laudable Practice

In its ' Alterations agreed on and confirmed in Convention, for rendering the Liturgy conformable to the principles of the American Revolution, and the constitutions of the several states ', the first General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, held in Philadelphia in 1785, set forth a ' Service for the 4th of July '. The thanksgiving appointed for the day included this reference to the events of 4th July 1776: O God, whose Name is excellent in all the earth, and thy glory above the heavens, who as on this day didst inspire and direct the hearts of our delegates in Congress, to lay the perpetual foundations of peace, liberty, and safety; we bless and adore thy glorious Majesty, for this thy loving kindness and providence ... The appointed Epistle opened with the words "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice"; the appointed Gospel concluded with "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed". There is littl...

George Washington and Charles Inglis. They seem to be ideological opponents. Washington, the enlightened Virginian gentleman and commander of the Continental Army. Inglis, the Loyalist parson in New York and critic of Paine's Common Sense . While both were members of the Church of England, JCD Clark in The Language of Liberty 1660-1832 (1994) has portrayed the Revolutionary War as a 'war of religion', with contrasting Anglican visions taking opposing sides. Washington represented the low church, latitudinarian ethos of the Church of England in the southern colonies. Inglis, by contrast, represented the high church orthodoxy and Toryism of the clergy of the northern colonies.  There is good reason, however, to suggest that Clark's contrast between two opposing Anglican visions is much too heavily drawn. As much recent scholarship has demonstrated, 18th century Anglicanism was defined much more by 'unity and accord' than by High v. Low conflict. William Gibson, f...

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,...

At this time of year, as October days shorten and the leaves begin to fall, my thoughts usually turn to a certain colonial-era Dutch Reformed church, "in the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson": It stands on a knoll, surrounded by locust-trees and lofty elms, from among which its decent, whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, like Christian purity beaming through the shades of retirement. A gentle slope descends from it to a silver sheet of water, bordered by high trees, between which, peeps may be caught at the blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon its grass-grown yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly, one would think that there at least the dead might rest in peace. On one side of the church extends a wide woody dell, along which raves a large brook among broken rocks and trunks of fallen trees. Over a deep black part of the stream, not far from the church, was formerly thrown a wooden bridge; the road that led to...

On the 28th May 1787, in Christ Church, Philadelphia, the first ordination took place in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania. The bishop was, of course, William White, who had been consecrated to the episcopate two months earlier by bishops of the Church of England, in Lambeth Palace chapel.  The preacher at the ordination was Samuel Magaw, Rector of St. Paul's, Philadelphia, and then vice-provost and professor of moral philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Magaw's sermon offers a significant insight into Protestant Episcopalian self-understanding as a church in, as then was the case, the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. When the sermon was published, the dedication to White celebrated his "appointment to the Episcopal Chair". This introduced a major theme in the sermon: the unembarrassed Protestant Episcopalian dependence upon the Church of England. Indeed, Magaw was expl...

I continued, as did all of us, to pray for the king, until Sunday (inclusively) before the 4th of July 1776. So said William White , supporter of the Patriot cause and chaplain to the Continental Congress. It is a reminder of the complexities and nuances of Anglican allegiances and identities in North America during these years. Similarly we might also point to the Loyalist parson Jonathan Boucher's critique of the Administration in Westminster in a 1774 sermon: Their whole conduct, indeed, has been so utterly devoid of counsel, that I seem to have no right to tax those persons with being superstitious, who ascribe to it a preternatural infatuation ... That they wish for a reconciliation, we cannot but believe: yet every step they have taken, since the dispute began, has, through their folly, or our perverseness, or both, tended only to widen the breach; tended to make new enemies and lose old friends. Boucher also admitted, in his farewell sermon the following year to his parish i...

On 9th December 1775, Crown forces engaged Patriot troops in the Battle of Great Bridge. It was the first engagement of the Revolutionary War in Virginia. Only weeks later, on 1st January, the Royal Navy bombarded Norfolk, Virginia, with British landing parties being confronted by Patriot militia. The confrontation resulted in the town being burnt to the ground. On the eve of the shelling of Norfolk, and ending the tumultuous year of 1775, David Griffith - then rector of  Shelburne Parish in Loudoun County, northern Virginia - entered the pulpit of Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg.  Griffith had previously publicly indicated his support for the Patriot cause. Now from the pulpit, amidst the realities of armed conflict and political confrontation, preached on a scriptural text at the heart of Anglican political theology, and often invoked by Loyalist clergy, Romans 13:1&2:  The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth ...