This Far by Faith: Tradition and Change in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania

Chapter 1: The Colonial Church: Founding the Church, 1695–1775

1 The Colonial Church Founding the Church, 1695–1775 deborah mathias gough In 1695, thirty-nine committed Anglicans banded together to found Christ Church, Philadelphia, the first Anglican church in what would become Pennsylvania and the church that would become known as the mother of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Christ Church joined Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Lutheran Church, whose members had begun worshipping at its current site in 1677, another Swedish church on Tinicum Island, and Immanuel Church in what would become New Castle, Delaware, as the only non-Quaker places of worship in the colony. Within the next ten years, similar small groups of Anglicans founded Trinity Church in Oxford, St. James’s in Perkiomen, St. Peter’s in the Great Valley, St. David’s in Radnor , St. Thomas’s in Whitemarsh, St. Martin’s in Marcus Hook, St. John’s in Concord, and St. Paul’s in Chester. These small groups of Anglicans throughout Pennsylvania were determined to re-create the church and the society that they had left behind in England, no small task in a colony dominated by Quakers. The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Church of England defined itself primarily by three characteristics: its status as a state church; its episcopal form of government; and its adherence to the Book of Common Prayer and the theology contained therein. Of these three, only the prayer book existed in the Quaker colony. Almost all Englishmen at the time believed in the necessity of an established church. To allow freedom of religion inevitably would lead to freedom from religion, something an orderly society could not allow. By the eighteenth century many had rejected the belief that the Church of England was the only way to salvation, but Englishmen still believed that the state had to promote inward virtue, or religion, to assure outwardly good behavior. Being an established church had both benefits and liabilities . Financial support was assured—all Englishmen, even dissenters, paid 8   this far by faith tithes to support the Anglican Church. People accused of immoral behavior could be brought to the archdeacon’s and bishop’s courts. But this also meant that neither clergy nor Anglican congregations had much control over their church. Most rectors were chosen by government officials or by prominent laymen. “Select vestries,” a group of leading men responsible for the care of the poor, auditing the church warden’s accounts, and other minor duties, were often self-perpetuating; they had no control over the selection of or salary given to clergy. Figure 1.1 Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church, Philadelphia, erected 1700 founding the church   9 The second crucial characteristic of the Church of England was its episcopal form of government. While not all Englishmen agreed with the high-church faction that apostolic succession was crucial for a true church, they did believe that the episcopate was necessary to keep order in the church and to maintain the proper relationship between church and state. Either the bishop or his assistant, the archdeacon, visited each parish annually , checking on the performance of the clergy, the condition of the church building and other property, and the morals of the people. Only clergymen ordained by a bishop were considered legitimate. Even more important than the episcopate in defining the Church of England for its members was the Book of Common Prayer. To an Anglican , the prayer book was both the symbol and the reality of the national church. No matter what personal or theological controversies might rock the church, the prayers would remain the same, providing continuity with the past and a sense of oneness with Anglicans throughout the realm. Anglicans believed that the liturgy, which should be characterized by “uniformity , dignity, comprehensiveness, order and tradition,” was the prayer of the whole church, not of the individual. This devotion to a set liturgy provided the main source of unity among Anglicans and distinguished them most clearly from dissenters.1 It would be difficult to find a religious group whose beliefs, worship style, and way of life were more different from those of the Anglicans than the Quakers, or Society of Friends. Founded in 1652 by George Fox, Quakerism, which can accurately be called a form of “group mysticism,” espoused the belief that all people—not just Christians—had God within themselves. Because God spoke directly to everyone, there was no need for an ordained ministry or even preplanned worship; Quaker...