His father, a well-to-do business man of English colonial stock, had been influenced by Swedenborgian mysticism.
His mother and her family were Episcopalians and were connected by blood and marriage with well-known Bay State families.
With an excellent mind and phenomenal memory, already grounded in the classics, he entered Columbia College, where he was assisted by scholarships and by earnings from church work and was graduated near the head of his class in 1886.
In three months' private study he anticipated the first two years' work at the General Theological Seminary--the first and only student to accomplish this feat--and completed the course in 1887.
Equipped with modern languages, with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and with philosophy, he entered the University of Leipzig, where he gave primary attention to Franz Delitzsch, orientalist and theologian, and to Wilhelm Wundt and Gustav Theodor Fechner, pioneers in experimental psychology.
Interested in a teaching ministry, he accepted in the fall of 1890 the position of chaplain and professor of philosophy, psychology, and Christian evidences at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. , where he also gave a series of public lectures on the results of the latest biblical criticism.
One day during the lunch hour, while deep in thought, he had a vision and heard a voice: "Be faithful unto me, and I will be faithful unto you. "
He took it as God's call to the ministry.
His doctoral dissertation, The Religious Opinions of John Locke, was published in 1889.
Returning with his Leipzig doctorate in that year, Worcester succeeded Seth Low [q. v. ] as superintendent of the Sunday School at St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, and was ordained to the diaconate in 1890 and to the priesthood in 1891.
Worcester was called to Emmanuel Church, Boston, in 1904.
There he continued his interest in philanthropic work, directing his parishioners in projects for the relief of the victims of the great Chelsea fire (1908) and of a coal famine.
This began when Dr. Joseph H. Pratt asked his help in caring for poor tuberculous patients.
He made it known that Emmanuel Church was ready to help in this way, and on the first day the parish house was thronged.
Certain principles were laid down: nervous disorders only were to be treated; physical and mental diagnosis should precede treatment; and the cooperation of physicians and psychiatrists during the treatment was expected.
Boston's experts in medicine, psychology, and psychiatry, including Drs. Richard C. Cabot, James J. Putnam [qq. v. ]
, and Isador H. Coriat, were willing associates.
They were joined later by Courtney Baylor, a layman who had been helped at Emmanuel, whose specialty was social problems, such as divorce and alcoholism.
Under proper circumstances and supervision, hypnotism was successfully employed.
In 1929 Worcester resigned his rectorship and with Baylor moved to offices nearby, where they received patients until Worcester's death in 1940.
Worcester himself received honorary degrees from Hobart College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University.
For a contemporary estimate of Worcester and the Emmanuel Movement, see Ray Stannard Baker, New Ideals in Healing (1909).
See also Who's Who in America, 1940-41; N. Y. Times, July 20, 1940. ]
Worcester, Elwood, , Ohio 1862 1940 Male Clergyman Episcopal (See also Anglican) Protestant Episcopal clergyman, was born in Massillon, Ohio, and grew up in Rochester, N. Y.
He was a genial and friendly man, delighting in worthwhile discussion, a lover of pets and of the woods, and an enthusiastic fisherman.
Both parents were natives of New England.
With his wife, Blanche Stanley Rulison, and their children, Constance Rulison, Gurdon Saltonstall, Blandina Van Antwerp, and David, his home was one of refreshment and strong support.
With his wife, Blanche Stanley Rulison, and their children, Constance Rulison, Gurdon Saltonstall, Blandina Van Antwerp, and David, his home was one of refreshment and strong support.
He was the only son and the youngest of four children of David Freeman and Frances (Gold) Worcester.
