640 



PBQTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



into the Church an office heretofore unknown 

 in this country and foreign to the constitution 

 of the Protestant Episcopal Church was de- 

 clared by the House of Bishops to be "inex- 

 pedient." 



3. An amendment, enlarging the freedom of 

 bishops so that missionary bishops might ex- 

 ercise their office permanently over any part 

 of a diocese which might be set off for that 

 purpose, was negatived by the House of Bish- 

 ops, it being contrary to principle to allow 

 one bishop to exercise authority within the 

 jurisdiction of another. 



4. The establishment of the order of Evan- 

 gelists. 



5. The canon providing for the contracting 

 the limits of large dioceses and the placing the 

 exscinded territory under the charge of the 

 Board of Missions. 



6. The creation of general or special appel- 

 late courts. 



7. Any reduction in the number of deputies 

 allowed to each diocese in the General Con- 

 vention. 



8. Permission to missionary jurisdictions to 

 be represented by delegates in the General 

 Convention. 



9. The suggested reduction of the number 

 of the trustees of the General Theological 

 Seminary. 



10. A change of the name of the Convention 

 to Council or Synod. 



11. Any change in the Book of Common 

 Prayer, or any relaxation in its use, except in 

 cases of emergency. 



12. Canons or any legislation upon "Pa- 

 rochial Relations," "Officiating Clergymen," 

 "Foreign Clergymen," "Disciplining of the 

 Laity," "Authority of Presidents of Colleges 

 as Pastors over Students," "Marriage of Di- 

 vorced Persons," " Authoritative Text of the 

 Nicene Creed," "New Rules of Order" 

 failed. 



13. Canon upon "Ritual Uniformity" re- 

 ported by joint committee which passed the 

 House of Bishops after a long debate, was 

 rejected, together with the amendments and 

 substitutes relating to it. The question of 

 "Ritual Uniformity" began to agitate the 

 Church at the session of 1868, when the mat- 

 ter was referred to the bishops by the House 

 of Deputies by the following resolutions, viz.: 

 "That the House of Bishops be requested to 

 set forth for consideration and adoption by the 

 next General Convention such additional Ru- 

 brics on the Book of Common Prayer as in 

 their judgment may be deemed necessary; 

 that, meanwhile, in all matters doubtful, refer- 

 ence should be made to the ordinary, and no 

 changes should be made against the godly 

 counsel of the bishop." The House of Bish- 

 ops declined "to enter upon any alteration of 

 the Rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer," 

 but appointed a committee to consider the 

 whole matter and report at the next conven- 

 tion. This committee reported to the House 



of Bishops at the present convention. The 

 bishops sent down the report to the House of 

 Deputies, asking for a joint committee upon 

 the whole subject. The committee was grant- 

 ed, and one was appointed on the part of both 

 Houses. It reported an elaborate canon, de- 

 claring "the provisions for ritual in this 

 Church to be the Book of Common Prayer, 

 with the Offices and Ordinal appended there- 

 to; the Canons of the Church of England, 

 agreed upon in 1683, and in use in the Ameri- 

 can Provinces and States before the year 1789, 

 and not subsequently altered or repealed by 

 this Church ; and that the administration of 

 the law of ritual appertains to the ordinary, 

 whose determination, however, shall be sub- 

 ject to revision by the House of Bishops." 

 (The above is an abridgment.) After a full 

 debate, this canon, though passed by the House 

 of Bishops, was rejected. An amendment to 

 this canon, or a substitute, was introduced, 

 which omitted the clause relating to the Eng- 

 lish canons, and adding a part of the report 

 of the committee of the House of Bishops to 

 that House on the subject, embodying details 

 of ritual, was also rejected. A proposition to 

 refer the matter again to a joint committee of 

 fifteen was refused. The House of Bishops 

 adopted another canon in reference to the 

 mode and manner of administering the holy 

 communion, restricting the celebrant beyond 

 the provisions of the rubrics, and sent it to 

 the House of Deputies. The latter refused to 

 enact it. Then the resolution upon ritual 

 uniformity, which has been set forth already, 

 was adopted by both Houses. An attempt 

 was afterward made to renew the motion for 

 a joint committee upon ritualism, to sit during 

 the recess, but it was ruled to be out of order, 

 and the question, which had created so much 

 agitation, was brought to a close. 



Among important matters which awakened 

 interest during the session of the General Con- 

 vention, was the presence of an influential 

 body of clergymen from the Church of Eng- 

 land, who evinced great desire to understand 

 the workings of the Episcopal Church in the 

 United States, probably, as was said in a let- 

 ter from the Bishop of Sarum to a member, 

 because the Church of England, seeing the 

 disestablishment of the Church of ^reland, 

 looked for the success of a similar measure 

 ere long in England. 



The prosperity attending Italian reform in- 

 creased the enthusiasm to continue the work 

 of the committee to extend religious liberty 

 in that direction. Sympathies with the Irish, 

 the Swedish, and the Russo-Greek Church, 

 were also warmly manifested. 



From documents, it appears that the Epis 

 copal Church in the United States is growing 

 steadily in a majority of the dioceses, espe- 

 cially in those newly organized. The contri- 

 butions for the last three years exceed $15,- 

 000,000, more than $4,000,000 in advance of 

 the previous triennial period. Further, there 



