He was "a militant defender of theological modernism who denied the Virgin birth and defied the Bishops of his church to unfrock him for heresy".
He first came to widespread attention when he "made a spirited attack" on the Roman Catholic Church, claiming it sought "political domination and a war with Great Britain".
On the more-diplomatic side, in 1908, Parks convened a dinner meeting of New York church musicians, which continues to this day as St. Wilfrid Club, a longstanding organization of prominent organists.
[2] In 1878, Parks married Margaret Alden Haven, an expatriate then living in Geneva, Switzerland, and they became the parents of at least three daughters.
He was living with his daughter Alice Margareta Parks, wife of Sir John Nicholson Barran, 2nd Bt, in London at the time of his death.