Founder's Day

Mr. Collins, in the Jane Austin classic, Pride and Prejudice is a wimpy, effeminate Anglican rector; quite disgusting, and comical. You notice as well the simplicity of his vestments and the absence of anything close to sacerdotalism. Much can be learned from literature about the churchmanship of the era. Anthony Trollope is another author who writes about intrigue in the Church of England. Barchester Towers is one book in a series that depicts the lives of Bishops, ministers and their families around the year 1860. Trollope talks about the tensions between Low Church Evangelicals and High Church Evangelicals, but they are all evangelical. The Oxford Movement is only a faint rumble in the distance. From the time of the English Reformation under King Edward VI and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Anglican Church was a brand of Evangelicalism rooted in the Reformation and the Early Church. It wasn't until the middle of the 19^th century that a significant segment of Anglicanism abandoned that foundation and created an Anglo-Catholic alternative. This fact has bearing on Bishop George David Cummins and his founding of the Reformed Episcopal Church. This morning we want to remember what our founder did, why he did it, and its relevance for today.

We should begin with the colonial period. The Anglican way was transplanted to the shores of New England during the period of British colonization. The Church of England in America continued her evangelical, catholic heritage. After the War for Independence it took the name of Protestant Episcopal Church. God blessed the witness of the Protestant Episcopal Church to such an extent, that a tiny, shattered and humiliated church at the end of our War for Independence had become, by the middle of the 1800s, one of the strongest denominations in the country. Low church evangelical leaders like William Meade, Charles McIlvaine, Alexander Griswold, Richard Channing Moore and Stephen Tyng worked together with high-church evangelicals such as John Henry Hobart, John Henry Hopkins, and William Muhlenberg. High and low church people collaborated to proclaim the Gospel, and extend God's kingdom throughout the developing regions of the Eastern United States and her expanding western frontiers.

At this juncture of remarkable growth and vibrancy, a movement unexpectedly burst forth in England and crossed the ocean to transform the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. [The Protestant Episcopal Church changed its name to ECUSA, the mainline Episcopal Church.] It was the Oxford movement. The leading figures of the Oxford Movement were John Keble, John Henry Newman, and Edward Pusey. The Oxford Movement attempted to move the Anglican Church closer to the doctrines of the Early Church and Middle Ages. It pruned away many Evangelical and Protestant distinctives and added things catholic. For this reason the movement has also been called Anglo-Catholicism. Between 1833 and 1840 the leaders of the Oxford movement wrote and published ninety Tracts For the Times. Therefore the "Tractarian Movement" is one more name given to this theological school of thought. Reading the Tracts it is hard to deny the many good things they promote. Neither can one claim that Keble, Newman and Pusey were liberals. The Tractarians were rather conservative and godly men.

However, a good thing can go too far. Newman and other radicals switched to the Roman Catholic Church. Those who stayed Anglican began pushing things much farther in the Roman Catholic direction than Pusey or Keble wanted. For example, Apostolic Succession was the central plank of Tractarianism. Apostolic Succession is the view that the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons of the Church, in order to exercise a legitimate ministry must be consecrated or ordained by the laying on of hands of ministers in Apostolic Succession, an unbroken succession of hands touching the head reaching back to the Apostles, and even Christ Himself, who laid hands on his Twelve, and thus got Apostolic Succession rolling. According to the Tractarians, the touch of Apostolic Succession was absolutely essential for the authority and validity of the Church. Without clergy ordained and consecrated within the pipeline of grace of Apostolic Succession, there could be no true preaching, teaching, or celebration of the sacraments, there could be no true Church. The only three valid branches of Christianity in this scheme of things are the Church of Rome, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Anglican Communion. Besides the doctrine of apostolic succession, many Anglo-Catholics eventually turned to Marian dogma and devotion. They threw out the solas of the Reformation, too; sola scriptura, sola fide, and sola gratia.

