718 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



a national organization embracing all the States 

 of the Union until the outbreak of the civil 

 \var. After the organization of a government 

 for the seceded States, and the interruption of 

 all communications between the seceded and 

 the Federal States, the Bishops of the former 

 thought it necessary to provide for an inde- 

 pendent church organization. A preliminary 

 meeting of the Bishops determined to unite the 

 dioceses of the seceded States into " the Prot- 

 estant Episcopal Church of the Confederate 

 States." The first " General Council " of the 

 church (this name was adopted for the general 

 assemblies of the church instead of General Sy- 

 nods) met at Augusta, Georgia, on November 

 12, 1862. A pastoral letter was issued by the 

 House of Bishops. No complaint was raised 

 against the church of the United States, but 

 the abolition movement in the northern States 

 was styled " that hateful and infidel pestilence." 

 Although the bishops accept the doctrine of the 

 perpetuation of slavery, and announce that the 

 " national life of the Confederate States is to be 

 planted upon it," they acknowledge that hith- 

 erto the slavery system, in the southern States, 

 has hud some " unchristian features," and they, 

 therefore, urge upon the masters of the coun- 

 try " their obligations as Christian men, so to 

 arrange this institution as not to necessitate 

 the violation of those sacred relations which 

 God has created, and which man cannot, con- 

 sistently with Christian duty, annul," and, in 

 particular, to prevent all necessity for the sep- 

 aration of parents and children, of husbands 

 and wives. The bishops claim to know "that 

 the public sentiment is rapidly becoming sound 

 upon this subject, and that the Legislatures of 

 several of the Confederate States have already 

 taken steps toward this consummation." 



The triennial general convention of the Prot- 

 estant Episcopal Church of the United States 

 met in the city of New York, on Oct. 1, 1862. 

 It was not attended by any bishops or delegates 

 from the seceded dioceses. At the opening of 

 the convention, it was thought that a majority 

 of the House of Delegates would be opposed 

 to any resolutions on the state of the country ; 

 but a series was brought in by a special com- 

 mittee of nine, to which all the proposed reso- 

 lutions of this class had been referred, declar- 

 ing that the church is teaching the duty of 

 loyalty to the civil authority, regularly and 

 legitimately constituted; that in a spirit of for- 

 bearance, the convention refrains from employ- 

 ing any terms of condemnation or reproach 

 toward the ministers or laymen who have 

 arrayed themselves in open and armed resist- 

 ance to the regularly constituted government of 

 the church ; that as individuals and as citizens 

 the members of the convention acknowledge 

 their duty in sustaining and defending the 

 country in the great struggle in which it is en- 

 gaged, but that as an ecclesiastical body, the 

 convention can pledge to the National Govern- 

 ment only earnest and devout prayers for a 

 speedy and complete success. After a long 



and animated discussion the resolutions were 

 adopted by a large majority. The convention 

 Avas closed by a pastoral address, which referred 

 to secession in much stronger terms than the 

 resolutions passed by the lower house, calling 

 secession a sin and a crime against the laws 

 of God and man. Through a debate concern- 

 ing the authorship of the pastoral address in 

 the denominational organs it was ascertained 

 that the draft of the pastoral letter had been 

 originally prepared by Bishop Hopkins, of 

 Vermont. Bishop McHvaine of Ohio, not 

 considering the draft sufficiently explicit on 

 the great question involved in the war, pro- 

 posed a counter-draft. In the committee 

 charged with submitting a draft to the House 

 of Bishops, two bishops (those of Wisconsin 

 and Michigan) voted for the draft of Bishop 

 Hopkins; two (the Bishop of Kentucky and 

 Bishop McHvaine) for the counter-draft of 

 Bishop McHvaine. Bishop Hopkins refrained 

 from voting. Thus both drafts came before 

 the House of Bishops, which, on motion of the 

 Bishop of Maryland, gave the preference to 

 the address prepared by Bishop McHvaine. 



The general convention also inaugurated a 

 movement that may become of great impor- 

 tance for the future of the Anglican Church, 

 by appointing a committee to consider the ques- 

 tion of "establishing intercommunion %ith the 

 Russo-Greek Church." The English convoca- 

 tion of Canterbury which met on February 10, 

 1863, had also a discussion on the same subject 

 and unanimously declared in favor of it. A 

 particular interest in the promotion of the 

 scheme is taken by Rev. George Williams, of 

 King's College, Cambridge, England, who is in 

 correspondence with prominent members of 

 the Russian Church, who have assured him 

 that the prospects for a realization of the plan 

 are good. In former years, the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church had already expressed its de- 

 sire to establish an official intercourse with the 

 Church of Sweden, which, although Lutheran, 

 is yet strictly Episcopal in its form of govern- 

 ment. The Bishop of Illinois, in 1862, received 

 into his diocese an ordained minister of the 

 Church of Sweden upon his letters of orders 

 and other papers. This is believed to be the 

 second case when the Protestant Episcopal 

 Church has expressly acknowledged the validi- 

 ty of the Swedish orders. 



The Church has a bishop in each of the Uni- 

 ted States. The State of New York is divided 

 into 2 dioceses, New York and Western New 

 York; and there is besides a missionary bishop 

 of the Northwest, residing in Nebraska City. 

 The Church Calender, for 1863, gives the fol- 

 lowing statistics of the church (including the 

 seceded States): clergy, 2,270; parishes, 2,327; 

 communicants, 160,612. 



In the British provinces of North America 

 there are sees at Montreal (Metropolitan), Que- 

 bec, Toronto, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, 

 Fredericton, Huron, Rupert's Land, Columbia, 

 and Ontario ; in the West Indies, at Barbadoes, 



