THE "MISSION SERVICE" OF 1885-'86.

401

competition; over-work, under-pay, scamped work, and mutual enmity and discontent between employer and employé.

15. The immorality and irreligion caused by the unrighteous denial to a large and increasing class of one day's rest in seven.

16. The prevalence of the sins of intemperance and impurity.

17. The special religious difficulties caused by the constant flow of immigrants.

18. The hindrance to the growth of the Christian life caused by our luxuriousness and selfishness.

19. The ostentatious display by Church-goers of all classes.

20. The want of public spirit in its bearing upon both Church and State.

According to the recommendations of the committee, "missions" were conducted in many of the largest Protestant Episcopal churches in the country throughout the winter of 1885-'86. Eloquent "missioners" were employed; special services were held for children; and the great innovation for this conservative Church was proved beyond a doubt to be both popular and fruitful.

26

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The Reformed Episcopal Church-Organization of the new Church-The Founder of the Church-Declaration of Principles-Missionary and Synodical Jurisdictions-Bishops and Officers.

THIS

THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

HIS denomination originated in New York City in 1873. The Dean of Canterbury, Church of England, was a delegate to the World's Conference of the Evangelical Alliance which met in October of that year in New York. During the conference he participated one Sunday in the celebration of the communion service in conjunction with a number of clergymen representing several non-Episcopal bodies. The attention of Bishop Potter was called to the occurrence and letters were sent to the Dean and Archbishop of Canterbury, expressing regrets for his action. Assistant Bishop Cummins, of Kentucky, defended the Dean and acknowledged that he also had participated in a communion service outside his own church, and challenged the citation of any law of the Church prohibiting such participation. A very heated controversy arose, which was carried on in the pulpit and in the newspaper press, and it was emphasized by Bishop Potter publishing a letter commending his subordinate for censuring the Dean and explaining the objections to such mixed communions.

THE FOUNDER OF THE NEW CHURCH.

403

ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW CHURCH.

This letter was followed by the resignation of Bishop Cummins of his office in the Protestant Episcopal Church, on Nov. 10, in a long letter to Bishop Smith, of the Diocese of Kentucky, in which he fully explained his position. In it he declared, among the reasons for his course, that whenever called upon to officiate in certain churches, he had been most painfully impressed by the conviction that he was sanctioning and endorsing by his presence and official acts the dangerous errors symbolized by the services customary in ritualistic churches, and that he could no longer by participation in such services be a partaker of other men's sins, and must clear his own soul of all complicity in such errors. A call was issued five days later for a meeting to be held on Dec. 2, at Association Hall, New York City. A large number of laymen and ministers, who for various reasons had withdrawn from the church, presented themselves at the appointed time, and the "Reformed Episcopal Church" was organized. The Rt. Rev. George David Cummins, D.D., was unanimously elected Presiding Bishop, and the Rev. Charles Edward Cheney, of Chicago, was elected an additional Bishop, to be known as Missionary Bishop of the Northwest. A Declaration of Principles, several provisional rules, and a Constitution, to be in force until the first meeting of the General Council, were adopted. A prominent feature of the latter, as amended, was the reference to the communion service in these words:

"Our fellow-Christians of all other branches of Christ's Church, and all who love our Divine Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in sincerity, are affectionately invited to the Lord's table."

THE FOUNDER OF THE CHURCH.

Dr. Cummins was born in Delaware, Dec. 11, 1822. He was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., and graduated from that institution in 1841. He entered upon the study of theology with Robert Emory, a Methodist minister, and spent two years as a preacher "on trial" in the Method

ist Episcopal Church. He afterwards joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was ordained a deacon in that church by Bishop Lee, in October, 1845; a priest by the same Bishop in July, 1847; and was successively appointed to the following parishes: Christ Church, Norfolk, Va.; St. James Church, Richmond, Va.; Trinity Church, Washington, D. C.; St. Peter's Church, Baltimore, Md.; and Trinity Church, Chicago, Ill. While in charge of the last-named parish he was elected Assistant Bishop of Kentucky, and was consecrated in Christ Church, Louisville, in November, 1866. He officiated efficiently until the events occurred that led to his withdrawal from the church in 1873. He died June 26, 1876.

DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.

I. The Reformed Episcopal Church, holding "the faith once delivered unto the saints," declares its belief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God, and the sole Rule of Faith and Practice; in the Creed, "commonly called the Apostles' Creed"; in the Divine institution of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; and in the doctrines of grace substantially as they are set forth in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion.

II. This Church recognizes and adheres to Episcopacy, not as of divine right, but as a very ancient and desirable form of church polity.

III. This Church, retaining a Liturgy which shall not be imperative or repressive of freedom in prayer, accepts the Book of Common Prayer, as it was revised, proposed, and recommended for use by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, A.D. 1785, reserving full liberty to alter, abridge, enlarge, and amend the same, as may seem most conducive to the edification of the people, "provided that the substance of the faith be kept entire."

IV. This Church condemns and rejects the following erroneous and strange doctrines, as contrary to God's Word:

First, That the Church of Christ exists only in one order or form of ecclesiastical polity.

Second, That Christian ministers are "priests" in another sense than that in which all believers are a royal priesthood."

Third, That the Lord's Table is an altar on which the oblation of the Body and Blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father.

Fourth, That the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is a presence in the elements of Bread and Wine.

Fifth, That Regeneration is inseparably connected with Baptism.

MISSIONARY JURISDICTIONS.

405

At the close of the first year of its existence, the new church had 40 ministers, 36 churches, and upward of 3,000 communicants. On June 1, 1885, there were reported, bishops, 10; ministers, 61; Sunday-school teachers, 960; Sunday-school scholars, 11,267; communicants, 7,877; value of church property, less incumbrances, $1,009,843. The church was divided into the Synods of New York and Philadelphia, the Synod of Canada, the Synod of Chicago, and the Missionary Jurisdictions of the Pacific, of the South, of the Northwest and West, and the Special Missionary Jurisdiction of the South. It also had in Great Britain 2 bishops, 13 presbyters, 2 deacons, 17 parishes, 718 Sunday-school scholars, and 418 communicants.

MISSIONARY AND SYNODICAL JURISDICTIONS.

The First Synod in the Dominion of Canada comprised the churches in the several Canadian Provinces, except British Columbia, and was in charge of Bishop Edward Wilson, D.D.

The Missionary Jurisdiction of the Pacific comprised the Canadian province of British Columbia, and all the States and Territories of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains, and was in charge of Bishop Edward Cridge, B.A., Cantab.

The Synod of New York and Philadelphia comprised the churches in the New England States, and in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and was in charge of Bishop William R. Nicholson, D.D.

The Missionary Jurisdiction of the South comprised the District of Columbia, the State of Maryland, and all other of the United States lying east of the Mississippi River and south of the Ohio River, not embraced in the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, and in the Special Missionary Jurisdiction of the South, and was in charge of Bishop James A. Latané, D.D.

The Special Missionary Jurisdiction of the South comprised all the colored parishes and congregations in the