PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



641 



has been a multiplication of homes, hospitals, 

 and other refuges for suffering humanity ; and 

 of parish schools and educational institutions 

 of a higher order, in connection with the 

 Church. But there is still destitution at the 

 South, and help is needed. Foreign missions 

 have rather languished, while domestic mis- 

 sions continue to display great prosperity. 

 The annual increase of contributions is marked. 

 The evidences of union, harmony, and progress 

 in the Church, were never more clear or de- 

 cided in any period of her history. 



The Board of Missions held its triennial ses- 

 sion in the evenings after the daily adjourn- 

 ments of the convention. Much routine work 

 was done, and measures initiated to advance 

 the cause of missions and bring out the full 

 aggressive character of the Church in fulfilling 

 her work. 



The ritualistic controversy in the United 

 States resulted, before the meeting of the Gen- 

 eral Convention, in the withdrawal of a num- 

 ber of ministers to organize a new, indepen- 

 dent branch of the Church. On the morning 

 of September 3d, the pastor of Emanuel Church, 

 in New York City, announced that he had, 

 through a letter to his bishop, resigned his 

 position as a presbyter of the Church, prepar- 

 atory to taking a course which the canons, by 

 which he had till then been bound, would not 

 authorize. Thereafter, a revised book of prayer, 

 called the "Union Prayer-Book," would be 

 used in the services. This book had been pre- 

 pared by a number of clergymen, and was de- 

 signed for the use of any parish which might 

 desire a liturgical service, and objected to some 

 features of the Book of Common Prayer. Its 

 prominent alteration is to be found in the pas- 

 sages which have been objected to on account 

 of their " Romanizing " tendencies, and which 

 are among those upon which the most stress is 

 laid by the ritualists. The psalter is taken 

 from the common version of the Bible ; the 

 passages from the Apocrypha in the lessons are 

 omitted, and the books of Job and Revelation 

 are inserted; the number of the "articles" of 

 religion is reduced from thirty-nine to thirty- 

 one, and their language is altered ; the formula 

 of absolution after general confession is omit- 

 ted, and passages of Scripture containing prom- 

 ises are inserted. The words, " He descended 

 into hell," are omitted from the Apostles' Creed, 

 and the words, "One baptism for the remis- 

 sion of sins," are omitted from the Nicene 

 Creed. Eight commands of Christ in the New 

 Testament are added to the ten command- 

 ments in the communion service, and the in- 

 vitation to partake of the elements is extended 

 to members of all denominations. The bap- 

 tism of infants is termed "the consecration 

 of children to the Lord," the minister saying, 

 instead of " I baptize thee in the name of the 

 Father," etc., "We consecrate thee to the 

 Lord;" though baptism may be applied if the 

 parents or sponsors especially desire it. The 

 order of confirmation is performed by the min- 



VOL. XI. 4:1 A 



ister laying his hands upon the heads of all 

 the candidates separately, instead of the bishop. 

 The bishops of the new denomination will be 

 "installed" instead of "consecrated." Pres- 

 byters of any denomination, who are duly cer- 

 tified, will, upon expressing a desire to join 

 this branch of the Church, be admitted after 

 examination. 



The Rev. W. H. Cooper, D. D., of Mount 

 Pleasant, Iowa, early in the summer resigned 

 his ministry in the Protestant Episcopal Church 

 on account of dissatisfaction with the canons 

 and ritual, and went to Chicago and organized 

 a church, which followed Emanuel Church, of 

 New York, in placing itself under the new ritual. 



The Rev. Charles E. Cheney, Rector of Christ 

 Church, Chicago, was brought to trial before 

 an ecclesiastical court of the Diocese of Illinois, 

 for deviation from the rubrics concerning the 

 the public baptism of infants, in omitting 

 the words regenerate and regeneration when- 

 ever they occur in the baptismal service. He 

 obtained from the civil court an injunction in 

 restraint of the proceedings of the ecclesiasti- 

 cal court, on the ground that his ministerial 

 profession was a property, his right to which 

 could be protected by the civil authorities. 

 The Supreme Court decided against this peti- 

 tion so far as it was in derogation of the right 

 of the ecclesiastical court to enforce the rules 

 of the Church in which the minister is ordained. 

 The Ecclesiastical Court decided against Mr. 

 Cheney. In accordance with its decision, the 

 bishop of the diocese (Bishop Whitehouse), on 

 the 18th of February, formally pronounced 

 upon Mr. Cheney sentence of suspension from 

 the offices and functions of the priesthood of 

 the Church until he should give assurance of 

 contrition for the past and of conformity in the 

 future. Mr. Cheney presented a protest against 

 the constitution, the mode of procedure, and 

 the rulings of the court in which he had been, 

 tried, and the wardens and vestry of his. 

 church invited him to continue his services as= 

 rector notwithstanding his sentence of suspen- 

 sion. Accordingly, he disregarded the sen- 

 tence of suspension. An ecclesiastical court 

 was called, to meet May 3d, to try him for 

 contumacy. He refused to appear, but entered 

 a plea, through his attorneys, against the le- 

 gality of the proceedings. He was forand' 

 guilty, and the court decided that "the canon- 

 ical sentence of degradation' from the Church, 

 of God " should be pronounced against aim.. 

 The sentence was pronounced by Bishop White- 

 house on the 2d of June. The wardens and ves- 

 try of Christ Church continued to sustain Mr.. 

 Cheney in his course. An address of sympa- 

 thy was sent him, to which were attached! the 

 signatures of more than sixty clergymen and 

 laymen of the Church, and he continued to 

 serve as minister of Christ Church in spite of 

 the judgment of the court and the sentence 

 pronounced by the bishop. 



The receipts of the American Church Mis- 

 sionary Society for the year ending, ia October, 



