Читать книгу An Introduction to the Episcopal Church - Joseph B. Bernardin - Страница 6

In the course of history there have been many and various forms of religion, some of which no longer exist and a large part of which never obtained more than local or temporary importance. Today there are eleven living world religions, among which is Christianity. Much of its teaching and isolated beliefs may be found in these other religions, but in one thing it is unique—it alone among all the revealed religions claims that God Himself made the revelation of Himself in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ, and thereby showed us what God was like and what God wanted us to be like; and that He imparts to us today the strength necessary to fulfil this purpose, if we seek it according to His will. The other religions claim that the divine revelation came through a prophet, as in Islam, or else through some lesser god, as in the ancient Hermetic cults, but never through the Supreme God Himself.

Jesus Christ, in order to perpetuate the revelation which God had made in Him, gathered about Himself a group of disciples from whom He chose an inner circle which were known as the Twelve, and later as the Apostles. At the time of His death on the cross they all deserted Him, but after His resurrection He inspired them with new hope and they went forth to carry to the world the Gospel, the good news about the salvation to be obtained through faith in Him.

For the first hundred years or so of Christian history the early disciples expected the imminent return of Christ from heaven in glory to judge the world. Consequently, they made no provision for the future or the carrying on of their message beyond their own generation. The early development of the Church came as a result of its adjustment to the fact of the delayed return of Christ.

The first Jerusalem disciples continued to worship in the Temple, forming a synagogue of the Nazarene, which differed from the other synagogues only in their belief that Jesus Christ was the Messiah predicted by the Scriptures, and that He was about to return to judge the world and to inaugurate His Kingdom. After the persecution and death of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, the cleavage between Judaism and the followers of Jesus Christ became apparent, and they were scattered to other cities. Small groups of Christians became organized in various places into assemblies or churches, meeting in private houses. They were sometimes founded by the informal methods of traders, friends, or neighbors; sometimes by the direct preaching of traveling disciples.

The earliest churches were ruled by the apostles themselves. But as they were not always present, a share in the government fell to the older men in the assembly, just as it did in the Jewish synagogues. The word for elder in Greek is one which has been anglicized as “presbyter,” and in course of time shortened to priest. From this council of older men sprang the second order of the Christian ministry, the priesthood. As time went on the need of someone to take the place of the apostles and to oversee the other elders was felt, and one among their number was chosen for this office of overseer. From the Greek word meaning overseer came episcopus in Latin, which in the course of time became anglicized as “bishop.” The early Christians were mostly from the lower orders of society and of small means, and they not only suffered financially in many cases for their new beliefs, but also took little thought for the future on account of their expectation that the end of the world was near. Hence the problem of relief of the poor was a pressing one. The apostles felt that they could not take the time from their preaching necessary to attend to. such work, so a body of officials was appointed to take charge of this and to visit the sick. They were called by a word in Greek which means “servant” and from which we get the English “deacon.” They were the origin of the first order of the Christian ministry.

St. Paul was the one chiefly instrumental in the process by which Christianity grew from a purely Jewish and Asiatic religion to be a Gentile and European one as well. Quietly but doggedly Christianity grew and spread throughout the Roman Empire in spite of the fact that it was an illegal religion, despised by the ruling classes, and often persecuted by the State.

The last and severest persecution of Christianity under the Emperor Diocletian was followed by the Edict of Toleration issued by the Emperor Constantine in 311. From that time on increasing privileges were granted to Christianity until finally it became the official religion of the Empire. Church buildings began to be erected and the Church grew rapidly in numbers and wealth under Constantine. In 325 at Nicaea he assembled the first general council of the whole Church to pass on disputed points of doctrine and discipline, and from then on general councils have been held at intervals. In the year 1054 the Church in the East and the Church in the West, which had been increasingly estranged from one another since the ninth century, formally separated and have remained so ever since.

