’s control of the “academic interests” of the universities. In practice, it has proved difficult to divorce financial from academic control.
Chapter 9
The Hymn Book and the Book of Common Prayer, 1906–1908
It was a remarkable feature of Cody’s career that he had achieved such prominence in the Canadian church while still only acting rector of St. Paul’s, technically “Rector in Charge.” The anomaly between his nominal and his actual status was now corrected. On April 23, 1907, Bishop Sweatman formally appointed Cody rector of St. Paul’s, and he was formally inducted on May 26, 1907. Congratulations came from O’Meara (the new Wycliffe principal), Archbishop Matheson, and others. Gustavus Munro, the Presbyterian minister in Embro, hoped that this formal recognition would prevent Cody from leaving the ministry to devote his life to academic or “official” work. Munro was posing the central problem in Cody’s career – which path to follow.1
Cody’s pastoral ministry at St. Paul’s continued, and each Sunday he recorded in his diary his sermon texts for the day. Thus, in July 1906, he preached on Psalm 43:5, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? ... hope thou in God”; on Psalm 55:22, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.” Additional light on his preaching ministry is revealed in the program for his Lenten service in 1908: Christ the Centre of Christianity; The Completeness and Complexity of Christ; The Shortness of Christ’s Life; The Individual Dealing of Christ; The Intolerance of Christ; The Sinlessness of Christ.
Cody was already preaching long sermons, even by the standards of the more accommodating congregations of the early twentieth century. An evening service that lasted only fifty-five minutes was an occasion for a note in his diary.
Cody’s large city congregation was a cross-section of Toronto society, containing people of every class, but it took its tone from the comparatively well-off and well-read elements in the church: the Blakes, the Caldecotts, the Willisons, the Denisons, the Jarvises, the Blackstocks, and the many like them. On February 4, when Cody lunched at the National Club with those of his sidesmen who were members, he recorded a dozen names, including Shirley Denison, F.A. Rolph, and Dean Ivey. When he married one of the Ansleys to a Baron Alfred von Wattenwyl in 1906, he recorded such names as Smallpeice, Catto, Hodgins, and Caldecott in the list of guests. John Willisons paper, the News, caught the atmosphere of St. Paul’s in an article published in 1907: “Educated, thoughtful, alert, businesslike, self-respecting and respectful of the rights of others, people who are helping to make the city’s social, commercial and collegiate life, men and women to whom life has been kind, such is the congregation of St. Paul’s. Thus it may be seen any Sunday morning quietly seated, waiting to hear some truthilluminated discourse.”2
The church was in good shape financially. In 1908 the annual report indicated a total income of over $30,000, large by the standards of the church at the time. The mortgage on the Sunday School had been paid off and the entire church property was free of debt. St. Paul’s was destined to be a tower of strength in the church, giving assistance to less affluent congregations such as St. Paul’s, Runnymede.
Occasionally an offer of assistance from St. Paul’s was gallantly declined. When the St. Paul’s Women’s Auxiliary offered some gifts for the children of a country clergyman, he declined, explaining that his stipend had been raised and he felt that he and his wife could manage without assistance.
S.H. Blake, who was 71 in 1906, continued to give Cody (then 38) fatherly support and advice. He praised Cody’s sermons on matters of churchmanship, and on June 3, 1908, he wrote in his usual caustic style about some negotiations between the Anglicans and two other churches for cooperation in Indian work. Afraid that some of the Anglican bishops, no doubt the high church ones, might prejudice the scheme, he urged Cody to try and prevent this, adding, “You are not a Bishop, so that you have no fear of being dragged by the hair round the council chamber if you happen to disagree with the statements made by any member of the Episcopal Bench.”3
In contrast to his tribulations in the 1920s and early 1930s, this was a happy period in Cody’s life. The Codys entertained a great deal, particularly on Sundays. Almost always they had guests to lunch, tea, or dinner. Visiting preachers were usually welcomed at 603 Jarvis Street. Often, they stayed with the Codys. Florence was a gracious hostess. She did not like going out in Toronto society but got on well with a some of its members.
The Codys were quite friendly with the Blackstocks and took a kindly interest in their daughter, Barbara. At Christmas, 1909, Barbara reciprocated by sending a Christmas card to Florence and a cake made by herself to Cody. Florence responded with a friendly note: “Mr. Cody cut his cake on Christmas Day and officiates at it each time it is placed at the table. It is a beautiful one, I can assure you, and one that we all enjoy with him, as a safeguard against his participating too freely of it, as he might be tempted to do, if we did not watch him.”4
Cody managed a few breaks in his excessively busy life, particularly in the summers. In July 1906 he had a few days among friends in the Georgian Bay area, Minnicog, Indian Harbour, and Penetang, and in the summer of 1907 he was in Europe, touring England and the Low Countries. Cody had never been a great athlete when in school and university, but he did participate in lawn bowling when the parish established a bowling green behind the church. Occasionally he bowled at other city rinks, and he was sufficiently interested to attend the Dominion Bowling Tournament in 1907, in which some of his parishioners were competing. Probably he got more exercise when he took Maurice, aged 10, to the Toronto Exhibition.
In addition to Sheraton, two other men of some importance in Cody’s career died in this period. John Langtry, the doughty and hard-hitting exponent of the high church position, died in August 1906. Langtry had been the great opponent of the evangelicals in the debates of the 1870s over the Church Association, but his insistence on the authority of Scripture towards the end of his career had made him more acceptable to them. Cody no doubt shared the view of