688 REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



RHODE ISLAND. 



In union with, or hereafter admitted to union with 

 thii Church : ftvritied, That each congregation shall 

 be entitled to one deputy. The deputies (hall be 

 ohoson by the respective congregations. 



/tvrtcfa/, also, that all those peraons who were 

 present, and as signers of tlie original call, voted in 

 the Brtt General Council of this Church, (hall be 

 entitled to a seat and a vote in the General Council 

 until otherwise ordered. 



In all questions, when required by five members, 

 the vote shall be by orders; and in suoh case the 

 concurrence of both orders shall be necessary to con- 

 stitute a rote of the Council. 



ART. HI. The bishops of this Church shall not sit 

 a* separate House, nor exercise a veto-power, but 

 shall be members a-ofldo of the General Council, 

 and, when a vote is taken by orders, they shall vote 

 with the presbyters. 



The President of the General Council shall be 

 chosen by ballot from among the bishops, to serve 

 for one year ; and during- his term of office he shall 

 be the presiding bishop of this Church: PrvciJtJ, 

 That such annual election shall not preclude the elec- 

 tion of tin- saint 1 bishop to that office. 



AKT. IV. The bishops of this Church shall be 

 chosen or received agreeably to such rules as shall 

 be fixed by the General Council; and their jurisdic- 

 tion, powers, and duties, shall bo such aa the Gen- 

 eral Council may hereafter define ; and any bishop 

 of this Church may ordain, confirm, or perform any 

 other act of the episcopal office, at tho request of any 

 bishop, or any Church destitute of a bishop. 



AST. V. Any congregation not now represented, 

 nay at any time hereafter be admitted to union with 

 this church, and be entitled to representation, in 

 accordance with Article II., on acceding to this Con- 

 stitution and to tho doctnne, discipline, and wor- 

 ship of this Church. 



Six or more adjoining congregations in union with 

 this Church, with six or more presbyteries of this 

 Church, may associate themselves into a synod (tak- 

 ing its name from a town or city), under the juris- 

 i of a bishop of this Church. Each synod 

 shall be composed of all the ministers of this Church 

 within its limits, and such number of lav deputies 

 from each congregation as the synod may determine. ; 

 and each synod shall have power to frame a consti- 

 tution and canons for its own government, not con- 

 flicting with the constitution and canons of the Gen- 

 eral Council. 



ART. VI. Tho mode of trving bishops and other 

 ministers shall be provided by the General Couneil. 

 The court for that purpose shall be composed of 

 bishop* and presbyteries ; and the General Council 

 shall be a court for final appeal. The sentence, in 

 any case, shall be pronounced by a bishop of this 

 Church. 



ART. VII. No person shall be ordained to the Holy 

 Ministry, or be received as an ordained minister from 

 another Church, until he shall have been examined 

 by a bishop and by two presbyters, and shall have 

 exhibited such testimonials and other requisites as 

 the canons of this Church may direct. Nor shall 

 any person be so ordained, or received, until he shall 

 have subscribed the following declaration : 



I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New 

 TnelamenU to be the Word of Ood. and to contain all 

 thine* necessary to tnlvitlon : iind I <to solemnly engage 

 to conform I" 'h<- d-x-trlnf. discipline, und worship or 

 the Reformed Episcopal Church, to long as I shall con- 

 tinue a minister thereof. 



The ecclesiastical paritv of presbyters of this 

 Church, whether epUcnnallr or otherwise ordained. 

 shall be maintained a* a fundamental principle of the 

 iscopal Church. 



Ar. VIII. A Book of Common Pravcr, A.lminis- 

 trmti'.n of the Sacraments, and other Rites an . 

 emonies of this Church, Articles . an.l 



this or a future General Council, shall be used in thii 

 Church, at Mien times, and with such liberty, us the 

 canon on this subject shall provide ; but no canon 

 shall make its use imperative on nil occasions, nor 

 forbid the use of extempore or other prayer at suit- 

 able times. No alterations or u<. .11 be 

 made in this Book of Common l'i.,\ , r. or ot| r ot- 

 fice* of tliis Church, or the Articles 'of Religion, un- 

 less the same shall be proposed in > 

 cil, and adopted at the subsequent General Cou 



Forms for Receiving. Ordaining, and Consecrating 

 other Ministers, when established by 



Bishops and 



ments, or ceremonies, calculated to teach, either di- 

 rectly or symbolically, that the Christ 1 

 possesses a sacerdotal character, or that the Lord's 

 bupper is a sacrifice, shall ever be allowed in the 

 worship of this Church ; nor shall any communion- 

 table be constructed in the form of an altar. 



ART. X. This Constitution shall be unalterable, 

 unless the proposed alterations shall be fir-t Mihmit- 

 ted to one General Council, and finally ratified or 

 agreed to in the ensuing lien, rul Council: Protidtd. 

 That such alterations may bo made at any General 

 Council by unanimous consent. 



GEORGE DAVID ( YMMIXS. D. D., the founder 

 and presiding bishop of the Reformed Episco- 

 pal Church, was born in the State of Delaware, 

 December 11, 1822. lie wa.s educated at 

 Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., and graduated 

 from that institution in 1841. He entered 

 upon tho study of theology with Robert Emo- 

 ry, a Methodist minister, and spent two years 

 as a preacher on trial in the Methodist Episco- 

 pal Church. lie afterward joined the Protes- 

 tant Episcopal Church, and was ordained a 

 deacon in that Church by Bishop Lee, of IM- 

 aware, in October, 1845, and a priest by the 

 same bishop, in July, 1847. He was sucecs- 



| appointed to the following parishes: 

 Christ Church, Norfolk, Va., St. James's 

 Church, Richmond, Va., Trinity Church. \\ ash- 

 intfton. D. ('., St. Peter's Ohuroh, lialtimore, 

 Md., and Trinity Church, Chicago. III. Wliilo 

 in charge of the last-named parish, he .-<- 

 elected Assistant-Bishop of Kentucky, and 

 was consecrated to that office in Christ Churcli, 

 Louisville, November, I860. He officiated in 

 the capacity of Assistant Hishop with sati-i'ac- 

 tion to the Church ami acc.-ptably to the peo- 

 ple of the diocese, nntil the events occurred 

 which led to his withdrawal from the Church, 

 liishop Cummins is particularly distinguished 

 as a preacher of polished diction nnd persua- 

 sive power. 



RHODE ISLAND. After a session of eleven 

 weeks, the General Assembly, sitting in Provi- 

 dence, adjourned. Tin- legislation of the ses- 

 sion was of local importance, and more notice- 

 able for the mca-iircs that were not pa~-cd. 

 The i|tiostion of -ell-din:: a sin- tor the new 

 State-House, which bad occupied no little 

 of the session, was not decided. The prop- 



ii to take the West. Burying-Ground, in 

 Providence, as a suitable sit--, alter having hecii 



'. unanimously in the Senate, failed in the 

 House by one vote. The bill to make public 

 libraries a part of the public-school ..\-teiii of 

 the State, was defeated in the Senate: and the 

 proposition to apply to railway uses the 