Long before this time Christianity has come to Britain. Unauthenticated tradition attributes it to St. Joseph of Arimathaea who is supposed to have come to Glastonbury with the Holy Grail. In all probability it was due to converted Gallic merchants and Roman soldiers. St. Alban, the first Christian martyr in Britain, suffered death there in the third century, and about the year A.D. 300 bishoprics are known to have existed at London, York, and Lincoln. But when the Roman legions were withdrawn in 401, the Christians were soon driven by the invading barbarians to the west of England and Wales, and even over into Ireland. In the next century the attempt to reconvert England was begun by two distinct missions. One came over from Ireland to Iona under St. Columba and worked down from the north; the other was the famous mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great under St. Augustine, which established itself at Canterbury in the year 597, and worked up from the south. As a consequence of this the Archbishop of Canterbury became the leading bishop of the Church of England. It took another century and the devoted labors of numerous saints before England was once again, at least nominally, Christian.

The English bishops in the course of time came more and more under the authority of the Pope, as did the English king John, who became his feudal fief. But as the popes began to abuse their authority and to exact heavy financial payments, a revolt gradually began to set in after the Black Death in 1349 with the passing of the Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire forbidding appointments to English bishoprics or benefices, or appeals to courts outside the realm, without the king's consent.

Throughout the Dark Ages the Church not only maintained the culture and learning of the ancient civilized world, but also looked after the social needs of the people through its own religious communities, caring for the poor, the sick, and the wayfarers. With the dawn of the Renaissance, and influenced in no small degree by the continental reformation of the Church initiated by Luther, inflamed by disgust at the moral corruption of the papacy and clergy, and brought to a head by an unworthy personal controversy of Henry VIII with the Pope over the question of annulment, parliament more and more restricted papal authority in England until, in 1534, it was declared that the Bishop of Rome had no authority over the bishops of the Church of England. In spite of the momentous consequences of this decision, the ordinary Christian was little affected at first by this decree, for he continued to worship in his same parish church and cathedral in the Latin tongue and to receive the sacraments from the hands of the same ministers as formerly. Henry VIII died no less orthodox and catholic than when the Pope conferred on him the title, still claimed by English sovereigns, “Defender of the Faith.” Before the final breach with Rome, Henry had obtained the appointment of Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cranmer took a leading part in the reformation of the Church of England.

When Henry VIII died in 1547 he was succeeded by his nine-year-old son Edward VI, who was controlled in turn by his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, as Protector, and then by the Duke of Northumberland. Under them, in response to strong urging on the part of the people who wished further to purify the Church of England of what they considered unscriptural elements and unholy practices, the service books were first translated into English, and drastic reforms were made in the conduct and practice of worship.

Edward VI was succeeded in 1553 by his half-sister Mary, who restored the papal authority and the Latin service, and put to death some of the bishops who refused to take the oath of obedience of the Pope, including Archbishop Cranmer of Canterbury. In 1558 she was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth, who once more repudiated the authority of the Pope over the Church of England and issued a revised English Prayer Book in 1559. In 1570 Elizabeth was excommunicated by the Pope. This marks the formal withdrawal of the Church of Rome from communion with the Church of England. Although England repudiated the authority of the Bishop of Rome, she did not withdraw from fellowship with the Church of Rome, but Rome from her. But centuries before this the Church of England, mentioned in the Magna Carta of 1215, had been established by law as the official Church of the realm of England, and it was authorized to receive land taxes, known as tithes, for its support.

During Elizabeth's reign the new country to the west was being opened up and explored. It was a chaplain of the flagship of Sir Francis Drake who, on the shores of Golden Gate Bay in San Francisco in the year 1579, held the first Prayer Book service in this country. Various parts of America were settled by different religious groups. Florida and Maryland were founded by the Roman Catholics; New England by the Puritans or Congregationalists; Rhode Island by the Baptists; New York by the Dutch Reformed; Pennsylvania and New Jersey by the Friends; Delaware by the Swedish Lutherans; and Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia by the Church of England.

The first permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, where the Rev. Robert Hunt preached and administered the sacraments. The direct successor of that congregation still exists today as Bruton Parish, Williamsburg, Virginia. From there the Church of England spread into Maryland, and in these two states it became established by law as in England, and received tithes for its support.

In spite of much opposition the worship of the Church began to be held in Boston at King's Chapel in 1687. With the coming of the English governor to New York in 1664 Church of England services were held, after those in Dutch, in the old Church of St. Nicholas within the Fort. Trinity Parish was organized in 1697 and a year later moved into its own church building. In Philadelphia Christ Church was founded as early as 1695.

By the time of the Revolutionary War there were congregations of the Church of England in all of the colonies, chiefly, however, in the larger towns along the seaboard. Many of these were assisted greatly by two missionary societies, then recently formed in England by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray, which still exist today: the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in 1699 and commonly known by its initials as the S.P.C.K., and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, founded in 1701 and now known as the U.S.P.G.

Throughout all these years not only was no bishop appointed for the colonies, in spite of many petitions on their part, but none ever visited them. Nominally they were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. In consequence, Confirmation was never administered, and anyone wishing to be ordained had to make the perilous voyage back to England, which greatly hindered the development of a native ministry.

When the Revolutionary War broke out, though there were priests like Dr. William White of Christ Church, Philadelphia, who became Chaplain not only of the Continental Army but also of the Continental Congress, the majority of the clergy remained loyal to the King. Consequently, after the war was over, the Church suffered in prestige, in spite of the fact that the majority of the signers both of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution of the United States were its members.

In the year 1783 the Church in Connecticut elected the Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury as its bishop and sent him to England to be consecrated at the hands of the English bishops. This they refused to do because he could not take the oath of allegiance to the King, and they had no authority without parliamentary sanction to dispense with it. Tiring of the delay, he turned to the Scottish non-juror bishops, who had remained loyal to the House of Stuart and were consequently not recognized by the State nor bound by the laws of the Established Church, and was consecrated by them at Aberdeen, Scotland, on November 14, 1784. In the years 1784-86 conventions of the various Churches were held to decide what course of action should be taken. In 1787 Dr. Samuel Provoost, Rector of Trinity Church, New York, and Dr. William White, Rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia, went to England and were consecrated bishops in Lambeth Palace Chapel by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and the Bishop of Peterborough, a law having been enacted to make this possible; and later, in 1790, Dr. James Madison was also consecrated in England as Bishop of Virginia. In the year 1789 at Philadelphia a General Convention was held at which a Constitution was adopted for the Church and the English Prayer Book revised for American needs.

The Episcopal Church grew slowly in numbers, for in the eighteenth century the prevalence of Deism (rationalistic, naturalistic religion) was widespread, and most of the clergy were indifferent to missionary endeavor. As the tide of emigration swept westward beyond the Alleghenies they refused to follow, and the vast field of the Central States and the Middle West was left to the Methodists and the Baptists to evangelize. Finally, however, influenced by the Great Awakening under John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, came a revival of personal religion and evangelistic endeavor, and the Episcopal Church awoke to its missionary responsibility, largely due to the efforts of Bishop John Henry Hobart in New York and Bishop Alexander V. Griswold in New England. Bishop Philander Chase was consecrated Bishop of Ohio in 1819. The following year the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society was incorporated, and in 1835 General Convention declared that every member of the Episcopal Church by virtue of his membership was also a member of the Missionary Society. In this same year Bishop Jackson Kemper was consecrated Bishop of the Northwest; and by the time of the Gold Rush the Episcopal Church was fully alive to its responsibility and Bishop William I. Kip was sent to California.

The General Theological Seminary for the education of men for the ministry of the Episcopal Church was opened in New York City in 1819; and shortly afterwards the Theological Seminary in Virginia was established at Alexandria with special emphasis on preparing men for missionary work. Since then many more have been founded throughout this country and also overseas.

