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Hallo again to all. A few days ago, the thousandth bishop in the American Episcopal Church was consecrated, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Actually, 'ordained and consecrated', for those who tend to be purist about such things.) This number would have seemed almost unimaginable to the Episcopal Church in its formative years, when the House of Bishops consisted of a handful of men. The succession -- so hard won by Samuel Seabury in Scotland and made seemingly firm by the consecration of three American bishops in London in 1787 -- was nearly lost now and then in the first and second decades of the 19th century, when illness and death were plaguing the minuscule House of Bishops. But by the early 1830s, the growing US population, its westward movement, and the passing of the first generation of American bishops (along with the peculiar, emotional resignation of another) required new episcopal elections in the dioceses of Kentucky, Vermont, Ohio, and New Jersey. The fruits of those elections -- BB Smith, JH Hopkins, CP McIlvaine, and GW Doane -- were soon to take their place in the House of Bishops after their consecrations, which where to all occur on one day, during the General Convention in New York City. So on 31 October 1832, a crush of people thronged the Georgian edifice of St Paul's Church in Manhattan, where the lucky were packed in galleries and the less lucky forced to struggle for any seat they could. Many had to stand on the pews to see anything. The remarkable event of four consecrations stimulated Arthur Cleveland Coxe*, a 14-year-old schoolboy and son of a noted Presbyterian minister, to skip school. He jostled his way through the crowd, wangling a place near the chancel where he could watch the action first hand. He noted this in his diary:
The sermon, by Henry Ustick Onderdonk, high churchman and assistant Bishop of Pennsylvania, was, not surprisingly, focussed on apostolic succession: 'Why should a ministry exist in the Christian Church? and why should it be distinguished by orders? Many of the most specious popular objections to Episcopacy, were well and ingeniously answered'.§ But the sermon's appeal to a schoolboy -- even one so intensely fascinated by the Episcopal Church as 'Cleve' Coxe -- was somewhat remote. And its distinct lack of appeal to his Presbyterian father was duly noted in the son's diary:
Immediately following Bishop Onderdonk’s peroration, the Handelian anthem 'Comfort ye' was sung -- although some priggish observers later questioned its tastefulness. The candidates presented, the testimonials read, the interrogatories asked and answered, the ceremony moved inexorably forward in the dignified and orderly form and manner of making bishops. At last, the bishops-elect were consecrated by the 84-year-old presiding bishop, William White, according to the dates of their respective elections. This was rather a shock, as Bishop White had been in the habit, till then, of following the English practice of consecration by date of doctor of divinity degree rather than by order of election. We suspect that the crowds in St Paul's Church in 1832 observing the consecration of the 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th American bishops would have been reasonably comfortable had they been in Albuquerque for the consecration of the 1000th bishop. And that's not as insignificant as it might seem: The 973rd bishop in the Episcopal Church, Pierre Whalon, in his new essay 'To Whom Do We Belong?' writes about the issues raised when the American Episcopal church came into being, issues that bear strongly on our Anglican Communion roils today. See you next week.
Last
updated: 16 January
2005 *
Later the second
Bishop of Western New York (1865-1896). His unpublished
diaries, from which his recollections of the 1832 consecration
are taken, are part of the archives of the Diocese of
Western New York. |
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