638 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



to it. The institution had been attended dur- 

 ing the year by ninety-four students, a larger 

 number than had ever been present at one time 

 since its organization. 



The Rev. Thomas A. Starkey, having been 

 elected Bishop of Northern New Jersey, to 

 succeed Bishop Odenheimer, who died August 

 14, 1879, was consecrated to that office, Jan- 

 uary 8th. 



The Eev. John N. Galleher was consecrated 

 Bishop of Louisiana, February 5th, succeeding 

 Bishop J. P. B. Wilmer, deceased. 



The Rev. George K. Dunlop was consecrated 

 Missionary Bishop of New Mexico, November 

 21st. 



The General Convention of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church met in New York City Oc- 

 tober 6th. Bishop Herzog, of the Old Catholic 

 Church in Switzerland, and Bishop Cotterill, 

 of the Anglican Church, Edinburgh, Scotland, 

 were present at the opening services as visiting 

 delegates. Bishop Smith, of Kentucky, pre- 

 sided over the House of Bishops. The Rev. 

 Dr. E. E. Beardsley, of Connecticut, was elect- 

 ed President of the House of Deputies. 



A committee, consisting of five bishops, five 

 clergymen, and five laymen, was appointed to 

 examine the new revision of the English trans- 

 lation of the Bible and report'whether it should 

 be adopted by the Church, but was instructed 

 to defer its report until after the Convention of 

 Canterbury, representing the English Church, 

 shall have acted on the subject. A report from 

 the Committee on Christian Education was 

 adopted, which recommended that the title of 

 the committee should henceforth be " the Com- 

 mittee on Education under the Auspices and 

 Control of the Protestant Episcopal Church " ; 

 that all churchmen use their means and energy 

 in establishing parochial schools, and refuse to 

 send their children to schools under the con- 

 trol of other denominations ; that a system of 

 higher education be provided for the schools 

 for girls of the different parishes; and that no 

 churchman send his children to any school 

 which is not under diocesan control. A joint 

 committee of bishops, presbyters, and laymen 

 was appointed to watch what measures the 

 Government might employ to secure to the In- 

 dians their civil rights, and to take such action 

 as it should deem expedient for securing addi- 

 tional legislation. A petition was presented 

 on the subject of free churches, asking the 

 Convention to recognize the following princi- 

 ples: " 1. That our churches should be so free 

 and open that all who wish may worship in 

 thern. 2. That in them there should be no dis- 

 tinctions on the ground of wealth or social posi- 

 tion. 3. That when they are consecrated, ap- 

 propriated, and devoted to the honor and wor- 

 ship of Almighty God, they should be abso- 

 lutely and unreservedly his, and in no sense 

 the property of a limited number of persons 

 who have bought their pews." The Conven- 

 tion declined to commit itself to the approval 

 of a rule forbidding the consecration of pewed 



churches. A resolution was offered recom- 

 mending that the Canon on Divorce be amended 

 in conformity with Deuteronomy xxiv, 1-4, so 

 as to prohibit the remarriage of a divorced hus- 

 band and wife. The Convention decided not 

 to make any change in the canon. The Dio- 

 ceses of Quincy, Springfield, and Illinois, hav- 

 ing formed a federative council, the Conven- 

 tion was asked to recognize their organization 

 and its power to do independent missionary 

 work and hold an appellate court, under the 

 name of the "Federative Council of the Prov- 

 ince of Illinois." The Convention refused to 

 sanction the use of the word province, but 

 recognized the council under the name of the 

 ''Federative Council of the Dioceses of Illi- 

 nois." Petitions were presented for the estab- 

 lishment of a court of appeals, and became the 

 occasion of a discussion of the position of the 

 Church on that subject. The Convention de- 

 nied the petitions, and decided against making 

 any change in the present judicial system of 

 the Church. A joint committee, which had 

 been appointed to consider and report on the 

 subject of sisterhoods and deaconesses, reported 

 that it had deemed it inexpedient to propose 

 any specific legislation in regard to sisterhoods, 

 but recommended a Canon on Deaconesses, 

 which was adopted. It provides that women 

 of devout character may be set apart by any 

 bishop for the work of deaconesses. The du- 

 ties of the office are the visitation of the Lord's 

 poor and sick, the education of the young, 

 the religious instruction of the neglected, the 

 reclamation of the fallen, and other works of 

 charity. Candidates for the office must be 

 twenty-five years of age, though in special 

 cases the Bishop may receive persons of twenty 

 years of age and upward, and must have spent 

 a year in preparation. No deaconesses can 

 work officially in any diocese without the writ- 

 ten permission of the Bishop, and they may be 

 transferred from one diocese to another. An 

 amendment to the canon was adopted allow- 

 ing the minister to use a shortened form of 

 service on certain days, with the provision that 

 no prayers not set forth in the Book of Com- 

 mon Prayer should be used before or after the 

 sermon or lecture. The Committee on the 

 Lectionary presented a report embodying the 

 results of their labors in revising that part of 

 the service, which was adopted. The tables 

 of lessons had been carefully revised and new 

 passages had been substituted, and the lessons 

 from the New Testament were shorter than 

 those now in use. The following acts were 

 also adopted : 



" If in any church, upon a Sunday or holy day, 

 both morning and evening prayer be not said, the 

 minister may read the lessons appointed either for 

 morning or for evening prayer." " At evening prayer 

 on Sunday the minister may read the lesson from the 

 Gospels appointed for the day of the month, in place 

 of the second lesson for the Sunday," and " upon any 

 day for which no proper lessons are provided, the les- 

 sons appointed in the calendar for any da,y in the same 

 week may be read in place of the lessons for the day." 



