Introduction

Biography

A gra­du­ate of Ur­ba­na Uni­ver­si­ty, Ur­ba­na, Ohio, Smyth was or­dained Jan­ua­ry 5, 1879.

He served as pa­stor of the Port­land New Church So­ci­ety (1877–82), the Rox­bu­ry So­ci­ety (1882–98), and the New York So­ci­ety (1898–1921).

He was pre­si­dent of the New Church New York As­so­cia­tion (1907–21), and of the Ge­ne­ral Con­ven­tion (1911–21).

He was mem­ber of the Am­eri­can New-Church Sun­day School As­so­cia­tion com­mit­tee that com­piled and ed­it­ed the Ho­san­na, the New Je­ru­sa­lem Com­mit­tee of Wor­ship that com­piled and ed­it­ed the Mag­ni­fi­cat in 1910, and—with James Reed—on the Ge­ne­ral Con­ven­tion of the New Je­ru­sa­lem Com­mit­tee of Wor­ship that es­tab­lished the 1912 Book of Wor­ship.

Kennedy also found­ed the Ken­ne­dy House for the edu­ca­tion of the un­der­pri­vi­leged in New York Ci­ty.