Publick Religion: remembering 1776, on both sides of the Atlantic

The picture is of this year's annual Lantern Service in Old North Church, Boston. The service commemorates the lighting of two lanterns in the church's steeple on 18th April 1775, leading to Paul Revere's famous midnight ride before the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In the 50 years since the bicentennial celebrations in 1976, the service has been an annual fixture. In the words of the Old North Church website:

[it] recalls the lights of liberty that shone from Old North’s steeple on April 18, 1775, while reflecting on the meaning of faith, freedom, and American democracy today.

The service culminates with the lighting of the church's two historic lanterns.

When I looked at photographs of this year's service, what immediately struck me was this photograph. It encapsulates the 'Publick Religion' that traditionally has been part of the Anglican vocation: surplice, tippet, hood, bands - noble and modest; a historic church; a national commemoration. 

It is, of course, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence - a year when Episcopal churches in the United States, particularly those with historic ties to the Revolutionary War, should be confidently engaged in Publick Religion. This, however, is not what TEC's website suggests. There is nothing that I can see anywhere on the website marking the 250th anniversary. This is, to say the least, odd. Two-thirds of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence were members of the Church of England in the American colonies. William White, Rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia, was chaplain to the Continental Congress. George Washington, commander of the Continental Army and first President of the new Republic, was a vestryman and worshipped in Pohick Church and Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia. The churchyards of many historic colonial-era Episcopal churches have Revolutionary War graves. And, as the Preface to the 1789 Book of Common Prayer acknowledged, the Revolution was fundamental to the emergence of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America:

But when in the course of Divine Providence, these American States became independent with respect to civil government, their ecclesiastical independence was necessarily included; and the different religious denominations of Christians in these States were left at full and equal liberty to model and organize their respective Churches, and forms of worship, and discipline, in such manner as they might judge most convenient for their future prosperity; consistently with the constitution and laws of their country.

It takes a considerable degree of self-loathing on the part of TEC to refuse to commemorate - or, what is apparently a shocking suggestion, celebrate - its formative role in the emergence of the United States as an independent country. Then again, perhaps this is only to be expected when the Presiding Bishop has, with ideological fervour, condemned "the Protestant tradition of patriotism ... as a tool of dominion". 

Such an ideological and partisan declaration, however, is challenged and refuted by material reality and historical memory. The website of Pohick Church describes it as "Home Church of George Washington and George Mason". The website of Christ Church, Alexandria says that it is "a church where George Washington worshipped". The graveyard of Old Trinity, Dorchester, Maryland, "includes the graves of veterans of the American Revolution". Christ Church, Philadelphia, with its relationship to the Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence, is described by its website as "The Nation’s Church". Five signatories of the Declaration are buried in its graveyard. Washington Memorial Chapel describes itself as "The Nation's Chapel at Valley Forge ... A living memorial to George Washington and the Patriots of Valley Forge". (It has also planned an excellent Day of Thanksgiving to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This will include Evensong from BCP 1662, "the same prayer book that shaped George Washington's faith"). As for Old North Church, its website says it "lit the way for the American Revolution".

Material reality, historical memory, and national story ensure that - despite the ideological hostility expressed by the Presiding Bishop - "the tradition of Protestantism patriotism" can be found in TEC, having particular relevance in this 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This should be the basis of Publick Religion for commemorations and celebrations in TEC and the other mainline Protestant traditions.

It is also the case, however, that "the tradition of Protestant patriotism" shaped those in redcoats, mostly from the 10th Regiment of Foot, who, on 18th April 1775, made their way from Boston towards Lexington and Concord. Forty-nine British officers and men fell on 19th April and the days following. Small memorials to them - erected in later years by local communities in Massachusetts - are found in the area. The British regulars who fell - at Lexington and Concord, at Bunker Hill some weeks later, and throughout the Revolutionary War - were sons of the Churches of England (then including Wales), Ireland, and Scotland. 

It is the duty of Publick Religion to commemorate them, those who fell defending a Protestant constitutional order which, for all of its flaws, inconsistencies, and injustices, secured ordered liberty and representative government under the Crown, including the means of reforming itself in order to expand that liberty. As Charles Inglis (a son of the Church of Ireland), then Loyalist minister of Trinity Church, New York, later first Bishop of Nova Scotia, declared in 1776:

I am none of your 'passive-obedience and non-resist­ance men.' The principles on which the glori­ous revolution in 1688 was brought about, con­stitute the articles of my political creed; and were it necessary, I could clearly evince, that these are perfectly conformable to the doctrines of scripture.

For these with eyes to see, as in TEC, material reality and historical memory in the Churches of England (with the Church in Wales), Ireland, and Scotland calls for the commemoration of those who fell in the service of the Crown during what was known in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland as the American War. In Westminster Abbey, the memorial to Major John André (of French Huguenot stock) is to be found. He was controversially hanged by Patriot forces in 1780. The memorial - erected at the direction of King George III - states that he "fell a Sacrifice to his Zeal for his King and Country". His remains were repatriated in 1821and buried beside his memorial in the Abbey. 

In Birmingham Cathedral there is a memorial which reminds us of the cause for which British soldiers fought in the American War. The memorial is to Peter Oliver, who was His Majesty's Chief Justice in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1771-1775. Oliver departed his native Massachusetts in 1776, settling in England, where he wrote his Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion (1781). The memorial states, "Nothing could dissolve his attachment to the British Government, nor lessen his Love & Loyalty to his Sovereign". 

