Report of Commemorative Services with the Sermons and Addresses Part 9

A.D. 1784--A.D.1884 A GRATEFUL MEMORIAL BEFORE G.o.d _OF THE EPISCOPATE AND THE EUCHARISTIC OFFICE_ TRANSMITTED BY BISHOPS KILGOUR, PETRIE, AND SKINNER TO SEABURY AND THE CHURCH IN AMERICA.

_Think upon them, our G.o.d, for good, according to all that they have done for this people._

In making the presentation, Mr. Nichols spoke as follows:

My Lord Bishop: It has been delegated to me by some of the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Connecticut--not only those with whom it has been my privilege to share in the events of these ever-to- be-remembered days, but by many whose hearts are following us in all these services--to place in your hands this Chalice and Paten, and to read the explanatory address. By the happy foresight which has characterized the preparations for the centenary celebration, there is placed on the wall of this holy place a copy of that Concordate in which the three Bishops of your Scottish Church and the first Bishop of our American Church plighted their troth. It was indeed a "great mystery"; it spoke concerning Christ and His Church. As I sat in this chancel on Sunday last, by one of those coincidences which I believe may occur for the eye of thankful faith as well as for the eye of sentiment, the sunlight which bathed your beautiful city with its warmth, so shone its colors through that south chancel window that at the beginning of the service they fell athwart the Concordate hanging on the opposite wall. Then, beginning at that, as the service went on, and as the sun circled its daily course, when the time came for the Consecration-prayer, the light fell upon the sacred vessels of the altar. So the sunlight took its way from the Concordate which the exigencies and circ.u.mstances of that far-off time demanded, to the symbols of that perpetual concordate which exists in the one body of Christ--between the Head and the members, between the living members of that Body, between the living members and the members of that Body in Paradise. I could not but think that the brief course of the sunlight here might stand for the dial of the century gone. Exigencies and circ.u.mstances that are special, require special concordates. Both Churches then had them, and they framed that agreement. The century has led us around from those exigencies and circ.u.mstances to a condition of prosperity, in which the only thought need be of the supreme concordate in the Communion of the most precious Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May this Chalice and Paten, the symbols of the renewed troth of the Churches, be the symbols of all prosperity for both, as in the Master's work they enjoy "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Mr. Nichols then read the formal letter of presentation, as follows:

DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT. July, 1884.

_To the Bishop of Aberdeen, representing the Church of Scotland:_

The Diocese of Connecticut has formally expressed, through its official representatives, its appreciation of the courageous and intelligent action of your predecessors one hundred years ago. But it has seemed to a few of the clergy and laity, who are confident that they represent herein the general feeling of our people, that a further memorial may be fittingly presented; and we beg you to accept, to keep, and to transmit to your successors, this Chalice and Paten, as a token of our grat.i.tude to you and to G.o.d for the two great benefits which through you, in His providence, have come to us. Those benefits are the Episcopate and the Eucharistic Office--the former, to use the very words of your own Bishop Kilgour, "free, valid, and purely ecclesiastical;" the latter embodying features which are at once an expression and an earnest of those "catholic and primitive principles," both doctrinal and liturgical, for which the Church of Scotland has long been distinguished, and to which she has pledged the Church in Connecticut.

The gift which we offer, right reverend Sir, is great only in what it thus symbolizes and the uses to which it is consecrated. In these vessels the memorial before G.o.d will be presented, and from them the sacrament of life and unity will be dispensed. May that memorial be graciously received whensoever, by whomsoever, and for whatsoever offered. May that sacrament of unity bind together in one, us the children, with them the fathers who kept that which was entrusted to them, committing it only to faithful men, and who, having departed this life with the seal of faith, do now rest in peace.

And may the Lord accept the sacrifices and intercessions of His people everywhere, and speedily accomplish the number of His elect, that we, the living, together with them, the departed, may be made perfect in His glorious and everlasting kingdom.

