Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church to the Church of England Archbishops and Bishops, 26 June 1786
Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England
[In Convention, Christ Church, Philadelphia, 26 June 1786]
Most Worthy and Venerable Prelates:
We, the Clerical and Lay Deputies of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, have received the friendly and affectionate letter which your Lordships did us the honour to write on the 24th day of February, and for which we request you to accept our sincere and grateful acknowledgments.
It gives us pleasure to be assured, that the success of our application will probably meet with no greater obstacles than what have arisen from doubts respecting the extent of the alterations we have made and proposed; and we are happy to learn, that as no political impediments oppose us here, those which at present exist in England may be removed.
While doubts remain of our continuing to hold the same essential articles of faith and discipline with the Church of England, we acknowledge the propriety of suspending a compliance with our request.
We are unanimous and explicit in assuring your Lordships, that we neither have departed, nor propose to depart from the doctrines of your Church. We have retained the same discipline and forms of worship, as far as was consistent with our civil Constitutions; and we have made no alterations or omissions in the Book of Common Prayer but such as that consideration prescribed, and such as were calculated to remove objections, which it appeared to us more conducive to union and general content to obviate, than to dispute. It is well known, that many great and pious men of the Church of England have long wished for a revision of the Liturgy, which it was deemed imprudent to hazard, lest it might become a precedent for repeated and improper alterations. This is with us the proper season for such a revision. We are now settling and ordering the affairs of our Church, and if wisely done, we shall have reason to promise ourselves all the advantages than can result from stability and union.
We are anxious to complete our Episcopal system, by means of the Church of England. We esteem and prefer it, and with gratitude acknowledge the patronage and favours for which, while connected, we have constantly been indebted to that Church. These considerations, added to that of agreement in faith and worship, press us to repeat our former request, and to endeavour to remove your present hesitation, by sending you our proposed Ecclesiastical Constitution and Book of Common Prayer.
These documents, we trust, will afford a full answer to every question that can arise on the subject. We consider your Lordships’ letter as very candid and kind. We repose full confidence in the assurance it gives; and that confidence, together with the liberality and catholicism of your venerable body, leads us to flatter ourselves, that you will not disclaim a branch of your Church merely for having been, in your Lordships’ opinion, if that should be the case, pruned rather more closely than its separation made absolutely necessary.
We have only to add, that as our Church in sundry of these States have already proceeded to the election of persons to be sent for consecration, and others may soon proceed to the same, we pray to be favoured with as speedy an answer to this our second address, as in your great goodness you were pleased to give to our former one.
We are, With great and sincere respect, Most worthy and venerable Prelates, Your obedient and Very humble servants,
VIRGINIA: David Griffith, President
Cyrus Griffin.
NEW YORK: Samuel Provost, Rector of Trinity Church, New York.
JOSHUA BLOOMER, Rector of Jamaica, Long Island.
John Jay.
NEW JERSEY: Abraham Beach, Rector of Christ Church, New Brunswick.
James Parker.
MATTHIAS HALSTED.
PENNSYLVANIA: William White, D. D., Rector of Christ Church and St. Peter’s.
Samuel Magaw, D. D., Vice Provost of the University of Pennsylvania and Rector of St. Paul’s.
Robert Blackwell, Assistant Minister of Christ Church and St. Peter’s.
Samuel Powell.
Francis Hopkinson.
DELAWARE: Sydenham Thorne, Rector of Christ Church and St. Paul’s.
Charles Wharton, D. D., Rector of Emanuel Church, New Castle.
Robert Clay.
Nicholas Ridgeley.
MARYLAND: William Smith, D. D., Principal of Washington College, and Rector of Chester Parish.
William Smith, Rector of Stepney Parish.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Robert Smith, Rector of St. Philip’s Church, Charleston.
John Parker.1
D, 1: 44–45.
1. Convention delegates included both lay and clerical deputies. For this matter and JJ’s role in drafting this reply, see the editorial note “John Jay and the Founding of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America,” above.