One Tractarian leader captured the spirit of the radicals when he said, "Really I hate the Reformation and the Reformers more and more" Newman tried to prove, not very convincingly, that the "Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion," didn't really condemn purgatory, penance, the veneration of relics, and the invocation of saints, it merely condemned the abuse of such practices. When nobody believed him, he went over to Rome. How were these new-fangled Anglo-Catholic doctrines and ceremonies received? Naturally, they alarmed the Evangelicals. They scorned and resisted the ideas. Nonetheless, the Oxford party won over legions of followers.

By 1839 the Tracts For the Times were published in collected form in the United States. Initially they were met with horror, but soon converts sprang up here also, and especially in the seminaries. Two of the four largest Episcopal seminaries in America became hotbeds of Anglo-Catholic indoctrination. The extent to which the Tractarian movement managed to gain a hold on the Protestant Episcopal Church can be seen in this fact: in 1844 fully two thirds of the Episcopal clergy were evangelical; thirty years later the Evangelicals were a shrinking minority. The success of the movement had shifted the church off its Protestant, Evangelical axis.

Ironically, the Oxford Movement came to exercise a larger influence on American Anglicanism than it did in England. The Anglo-Catholics won their court battles in the States whereas in the United Kingdom it was the opposite - the American Evangelical Episcopalian Rev. Cheney lost his court fight in Chicago concerning his omission of the word "regeneration" in the baptismal liturgy, but the English Evangelical Gorham won a similar case in England. Evidence of the Anglo-Catholic takeover can still be seen today. In America the Evangelical element is small, whereas in England, a stronger contingent can be appreciated in the likes of J. I. Packer, Michael Green, John Stott, and Allister McGrath, representatives of British Anglican Evangelicalism.

During the 19^th Century the Anglo-Catholics were gaining confidence in imposing their brand of churchmanship on the denomination, to the dismay of the Evangelicals. For instance, it was common for Episcopal Churches to hold joint Communion services with Reformed, Presbyterian, or Methodist congregations, or to invite ministers in from other denominations to preach or teach on a given topic. But Anglo-Catholics with their exclusivist concept of Apostolic Succession began to interpret and enforce the canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in such a way as to prohibit Episcopal parishes from such intercommunion. It was first discouraged, and then prohibited that a non-Episcopal clergyman teach, preach, or administer the sacraments in an Episcopal Church. To Anglo-Catholics, this practice was in line with their understanding of Apostolic Succession. Any church not tied to Apostolic Succession was regarded a non-church.

None of this made sense to Rev. George David Cummins. Cummins was born in Delaware in 1822. He had two older sisters. His father died when he was only four. In his teen years he studied law with the aim of becoming a lawyer, but at the age of 17 he surrendered his life to Christ and felt called to the ministry. He studied diligently for the ministry and by the time he was 21 years old the Methodist Church licensed him as a circuit rider. On horseback he rode all over the country, preaching, teaching, and helping the churches. He loved the beauty of the country. And often preached under trees or out on a meadow. "In pouring rains, blinding snow, storms, or under scorching rays of the midsummer sun, Cummins might have been seen mounted on his find back horse Charley riding miles to meet an engagement." [From Memoirs.]

In 1844 he befriended several ministers of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and after discussions with Bishop Lee, Cummins became a postulant in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was ordained the next year. At the age of 25 Cummins was called to the largest Episcopal parish in Virginia. About 450 people attended each Sunday and fifty of those members were black. Cummins always made an extra effort to minister to the blacks at a time when it wasn't fashionable. His churches always gave generously to foreign missions. In 1847 Rev. Cummins married a young lady in his parish named Alexandrine. They had several children. It should be pointed out that though Cummins was low in his churchmanship he made friends with high churchmen. (William Muhlenberg was his closest friend.) In 1866 Cummins was consecrated assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky. The news of his nomination reached him in a strange way. He read about it in the newspaper while traveling in Paris, France. In order to attend his consecration, he cut short his trip, and caught the next ship home.

As bishop, Cummins labored tirelessly in his diocese, and often traveled to preach at conferences around the country. The Oxford Movement created factions in the church and Cummins became a leader on the Evangelical side.