Faithfully and affectionately yours, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the unity of His Church,

JOHN TOWNSEND, JOHN J. McCOOK, WM. F. NICHOLS, _Committee._

E. E. BEARDSLEY, _Chairman of the Meeting._

The Bishop of Aberdeen, in reply, said:

Right reverend father in G.o.d, my reverend brethren, and the whole Church in the Diocese of Connecticut, elect of G.o.d and precious, we receive these sacred vessels at your hands with such feelings of grat.i.tude and thankfulness, both toward G.o.d who hath put this into your hearts, and toward yourselves, beloved in the Lord, as no utterance of our lips can ever express. In this beautiful Chalice and Paten, so graciously bestowed on us, we recognize, venerable father and dear brethren of the Church in Connecticut, the expression both of your faith toward G.o.d and of your love toward us. In this gift we behold the visible evidence of your faith in the promise of G.o.d that endureth from generation to generation: "When I see the blood I will pa.s.s over you," and your trust in the a.s.surance of His Holy Word: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ?"

And here, too, is the evidence of your love toward us, in that ye long that we should be "partakers with you in the One Bread and One Body; for we are all partakers of that One Bread." As we use these sacred gifts in our highest act of worship and nearest approach to G.o.d, we shall ever rejoice in the consciousness of your love toward us in the communion of saints, and that you share with us in the precious heritage of the great liturgy bequeathed to us by our fathers in the faith. Venerable father and dear brethren, these days of praise and thanksgiving to G.o.d and communion one with another, will a.s.suredly leave their impression on the Church in America and Scotland for all eternity. Our Eucharistic worship to-day is surely blended with the same worship offered a hundred years ago by our fathers in G.o.d and your saintly predecessor in that humble upper chamber. May we who have knelt to-day in the unseen presence of our Divine Lord and Master, unite with them and with one another in the adoration of the unclouded glory of His visible presence for all eternity.

The Bishop of Aberdeen then proceeded with the Communion-service according to the English rite, being a.s.sisted by the Bishop of Edinburgh and the Bishop of Glasgow. The Paten and Chalice just presented were used in the consecration and administration of the sacred elements.

Divine Service being ended and the Synod having been duly const.i.tuted, after the Bishop of Connecticut had presented to the Synod an address from the Bishops of the American Church and a reply had been made by the Bishop of St. Andrews, presiding in the Synod, the Connecticut delegation presented the address from the Convention of their diocese, engrossed upon parchment, which was read by the Rev. Dr. Beardsley, as follows:

TO THE BISHOPS OF THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH: HEALTH AND GREETING IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.

_Right Reverend Fathers:_

The Bishop, Clergy, and Laity of the Diocese of Connecticut, in Convention a.s.sembled, send to you, by the hands of faithful brethren, these presents, in glad remembrance that your predecessors in office were moved, a hundred years ago, to raise and consecrate to the Order of Bishops the Reverend Samuel Seabury, Doctor in Divinity. We do honor to their fidelity to the Church of Christ and to the purity of their motives when they declared that they had "no other object in view but the interest of the Mediator's Kingdom, no higher ambition than to do their duty as messengers of the Prince of Peace." By their act we received "the blessings of a free, valid, and purely ecclesiastical Episcopacy," and our hitherto "inorganized Church" became duly equipped for the work it has since done and the witness it has borne.

The language of the clergy of Connecticut, when they acknowledged on the sixteenth day of September, Anno Domini 1785, with "the warmest sentiments of grat.i.tude and esteem," the pastoral letter addressed to them as a sequel to the consecration of their Bishop and the Concordate, may well be called to mind once more: "Greatly are we indebted to the venerable fathers for their kind and Christian interposition, and we heartily thank G.o.d that He did, of His mercy, put it into their hearts to consider and relieve our necessity. Our utmost exertions shall be joined with those of our Bishop to preserve the unity of faith, doctrine, discipline, and uniformity of worship with the Church from which we derived our Episcopacy, and with which it will be our praise and happiness to keep up the most intimate intercourse and communion."

At that time the Catholic remainder of the ancient Church of Scotland and the Church in this new world were in the dust. The one was suffering from public disabilities, and the other lay prostrate from the effects of war; its churches were dismantled, its congregations scattered, and but a remnant of its clergy and people could be found to build up again the broken walls. To-day all things wear a new look. You are working with better and brighter hopes than your predecessors could possibly have; and we can a.s.sure you that the expectations of our honored forefathers in the faith have been wonderfully fulfilled, so that the Church in Connecticut has become "a fair and fruitful branch of the Church universal." Our clergy have increased tenfold, and our parishes have acquired both strength and public influence, and we stand to- day upon the old foundations and perpetuate the love of our early clergy and people for primitive truth and Apostolic order. The generations after us will never forget the debt of grat.i.tude due to the Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church for their helping hands in the day of our weakness and need; the bond of Christian fellowship sealed in the Concordate by your predecessors and our first Bishop will continue to be recognized and cherished, as it has been by our fathers.