Here and there in parish churches in these Islands are found memorials to individuals who fell in the American War. In All Hallows Church, Seaton, the Monckton family memorial commemorates Henry, "who fell at the Battle of Monmouth Court House in America on the 28th June 1778". Henry's mortal remains rest close to the battle field in New Jersey. The headstone reads, "Lt. Col. Henry Monckton who on the plains of Monmouth 28 June 1778 sealed with his life his duty and devotion to his king and country".

We started at Old North Church and to there we return. Shortly after Lexington and Concord was the Battle of Bunker Hill. Amongst the British fallen was Major John Pictcairn, the son of a Church of Scotland minister. He was buried in Old North Church. The Boston Episcopal church that "lit the way for the American Revolution" gave Christian burial to a British officer, serving the Crown, and - according to one source - "some who held commands under the Major". 

I have said that Publick Religion, on both sides of the Atlantic, should commemorate those who fought and died for their respective constitutional allegiances during 1775-83. Partly this reflects what Richard Hooker, referring to Christian burial, describes as "that love towards the partie deceased which nature requireth" (LEP V.75.1). Likewise, there is, in the polity, a natural duty to respectfully commemorate those who heeded the call of the constitutional order in a time war. This reflects the truth that, in Burke's words, "Society is, indeed, a contract ... a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born". It is a natural duty to honour those who defended the constitutional allegiance which shapes our common life in the polity.

It is also a matter of recognising those who shared our common faith. The vast majority of those who died in the Revolutionary War had been baptised in the name of the Holy Trinity. On the British side, the vast majority belonged to what were then the established Churches of these Kingdoms. On the Patriot side, significant numbers were members of the Church of England in what had been the American colonies. Clergy ministered in both armies, not least before battle, in death, and at the graveside. In the time of war, churches in both these Kingdoms and the new American States heeded the call of public authority to offer prayer for their respective forces. In this 250th anniversary year, commemorating those who served and died in the Revolutionary/American War is to give expression to what is said in the Prayer for the Church Militant:

And we also bless thy holy Name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear; beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom ...

It is, then, to say that these sons of our Churches are not forgotten. 'Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away': but even with the passage of the centuries, the Church remembers them with gratitude and charity.

Publick Religion is also about offering a vision of Christian patriotism. As Bishop Andrew Rumsey has said:

[the Church of England] has long been hesitant about declaring love for England, fearing that to do so would be to flirt with extremism or betray ignorance of its flaws. Yet the failure of liberal institutions in general to speak ardently about homeland leaves a vacancy for such natural affections that the far Right is only too happy to fill ...

At a time of resurgent interest in faith and identity, it isn’t sufficient simply to denounce Christian nationalism as ‘hate’, which seems to me both a denial of history and an abdication of care. If we really want — as I do — to arrest the drift towards intolerance, the C of E must embody a more hopeful patriotism, grounded in neighbourhood and unconditional charity.

Homeland, faith, identity, history, care, charity: these would be expressed in prayerful commemoration of those from these Islands who fought and died in the American War. It would demonstrate how a national Church contributes to the national story, is embedded in that story, and gathers it up in prayer, bringing it before and orienting it towards "the author of peace and concord". The national story would not be abandoned to ideologues (secular and ecclesial) on Hard Left and Far Right, but recalled within a national Church's witness, ministry, and proclamation.

Related to Bishop Rumsey's wise words, a recent article by James Price in The Critic pointed to how the Established Church in England could meaningfully contribute to national identity:

a humble but substantive civic national identity rooted in ethics, compassion and community ... At a time when the left attacks the very idea of nation as evil, and the online right is not so much dabbling with blood and soil as actively wallowing in it it, the deep-rootedness of the Church of England in the very fabric of our lives could be restored as an agent to bind us closer to one another.

Two phrases here have particular significance. The first is "civic national identity". We can see this expressed in both sides during the American/Revolutionary War: allegiance to the Crown and the Declaration of Independence. Both of these contradict and refute blood and soil nationalism. At a time when the dark fantasies of nationalism are being invoked, to remember those who fought for constitutional orders defined by allegiance to the Crown or the Declaration of Independence would offer another, more faithful vision of common life in our respective polities.

The second is "deep-rootedness". For the Churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland to commemorate those of these Islands who fell in the service of the Crown in the American War is to exemplify such "deep-rootedness", stretching over centuries, remembering sons otherwise long-forgotten. Likewise for TEC to commemorate the American Founding and those who served the Patriot cause in the Revolutionary War. In both cases, it is to be unembarrassed about being 'historic national churches', offering ministry, prayer, and counsel within our polities over centuries. 

On both sides of the Atlantic in recent years we have seen bad Publick Religion. The absence of good Publick Religion encourages and facilitates the bad. When historic churches abandon their Publick Religion vocation and are embarrassed by - or regard as distasteful - the virtue of patriotism and telling the national story, they then create, to use Bishop Rumsey's words, "a vacancy for such natural affections". Bad Publick Religion enters into the vacant space in the public square, distorting and disordering patriotism, remembrance, national story, and allegiance. Remembering 1776, on both sides of the Atlantic, offers an opportunity to demonstrate that the Churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and The Episcopal Church, will not create such a vacancy, but will seek to recognise and rightly order our natural affections in commemorating the events and sacrifices of 1775-83. 

(The first picture is of the Lantern Service in Old North Church, Boston, 2006. The second marks the graves of British fallen in the retreat from Lexington and Concord. The third is of the plaque marking the grave of Major John Pitcairn in Old North Church. These memorials bring to mind the words of Sir William Waller, a Parliamentarian, writing to his Royalist friend, Ralph Hopton, in 1643: "this war without an enemy".)