The Episcopal Church over the Years by Peter Schaaphok

Part T wo

By the 1770’s the Church of England had succeeded in becoming the second largest denomination in North America after the Congregationalists. It was also the most widespread. While the Congregationalists were found chiefly in New England, the Dutch Reformed almost exclusively in New York and New Jersey and the Quakers in Pennsylvania, Episcopalians* were everywhere.

The population of the thirteen colonies was primarily of English stock and those who were of Dutch, German or Celtic heritage had for the most part become culturally English. Thus practically all Americans before 1775 considered themselves loyal subjects of the British Crown. When the differences between the colonists and the government in London burst into flames at Lexington and Concord most Americans still maintained their loyalty to the King and even those who had actively taken up arms considered their quarrel to be with the Parliament, not the King. However, as the fighting grew more intense, the lines of division hardened. By the middle of 1776 at least a third of the population actively supported independence from the Crown. However, another third of the population still retained their loyalty to the King and the British government. Indeed as many Americans fought under the British flag as fought under the new stars and stripes.

The War for Independence was thus more a civil war than a revolution and this put American Episcopalians who supported the rebellion in a bind. The British monarch was the head of the church. Thus to be a true Episcopalian meant loyalty to the King. The Book of Common Prayer was very clear in this and its various collects to the King, the Royal Family and the Parliament made the very idea of revolt against them unholy.

Yet almost half of the Episcopal clergy in America supported the rebel cause and the numbers were even higher among the laity. Many simply ignored the collects for the Crown in the Book of Common Prayer, and some even pasted them over with slips of paper containing new collects for the support of Congress and the United States.

The list of prominent rebels who were Episcopalians is a long one. Here are just a few familiar names: George Washington, John Jay, James Madison, James Monroe, George Mason, John Marshall, Betsy Ross, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Montgomery and Patrick Henry. Even the free thinking Benjamin Franklin was a regular at Christ Church in Philadelphia.

Of course, most Episcopalians remained loyal to the Crown and many fled to England or other British territories, never to return. However, others stayed and after the war made their peace with the new order. Indeed the first American Bishop, Samuel Seabury, had earlier served as a chaplain to the British troops in New York and had authored a number of letters in support of the loyalist cause under the pseudonym of A.W. Farmer.

NOTE: I use the term “Episcopalian” to refer to those who adhered to the faith of the Church of England rather than the more usual appellation of “Anglican” simply because the latter did not come into common usage until the second half of the 19th Century, while the former was used regularly in the 18th Century.

Continue to Part Three