Invoking the Divine blessing upon the Scottish Episcopal Church, and asking your prayers and benediction, we are, right reverend fathers, your dutiful servants in Christ Jesus.

In behalf of the Bishop, Clergy, and Laity of the Diocese of Connecticut:

EDWIN HARWOOD, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven;

SAMUEL FERMOR JARVIS, M. A., Rector of Trinity Church, Brooklyn;

SAMUEL HART, M. A., Presbyter and Professor in Trinity College, Hartford;

WILLIAM T. MINOR, LL.D., Lay Delegate, St. John's Parish, Stamford;

JOHN C. HOLLISTER, M. A., Lay Delegate, St. Paul's Parish, New Haven.

Dated at New London, June 10th, A. D. 1884.

The Bishop of St. Andrews read the following reply of the Synod to the address from the Diocese of Connecticut:

_To the Right Reverend John Williams, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Connecticut, the Reverend the Clergy, and the faithful Laity of the Diocese, from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church in Scotland in Synod a.s.sembled: Love and greeting in the Lord Jesus Christ._

To receive any representatives of the American Church to-day and to accord them a hearty welcome must be a cause of sincere satisfaction to us; but in greeting you, dear brother, whom G.o.d has set over Seabury's own diocese of Connecticut, and those who accompany you as representing your flock, we experience a peculiar pleasure. For giving us the happiness of seeing you here to-day we thank you sincerely, and we thank the faithful of your diocese for providing that their Bishop, in now visiting the scene of his heroic predecessor's consecration, should not be unattended by some of their own number, whose presence should be expressive of the interest which they themselves feel in the event which we are commemorating, and also (as we are glad to believe) of their love towards the Church which gave them their first bishop.

"Connecticut," said the saintly Bishop Alexander Jolly in his letter to the Bishop of Maryland in 1816, "has been a word of peculiar endearment to me since the happy day when I had the honour and joy of being introduced to the first ever-memorable bishop of that highly favored see, whose name ever excites in my heart the warmest veneration."

The Scottish Church, dear brother, finds in these words a true expression of her own feelings--feelings which the visit which we have "the honour and joy" of receiving to-day from so worthy a successor of Connecticut's first bishop, will serve to intensify for the future. You will the more readily therefore believe, brother, that the words of grat.i.tude towards our Church, which, in your own name and in the name of your diocese, have just been spoken, must be in the highest degree gratifying to us.

We cordially unite with you in your expressions of thankfulness to Almighty G.o.d for the work which he has vouchsafed to carry out through the agency of those branches of His Church which you and we respectively represent.

We rejoice to hear of the vigorous life which the Church in your diocese has manifested in the remarkable growth which the past century has seen it make. We pray that it may continue to receive G.o.d's blessing in rich abundance, and bring forth much fruit to His glory.

We have a lively sense at the same time of our Lord's great mercy to ourselves in lifting us up from our poor and despised estate, in bringing us to comparative honour, and comforting us on every side.

We trust that through His grace the work, still future, for which He has been training and strengthening us through so many generations, may be thoroughly and faithfully done by us and by those who will come after us.

You allude approvingly to the Concordate drawn up and signed by Bishop Seabury on the one part and his consecrators on the other, which was, in the language of its framers, to serve as a "bond of union between the Catholic remainder of the ancient Church of Scotland and the now rising Church in the State of Connecticut,"

and you a.s.sure us that it "shall continue to be maintained and cherished by you, as it has been by your fathers."

We have heard with gratification that the desire to be closely allied in the matter of similarity of offices with our own Church, which has prevailed in your diocese ever since the American liturgy was, under your first Bishop's influence, enriched by some of the most valuable of its present features, is still strongly felt by you.

That for all time to come we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify the one and only G.o.d, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is our hearty prayer and our confident hope.

To His love and blessing we commend you.

CHARLES WORDSWORTH, Bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane;

HENRY COTTERILL, Bishop of Edinburgh;

WM. S. WILSON, Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway;

HUGH W. JERMYN, Bishop of Brechin;

ARTHUR G. DOUGLAS, Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney;