USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 26
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The Convention responded to the Bishop's Address by resolutions (1) on the Episcopate of Bishop De Lancey, " adopted unanimously, in silence, the members of the Convention standing;" (2) on the Provincial System, " that its growing necessity, as devised and fore- shadowed by the wise foresight of the patriarchal Bishop White and our own beloved Diocesan, Bishop De Lancey, heartily commend themselves to our sympathy and approval " (adopted, says the Mes- senger, with one dissenting voice); (3) instructing the Standing Com- mittee to appeal to the Diocese and take other measures for the in- crease of the Episcopate fund to $75,000, and meantime making the Bishop's salary $5,000 instead of $3,500 ; (4) approving of the erec- tion of the Memorial Church on the site of S. Peter's Chapel, Geneva ; (5) enlarging the benefits of the " Christmas Fund " to include the widows and children of deceased clergymen of the Diocese (on a very able report by Dr. Gibson); (6) making clergymen engaged in the Diocesan Training School ex-officio members of the Convention ; (7) " that the interests of the Church call for the establishment in the Diocese of one or more Seminaries of a high order for female educa- tion," and asking the Bishop " to call the attention of parents, and the Diocese generally, to the subject," so as " to secure speedy practical results ;" (8) " responding most heartily to the very eloquent and devout expression by our Diocesan of thankfulness to Almighty God for the return of national peace and unity."
Two of these resolutions-that on the Episcopate Fund and that on
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Church Schools-called for some effective action in the Diocese, but none was taken. A meeting was held in behalf of a Diocesan Fe- male School, on the evening before the Convention, and earnest ad- dresses on the need of such an institution were made by the Bishop, Dr. Schuyler, and Dr. Matson ; but nothing came of it, so far as I can find. The matter of the increase of the Episcopate Fund was presented in successive conventions with more or less urgency, by the Trustees, by the Standing Committee, and by Special Committees, year after year, but, for reasons which will appear later, nothing was accom- plished in this direction for many years, and indeed very little has been done up to the present time ; nearly two thirds of the Bishop's salary being still provided by " assessments " on the parishes and missions.
Bishop Coxe's part in the General Convention of 1865 was notable in two particulars. The end of the Civil War of course restored the Southern Bishops and Clergy to their former standing in the Ameri- can Church, and those of them who came to the Convention without waiting for its formal action were received most cordially and honour- ably. A service of thanksgiving for the restoration of peace and unity was held by appointment of the House of Bishops, and all took part in it heartily ; but there were some who insisted that this service ought to include a distinct recognition of slavery as the cause of the war, and as both Houses refused to take any such action, a few of the members of each, with a large crowd of sympathizers, held a service of their own on the following evening, which they called a " supple- mental thanksgiving." Undoubtedly most of the Churchmen of that day would have joined heartily, in proper time and place, in Bishop Coxe's own words to his Council in acknowledgment of "the way in which God had wrought our national deliverance, and put away from us, amid great signs and sore judgments, the curse of slavery." But he felt, as did they, that the time for such thanksgiving was not when they were receiving back their brethren of the South who came with doubt and hesitation as to how they were to be met ; and, to his and their honour, all such political topics, however deeply felt, were put aside in this reunion of the Church. I have it from his own lips that personally he would have joined willingly in the "supplemental thanksgiving."
A debate of great interest in the Board of Missions arose out of an
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RE-UNION OF THE CHURCH
attack, the last and sharpest of many such, on the Mission established at Athens, Greece, as far back as 1829, under the venerable Dr. Hill. These attacks came always from one party in the Church, and always on the same score : that the Mission was "nothing but a girls' school," and that it did not protest sufficiently against " the corruptions of the Greek Church." It was sustained, however, from the begin- ning to the end, by the general feeling of the Church that its teach- ing work at Athens was not only admirable of its kind, but most im- portant in its influence on the whole tone of female education among the better class of the Greeks, which had its centre at Athens ; and this influence had been heartily acknowledged for many years in suc- cession by the highest authorities of Church and State in Greece. It fell to Bishop Coxe at this time to take up the defence of the Mission in a speech which was universally regarded as the most eloquent and unanswerable argument of the whole session of the General Conven- tion, and which practically put an end to outspoken cavilling on this subject for all later years. The good work of the Mission was con- tinued for thirty-three years longer, until 1884 by Dr. and Mrs. Hill, and from that time by their assistant of many years, Miss Marion Muir, till her decease in 1898. Its history links in singularly the beginning of Greek independence, which aroused the interest of the whole Christian world in the earlier years of the last century, with the dawn of the present.
The Bishop was also the preacher of the Triennial Sermon before the Board of Missions. I have not found it in print, and can only quote the Church Journal, describing it as " brilliant, powerful, searching, with passages that rose into real eloquence, and enchained all hearers, breathing into them the elevated tone and feeling of the Preacher himself."
One act of the General Convention had been the erection of the Diocese of Pittsburgh from Pennsylvania, and at the consecration of its first Bishop, Dr. Kerfoot, on S. Paul's Day, 1866, Bishop Coxe preached one of his most noteworthy sermons. His text was the "Seven Stars" of the Apocalypse, and his subject, the development of the Apostolic Episcopate from S. John's time on the principle of the primitive Diocese or " See" centring in each city. I do not attempt to give even an outline of the Sermon here, (it is published in the Messenger of Feb. 15, 1866, as well as in pamphlet form,) but note
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it only as one expression of the thought which was constantly in the Bishop's mind at that day,-" the Apostolic Ministry in the Apostolic position." He says that
" Many of our Christian brethren whose learning and worth have made them too candid to object to the Episcopate as unprimitive and unscriptural, have with no small force objected to the vast regionary Dioceses of our own Church as entirely without Catholic precedent or Scriptural authority. In fact, learned Presbyterians have generally been 'Episcopalians' in theory, holding to a parochial instead of a Dio- cesan Episcopacy ; and their argument has been drawn from the small dioceses of the Primitive Church, and its apparent confusion of words pertaining to offices and those who bore them. John Knox himself was by no means so uncompromising an opponent of the Episcopate as has been supposed ; but he insisted, with no little reason, that the dioceses of England should be made ten for one. Now every Chris- tian must rejoice when any step is taken which will tend to remove the obstacles to Christian unity ; and what Churchman can fail to rejoice in a Scriptural amendment of his own polity which meets the valid objection of any candid and loving believer in Christ ? "
From this the Bishop goes on to point out how the Missionary Epis- copate of S. Paul's day, with the Apostleship, so to speak, at large, and coadjutors like Timothy and Titus under S. Paul and S. James and S. John, gave place in the last days of the latter Apostle to a truly diocesan, or, as it was first called, parochial Episcopate in which "each district had its Bishop, and every Bishop was in a See." So in the early evangelization of Europe, the Apostle consecra ed as a " Regionary Bishop " soon " broke up his district into Sees, and such in every land has been the instinct of the Church, after the pri- mary stage has been passed." Such " final settlement of the Apos- tolic Commission appears to me fully sanctioned by Christ, in person, in the vision at Patmos." From these facts " it is a clear evidence that vast regionary jurisdictions are only tolerable in the first evange- lizing of countries, and as a temporary and transitional expedient." So he exhorts the Churchmen of Pittsburgh to see that their Bishop
" Is provided with his modest but solemn Cathedral, his mission church, where daily prayer is wont to be made, where rich and poor may meet together, where the clergy may gather round their Bishop in frequent counsel and in frequent Litany and Eucharist, and where the perpetual worship of God in Christ shall testify to a worldly and
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money-making population that the service of God is business and not pastime."
The new Diocese had two months before, by a decisive vote, named itself " the Diocese of Pittsburgh," the first instance in the American Church of a name taken from a city, but which has since been followed by one-third of all our present Dioceses and Missions. It seems that this action, so important as an example, was due in part to Bishop Coxe, who had said to Dr. Swope, the Chairman of the Committee on the Constitution of the Diocese, and the leading clergy- man in its Primary Convention, " For pity's sake don't let your- selves be saddled with such a name as 'Western New York.' We have had to struggle with it, and it has almost broken our backs. But we shall divide soon, and then I shall be 'Bishop of Buffalo,' and the name of ' Western New York' will disappear, to be heard of no more."* This was said when the Bishop himself had struggled with his title for only six months ; but, as we shall see, the lapse of many years did not at all reconcile him to it.
I quote an article in the same number of the Messenger as show- ing the feeling of many W. N. Y. Churchmen of that day about the " See Principle."
" There is no exaggerating the importance of the precedent estab- lished by the Diocese of Pittsburgh. I believe it has settled the question of the See Episcopate for all time. And too much praise cannot be given to those who stood by the principle till it was carried through triumphantly, and to our own clear-headed Bishop, whose words quoted in the Convention undoubtedly weighed greatly with its members. It seems to be admitted on all hands that the preliminary steps must soon be taken for erecting a new See in West- ern New York. The two into which it will be divided will necessa- rily contain within them other Sees in futuro. If the Diocese is divided as equally as possible, that division cannot last more than twenty-five or thirty years. Then the names of ' Central' and 'Wes- tern New York,'-if we retain them now,-must drop out of existence. What will have been gained by keeping those names for a few years ? Nothing whatever. But a great deal will be lost. Two of the four
* Bishop Coxe was thus cited in the Convention by Dr. Swope himself. The Gospel Messenger however declares that he could not have intimated to any one that in the event of a division of Western New York, he would choose Buffalo for his See. (Church Journal, xiii, 355, Gospel Messenger, Dec. 14, 1865.)
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Sees will have come into existence twenty-five years later than they might. It is no light matter to destroy or mutilate the historical character of a Diocese, and it is for this very reason that we need the Episcopate under this title. The name 'Western New York,' in which, wrong as it is, we all take so much pride, which has already associations of no little value, must perish, sooner or later. This Diocese will be known only in history. Had it started right, with its proper See and title, it would have been as perpetual as the See of Rome or of Canterbury."
The above might have been written by Bishop Coxe, so exactly does it express his views,-but it was not.
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE ONEIDA CONVOCATION
ONVOCATIONS of the Clergy, already held in an infor- mal manner for many years, were in 1865-6 first orga- nized, with the decided approval of the Bishop, in most parts of the Diocese. They are, he says in his Address of 1866, " rude approximations to the system of Rural Deaneries," into which he hopes they will grow " not too slowly."
One of them, the " Oneida Convocation," comprising the five eastern counties, and centring at Utica, had, in its eight years of life thus far, accomplished some important missionary work, chiefly the erection of a parish at Clinton, the seat of Hamilton College, and vigorous missions at Clark's Mills, Augusta and Deansville-these last through the work of a most earnest and faithful missionary, the Rev. Russell Todd, who did notable work through many years after in Chenango County. There were even then from twenty to twenty- five clergymen and parishes whose natural centre was Utica, and the frequent meetings of the Convocation were certainly stimulating and profitable, if not always entirely harmonious. Among other things a " Church Reading Room" was established in Utica, containing also the editorial office of the Messenger, and one for the Diocesan Secretary. But after a year's trial this combination was found impracticable, and was given up.
The Rev. Henry Gregory, D.D., the oldest clergyman in residence except Dr. Shelton, died at Syracuse, April 5, 1866. I have spoken before of his character and services, but it should be noted that in several lines of Church work and teaching he was a pioneer in West- ern New York. S. James's Church, Syracuse, to build and maintain which he gave up the large and much richer parish of S. Paul in the same city, was the first really " free church " in the Diocese support- ed wholly by the offertory. Before this he had established, in S. Paul's, one of the earliest and most successful Parish Schools. He was a leader in the study of Church architecture and music of his day, and in setting forth both by example and teaching a higher stand- ard of self-denial and self-sacrifice in the work of the Church, to
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which he gave not only untiring labour, but thousands of dollars out of what seemed to others poverty. Finally, when disabled from regular pastoral care, he carried on through his last years an impor- tant enterprise in the publication and sale of Church books, to the benefit of everyone else more than of himself. I do not remember another instance of unselfish devotion to duty, in such degree, in the whole history of the Diocese .*
Many of the clergy, with the Bishop, attended the burial at Syra- cuse on the afternoon of April 9 ; and on the morning of the same day, the Bishop, presiding at a meeting of the Oneida Convocation at Utica, took occasion to enforce upon its members the necessity of "getting ready " for what, he said, must take place within three years,-the erection of Utica into the See of a Bishop. His words made a deep impression on all present, and from that time until the Convention at Syracuse in August, the " new See " was a constant subject of con- ference and correspondence in that part of the Diocese,-that is, in Oneida, Jefferson and Madison counties especially. The next meet- ing of the Convocation was at the little hamlet of Augusta, in the Oriskany Valley, where the Bishop and sixteen priests met the people from all the country around for a novel celebration of " Independence Day,"-the consecration of a church building secured by our mis- sionary, Russell Todd, from twenty years' disuse by a Baptist con- gregation, and neatly fitted up and supplied with all requisites for Divine Service. The building and its precincts were thronged, and few of those present, I imagine, forgot to their dying day the patriotic as well as Catholic sermon-address which the Bishop gave them. In the interval between the service and the bountiful dinner which the people had provided, a brief business meeting was held, the Bishop presiding, at which the name of the Convocation was changed from " Oneida " to " Utica," and a Committee appointed " on the erec- tion of a See at Utica." Their Report, unanimously adopted at an adjourned meeting at Utica, July 9, (the Bishop again presiding,) was
" His whole history," says Bishop Coxe in his Address of 1866, " entitles him to be remembered with Davenport Phelps and Father Nash, as one of the founders of the Diocese. And let him be imitate d as well as remembered ! Let the Laity learn to do, out of their abundance, what he did by his holy self-deni- als; let us of the Clergy copy his patience and perseverance, if not his entire self-sacrifice, and we shall see the primitive day revived."
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THE ONEIDA CONVOCATION
in substance a statement in detail of facts bearing on the possible erection of a new Diocese composed wholly or in part of " those portions of the Diocese of which Utica is the natural centre." It is too long to give here in full, but a summary of it may be of some interest even at this far-off day. It is printed in full in the Diocesan Journal of 1866, p. 186.
The " five Eastern Counties," Oneida, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison and Chenango, covering 5,939 square miles, had a population of 278,031, mostly in 233 towns and villages ; 35 clergymen, 48 parishes (all supplied with services, only 13 technically " self-supporting, " but 13 others able to be such), all but two of which had church buildings, and 21 rectories ; 3,339 communicants ; offerings for all purposes about $40,000 in 1865 ; and about $1,400 a year (including present assessments) available at once for the support of a Bishop. The Report does not go into any argument for the erection of a See. " What plan of division is best for the whole Diocese, may be best left for the Diocese itself to determine ; but it belongs to the clergy and laity of these counties to say whether they require and will sup- port a Bishop of their own. If such is the opinion of this Convoca- tion, it ought at once to initiate such action as will ascertain the views of the other clergy and laity of the district, especially those of Jeffer- son and Chenango counties, who are associated in Convocations of their own ; so that if their concurrence should be obtained, the result, with all necessary statements and arguments, may be laid before the next Convention of the Diocese. This, we believe, would be our duty, even had not the subject been laid before us, and our consider- ation of it expressly advised by the Bishop. It is well known that a speedy division of the Diocese is inevitable. Whether it shall be on the Territorial or the See principle is one question ; whether Utica shall in any case become a See is another. The Committee are con- vinced that the general concurrence and immediate action of the Con- vocations of the five Eastern counties will be needed to accomplish such a result.
" CHARLES W. HAYES, ALFRED B. GOODRICH, H. L. M. CLARKE, WILLIAM J. ALGER, WILLIAM T. GIBSON, " Committee."*
* This report was written by me, but heartily approved by all the Committee, and by all the Convocation with perhaps one or two exceptions.
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This report was communicated at once to the Jefferson County Convocation (one of whom, the Rev. Dr. Theodore Babcock, had taken an active part with us in this movement), by whom it was heartily approved ; and to that of Chenango County, whose members were divided, part of them preferring a See of Syracuse, or an equal division of the Diocese. All however acceded to our request for a meeting of the Clergy and Lay Deputies of the five counties, which was held at Syracuse on the day before the Annual Convention at the same place, and very fully attended ; the Hon. Joseph Juliand, of Greene, presiding, and the Rev. Alfred B. Goodrich being Secretary. The object of the meeting was " a full conference and interchange of views in regard to the division of the Diocese, and the erection of a See of Utica."
" The following resolutions were unanimously adopted :
" I. That this meeting concurs in the expressed wish of the Bishop of the Diocese, that the statements of a report on the erection of a new Episcopal See, read at the adjourned meeting of the Oneida Convocation, July 9, 1866, be laid before the Convention of the Diocese ; not with a view to the immediate adoption or sanction of the plan therein suggested, but in order that they may be referred, if the Convention shall think proper, together with any other plans of division which may be proposed, to a committee on that subject.
" II. That this meeting, while believing that the interests of the Church in these counties will be best promoted by the erection of a See on the plan suggested, is nevertheless ready to concur in any plan of division which shall receive the cordial co-operation of the Clergy and Laity of these counties, and the assent of the Bishop and Con- vention of the Diocese ; provided, that in any such plan the principle of the See Episcopate shall be kept in view.
" III. That a Committee of three Rectors and two Laymen be appointed by the Chair, to lay the above proceedings and statements before the Convention.
