The Feast of The Episcopal Church in America (At Least, It Should Be)

The Episcopal Church of the United States of America celebrates a significant date this week.  Two Hundred twenty-eight years ago, on November 14, 1784, Samuel Seabury was consecrate First American Bishop and the bestowal of the Episcopal Church in the newly established country was made manifest.  Actually, the history of our church in America is a bit more convoluted than that, and pinpointing a “birthdate” for the Episcopal Church in America is far more debatable.

Part of this convoluted history includes the curiosity that while Samuel Seabury was consecrated the First American Bishop, he was not the first Presiding Bishop—that honor goes to William White (who also has to distinction of being the only Presiding Bishop to serve twice and to serve both the shortest term—67 days, and the longest term—40 years and 313 days).

Wait, what?

The story goes something like this.  The Church of England was permanently planted  in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.  The very young colonies belonged (pretty much) to England and so the Church of England was also the Church of the colonies.  Since there was no separation of church and state in England, in order that the church in the colonies could be governed, parliament granted a charter to the Society of the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) in 1649.  Thus, the Church of England was established in the colonies.  However, in order to create dioceses, bishops were required to be consecrated and sent on mission from England.  During the American Revolution, sympathies trended more towards a separation from not only the Mother Country herself, but from the Mother Church as well.  In doing so, church structure and polity was leaning more and more toward a presbytery rather than an episcopacy (priest or elders leading the governance of the church rather than a hierarchy of bishops). 

But there was intrigue afoot!  A small group of clergy in Connecticut began to meet in secrecy and made the decision to remain loyal to the SPG and determined to keep the episcopal organization structure.  But after the war, the SPG was no longer supported by the Church of England and a different organization was necessary—and fast if the episcopacy was to be maintained.  By 1783, conventions were regularly met in Philadelphia to organize the Episcopal Church in America.  Samuel Seabury was selected to go to England to be consecrated as the first bishop of America.  Now here rose a problem.  By canon law, any bishop of the Church of England had to swear fealty to the crown.  Having  just won the war of separation from England, that wasn’t going to happen.  But God works in mysterious ways.  It so happened that in Scotland, loyalty was to the deposed King James—not the reigning William and Mary in England.  So it was possible for Seabury to be consecrated legally in Scotland, thereby bypassing the pesky oath of allegiance that would not have gone over well with the new Americans.  Seabury had only to promise to use the Scottish Holy Eucharist rather than the English.  To which he responded in effect, "We'll see."

(Incidentally, the St. Andrew Cross in the Episcopal Church shield pays homage to the Scottish role in the consecration of Bishop Seabury.  The nine smaller crosses that make up the St. Andrew's Cross represent the first nine dioceses that adopted the constitution of our church. The red Cross of St. George represents the Church of England. The blue field in the upper left corner reflects the American flag. The colors not only represent the colors of all three countries that had a hand in the establishment of The Episcopal Church, but carry their own symbolism: red for the blood of Christ, blue for the mother--further symbolizing Mary, and white for purity.  The shield structure itself is not so much an homage to heraldry as it is a symbol of our faith that God will protect us as we stand behind the shield of the Church.) 

Meanwhile, back in the States, while the Constitution of the United States was being drafted, so was the constitution of the Episcopal Church being developed.  Bishop William White of the Diocese of Pennsyvania (who had not been consecrated until 1787) presided over those initial General Conventions and thus was our first Presiding Bishop.

Samuel Seabury was consecrated on November 14, 1784 and with his consecration came the bestowal of the church in America. Ultimately, with the consecration of William White, Samuel Provoost and James Madison (cousin to President James Madison), the episcopacy was organized wherein new bishops could be consecrated here in the new United States.  Rt. Rev. Thomas Claggett was the first bishop to be consecrated on American soil in 1790 and became the bishop of Maryland.

So Samuel Seabury was the first bishop of America.  Sort of.  And the American Episcopal Church's birthday is Nov. 14.  Sort of.  We're going with that since the calendar says so.  Happy 228th birthday, Episcopal Church of America!