The nineteenth century saw the flowering of the Evangelical Movement with its emphasis on personal piety and good works; then in polarity to it, the Anglo-Catholic or Oxford Movement, with its emphasis on the catholicity and apostolicity of the Church, and a revival of interest in church ceremonial, ritual, and catholic practice. At the same time the Church was faced with the problems produced by the new scientific knowledge in conflict with biblical and creedal statements, particularly in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution; and also by the growth of biblical criticism, in which the books of the Bible were investigated and studied by the same methods of literary and historical criticism as any other writing.

The Episcopal Church weathered the Civil War without any permanent division into North and South such as was the fate of most of the larger denominations at that time. In the second half of the century sisterhoods and monastic orders for men were established in the Episcopal Church, as well as secondary, industrial, and mission schools, several colleges, and numerous hospitals. Mission fields were developed in the various territorial possessions and dependencies of the United States; and the Episcopal Church, by the end of the nineteenth century, had taken its rightful place in the forefront of the religious life of the country. With the increasing interest in the beauty of worship, church buildings and cathedrals expressive of the highest in art and architecture were built, and music of appropriate dignity and beauty maintained.

In the interest of the efficient management and further development of so vast an organization, the central administration of the Episcopal Church was reorganized in 1919 under a National Council which carries on the functions of General Convention between its triennial meetings. Two years earlier the Episcopal Church, in order to provide adequate retirement allowances for its clergy and pensions for their direct dependents in case of death, established its Pension Fund, which has become a model for those of other denominations.

In 1872 the Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions was organized, which in 1920 broadened the scope of its work to include other activities of the Church besides missions in its program, and became the Woman's Auxiliary to the National Council. In 1889 it started the United Thank Offering (a voluntary, monetary expression of gratitude for God's blessings on the part of the women, placed in a little blue box), which has become one of the chief supports of the Church's missionary and educational work. In recent years the Woman's Auxiliary has become the Episcopal Churchwomen; and the National Council has been renamed the Executive Council.

In 1934 the Forward Movement was inaugurated to stimulate the spiritual life of the Church. It proposed a disciple's rule of life: Turn—Follow—Learn—Pray—Serve—Worship—Share. It continues to publish helpful devotional booklets. At the Anglican Congress in 1963, in order to bring about a rebirth of the Anglican Communion, the concept of Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ (MRI) was set forth. Numerous dioceses have linked themselves in mutual aid and support with a companion diocese within the Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Church, as well as the whole Anglican Communion, has been one of the leaders in the ecumenical movement for the restoration of the visible unity of the Church. Bishop Charles H. Brent in 1910 initiated steps which resulted in the formation of the World Council of the Churches in 1948 at Amsterdam, with all of the leading Churches of the Anglican Communion as members. In addition, the Episcopal Church is also a member of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, which was constituted in 1950 out of thirteen interdenominational agencies. It is also one of the original members of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), seeking the organic union of many of the larger American Protestant Churches.

The twentieth century has also been marked by an increased participation of the laity in the work, worship, and governance of the Church. Persons other than white (they now number 52% of the Anglican Communion) have taken a more prominent and equal place in the Church's life, and women a more active part in its governance—in 1976 they were authorized to be ordained to all three orders of the ministry. The early part of the century found much emphasis on the Social Gospel, particularly in its application to the relations between capital and labor. More recently there has been an emphasis on Liberation Theology, dealing with the problems of the poor and the oppressed, particularly in the less developed countries. At the same time there has been an increased interest in worship and its study, spurred by the Liturgical Movement begun in the previous century. It has resulted in the production of revised and elaborated forms of worship, not only in the Anglican Communion, but in the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches as well.

In reviewing the Church's history, it is important to remember that it is as new as it is old; that it was founded by our Lord Himself, and in the course of its history has seen many forms of government and used many languages in its worship; but that, while outwardly the Church adapts itself efficiently to the circumstances of the time, within there is enshrined the tradition which is received from the apostles of the revelation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ, as illuminated for every age by the Holy Spirit.