" The Chair appointed as such Committee, the Rev. Dr. Babcock, the Rev. Mr. Ayrault, the Rev. Mr. Goodrich, the Hon. F. W. Hubbard (of Watertown), and the Hon. Edward A. Brown (of Low- ville)."*
These Resolutions are taken in substance from those of the Oneida Convocation a few days before (Aug. 6), omitting a preamble which says that
* Journ. W. N. Y. 1866, p. 185.
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THE ONEIDA CONVOCATION, 1866
" It appears to this Convocation highly probable that before a new See can be erected and a Bishop elected, the strength of the Church in this District will be in all respects adequate to the support of a Bishop and the work of a Diocese ; and "that " we believe the residence and labours of a Bishop among us to be indispensable to the efficient carrying on of the work of the Church in these counties."
And omitting also a further provision of the Second Resolution,
" That such plan shall contemplate the present or ultimate erection of the City of Utica into an Episcopal See.'
But it must not be supposed that the "unanimous" action of the five Eastern counties was reached without much debate. The Chenango county delegates were more than doubtful ; Dr. Ferdinand Rogers (of Greene) was utterly opposed to all division of the Diocese, and cast an almost solitary vote (of the clergy) against it the next year ; Walter Ayrault (of Oxford), James A. Robinson (of Bainbridge), and George W. Dunbar (New Berlin), were inclined to look to Syracuse for a centre. Judge Hubbard, of Watertown, and Judge Brown, of Lowville, "would be abundantly satisfied with the project" if the financial question could be settled. It was settled very unexpectedly to many of the delegates by Mr. Joseph A. Shearman of Trinity Church, Utica, who brought an offer from the Vestry of that parish to provide the amount necessary to increase the Bishop's salary to $3,000, on condition that Utica should be the See City, and Trinity Church (the church of its mother parish), the Cathedral ; the parish providing also for the support of its own Rector. t This announce- ment ended all objection to the proposed action, which, with the resolutions of the Oneida Convocation, was presented to the Conven tion by Dr. Babcock, and referred to the Committee on the Division of the Diocese " for their respectful consideration."#
The chief feature of this Convention of 1866 was, of course, the Bishop's Address ; and the centre of interest in that was, equally of course, his remarks on the now impending Division of the Diocese. I must give them in full.
" The remarks which I made last year as to a division of the Dio-
* Gosp. Mess. XL, 133.
Trinity Church was to receive a large addition to the income of its endow- ment of 1811 from Trinity Church, New York. (See above, chapter vii, p. 32.) # Journ. 1866, p. 31.
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cese, were suggested by general principles, and by the condition of growth and prosperity in which my revered predecessor left it. It was his desire that it should remain one Diocese during his own lifetime. He expressed to me, in one of the few delightful interviews I had with him, as his Assistant, his own conviction that the change must come, and that the only question is as to time. This he seemed willing to leave to my judgment, in case I should succeed him, and I assured him that my views and wishes on the subject were decided by his own, until such an event might lay upon me the responsibility of examining the case from a new point of view. My mind is made up that a serious consideration of the subject can be no longer post- poned ; and, assuming that a new See must soon be erected within the bounds of this Diocese, I think the question becomes simplified if reduced to this practical form,-shall this be done with a view to the consummation of the work at the General Convention of 1868, or is it to be postponed till that of 1871 ? If it be resolved to prepare for the former period, I would suggest that the whole subject be referred to a Committee, who shall report at our next Diocesan Convention, as to the steps to be taken and the principles to be recognized. Let it be remembered that, even should these steps be resolved on, the meas- ure will not be completed till some time in 1869. Should the Diocese resolve to lay the matter over for the Convention of 1871, it will be postponing its practical completion till 1872. I tremble when I think what a loss six years' delay may involve, not only to the Church, but to many immortal souls, and to unborn generations in Western New York. I would not have the responsibility of such delay recorded in my account with my Master. The question is not whether I can visit our existing parishes with some degree of efficiency, but whether I can also visit the towns and villages where there should be parishes, and so ' do the work of an evangelist,' which is part of the duty laid on me by inspired Wisdom. In this morning's Lesson occurred the text, ' Let us go into the next towns.' To do this is simply impossible for one Bishop. To visit the towns already supplied with churches is all that I can accomplish. I believe that my work will be rendered very little, if at all, more easy by the proposed meas- ure ; but I know I can do more good with the same outlay of strength. I have faith to believe that if two Dioceses be created out of the one, each Diocese, in ten or fifteen years, will be as strong as the one is now, if not stronger. ' There is that scattereth and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.' To your wisdom, beloved brethren, I leave the whole subject, after these remarks, and I feel sure that you will act respecting them in the holy fear of God."
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