In 1873, Cummins participated in a Eucharistic service with Presbyterian clergy. He had been doing this kind of thing for 30 years. But times had changed. An Anglo-Catholic thinking Bishop discovered what Cummins had done and took legal steps to have him disciplined. In exasperation, Bishop Cummins took up pen and paper and wrote the Presiding Bishop, "Under a solemn sense of duty and in the fear of God, I have to tell you that I m about to retire from the work in which I have been engaged in the last seven years in the Diocese of Kentucky, I, therefore transfer my work and office to another sphere of labor"

Less than five days later, Bishop Cummins circulated a notice to "others of like mind and persuasion." "Dear Brother," Cummins wrote, "The Lord has put into the hearts of some of His servants who are, or have been, in the Protestant Episcopal Church, the purpose of restoring the old paths of their fathers. On Tuesday, the second day of December, 1873, a meeting will be held in New Your City, at ten o'clock AM to organize an Episcopal Church on the basis of the Prayer Book of 1785; a basis broad enough to embrace all who hold "the faith once delivered to the saints," as that faith I maintained by the Reformed Churches of Christendom. This meeting you are cordially and affectionately invited to attend. Signed, George David Cummins."

Cummins was one of the preeminent preachers of his day, and was often sought by major Evangelical groups as a speaker. The Y.M.C.A. was one of his favorite ministries. He was invited by many of the largest Episcopal Churches to come and be their rector. When he was installed as Rector of Trinity Church in Washington D.C., U.S. Senators, seminary professors and students were among the 2,000 people who flocked to join it. God blessed his ministry wherever he went and he energized every parish and diocese he touched. He was such a major figure during the Civil War that when, after the war the Episcopal Church threatened to break in two like the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist denominations had done, Cummins was a key figure reconciling Northern and Southern factions and keeping the Church together. Consequently, when clergymen received Bishop Cummin's letter with an intent to organize a new church it carried weight and interest.

December 2, 1873 arrived. Association Hall in New York City was packed to the brim and after some business matters and a vote, the Reformed Episcopal Church was launched. Bishop Cummins then addressed the group, "One in heart, in spirit, and in faith with our fathers we return to their position and claim to be the old and true Protestant Episcopalians of the days immediately following the American Revolution, and through these, our ancestors, we claim an unbroken historical connection through the Church of England, with the Church of Christ, from the earliest Christian era." With this address, the First Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church came to a conclusion.

The words of Bishop Cummins demonstrate that he did not seek to lay a new foundation, he instinctively put into practice what our Lord told His disciples, "the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old" (Matthew 13:51-52). The R.E.C. was new, yet it would continue to take the old paths, to embrace Early Church faith and practice such as Episcopal government, confirmation by the Bishop, infant baptism, the church calendar, Prayer book liturgy, and even maintain Apostolic Succession, but only as a "very ancient and desirable form of Church polity," not as something absolutely necessary for a valid sacramental ministry.

Our Bishop Ordinary, Royal Grote once said, "The choice of the name Reformed Episcopal Church clearly demonstrates that our founders did not consider themselves as revolutionaries who were intent on overthrowing the work of the past. Instead, they saw themselves as reformers, intent on removing the corruption of the present while holding fast to the purity of the Church in prior ages."

The R.E.C., in its 132-year-old history, weathered the storms that practically shipwrecked other mainline denominations. In order to see God's providential hand guiding us in the past, and to give us direction for the future, it is worth skimming at least three pitfalls that the R.E.C. has avoided: Anglo-Catholicism, liberalism, and anti-historicalism.

First, Anglo-Catholicism. The primary reason Evangelical Anglicans formed the Reformed Episcopal Church was in order to counter the Anglo-Catholic takeover of the Episcopal Church. The Anglo-Catholic rejection of the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Reformation, their views of the Virgin Mary and the saints place them in a different worldview. It is a less biblical worldview. Hence, the future of Anglicanism hangs on the Evangelicals. We need to keep this in mind as we contemplate a merger with the A.P.A., the Anglican Province in America. On the other hand, we must not forget that there was an active High Church element in the Protestant Episcopal Church that was not part of Anglo-Catholicism. They were known as High Church Evangelicals. John Henry Hobart was a saintly man in this category. These might have used high ceremony, yet they maintained their Evangelical, Reformational theological posture. Bishop Cummins, though personally opposed to High Church ritual, was nonetheless, open to this group. He attempted to make the Rev. William Muhlenberg, an extremely high churchman of his day, the third bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church right behind himself and Bishop Cheney of Chicago. In Bishop Cummins' mind, high ceremony could be distinguished from Anglo-Catholic doctrine. Consequently, the Reformed Episcopal Church resists being pegged as simply an anti-High Church schism.

Next, liberalism has been a bane to the Episcopal Church in America. Theological liberals are all too willing to abandon their Christian heritage in order to follow the latest cultural fad, whether that be radical feminism, evolution, or socialist utopias. The liberals of ECUSA recently consecrated to the episcopacy an active homosexual. They tacitly approved the blessing of same-sex couples. The latitudinarian movement was a precursor to theological liberalism. It tried to blunt the divisive and difficult doctrines of the Church. Certain latitudinarian figures surfaced at the beginning in the Reformed Episcopal Church, but that watering down effort shortly disappeared. We have clung tenaciously to the inerrancy of God's Word, the Creeds, our Articles, and Prayer Book liturgy.

Finally, an anti-historical bias has impoverished many Protestant denominations. They fail to see the harmful effects of disconnecting themselves from the past, getting rid of creeds, traditional liturgy, and the Church calendar. Bishop Cummins was devoted to Prayer Book worship. He said, "it embodies, as no other uninspired volume does, the ancient and primitive Catholic faith of Christ's Church." He was optimistic about the appeal the Prayer Book would have for Christians of other denominations. In fact, the Prayer Book could be a bond of union for all evangelical bodies for it uses the best words and music available to us in our language and culture. The liturgy helps the R.E.C. aim for excellence - sound theology, sacramental spirituality, transcendent language and a majestic music befitting the heavenly presence of the King of kings. The R.E.C. has recovered the biblical and historical rituals that enrich our worship of Jesus Christ.

It is a shame that Bishop Cummins died three short years after the R.E.C. was founded. He was very healthy, keeping up a grueling schedule, traveling around the country preaching and celebrating the sacraments. The Memoirs of Bishop Cummins compiled by his wife is a good read. It tells about the places he went, the people he met, and the churches where he ministered. Allen Guelzo's book, For the Union of Evangelical Christendom is also worth the time. These books reveal that Cummins' life raced by at breakneck speed. On Wednesday evening, June 25^th, at the age of 53, Bishop Cummins suffered a heart attack. His sisters and children gathered around his bed. By Sunday he passed away. His premature death was a terrible blow to the Reformed Episcopal Church. The denomination wasn't even three years old and its founder was gone. Nobody else had Cummins' vision and leadership skills. After he died, radicals grabbed too much control, pushing our denomination so far to the low church side of things that we nearly lost our Anglican identity altogether. It took a while to recover the via media. We can only speculate what might have happened if God had given Bishop Cummins more years.

Bishop Cummins was a remarkable minister who gave his life to preserve something very good. We are grateful for his zeal and sacrifice. He saw that the future of Anglicanism lies with the Evangelical side of things. It is interesting that Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria has recently signed a concordat with the R.E.C. and the A.P.A., recognizing us as the legitimate Episcopal body in the United States. The R.E.C. seems poised for bigger and better things. Taking into account our history, our reformational doctrines based on the infallibility of God's Word, the beauty and reverence of our worship, the wisdom in our history and tradition, our sacraments, the stability and integrity of our bishops, the scholarship of our seminaries, the sacrifice of our people, the life of Christ in our parishes; taking into account all these factors, the R.E.C. is indeed a great church. By God's grace, and with His help, we will keep building on the Evangelical Anglican heritage bequeathed to us by Bishop George David Cummins.

Let us pray. p. 274 of BCP.

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