Arthur Dycer

The Rev. Dr. Arthur W. Dycer was pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church from 1933 to 1944, the longest such tenure in the congregation's history.

The British-born Dycer came to the church, then known as the Congregational Church of Birmingham, at a time when its members had, for the first time, acquired something of a permanent place of worship, in the Axis Club building at 1819 8th Avenue North. The church experienced difficulty in financing renovations on the building in 1937 and attempted to procure an amount of profit gained from the sale of property by the original 1903-15 membership to the national Congregational home missions board. Dycer and officials decided to legally unite the formerly dormant congregation with the presently active one, in order to make a plausible claim on the funds. In something of a compromise, the board sent the renamed Pilgrim Congregational Church both a grant and a loan; this enabled the church to build a full sanctuary on the site, which opened in November 1941. (The building would be demolished in 1959.)

Dycer saw the church through this project, but shortly thereafter became incapacitated due to mental illness. He left the pulpit for several months, but recovered enough to serve Pilgrim Church for two more years before resigning.

References

• Feazel, Frances T. (2003) A History of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, 1903-2003. self-published by the church.