Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-11-16
RT. REV. G. D. CUMMINS, d. ID.
His Withdrawal from the COmmu liOn
of the Protestant Episcopal ChuEch-
Letter TO Bishop Smith Giving His
Reasons for the Step.
Reasons Tor the step.
From the Louisville COurier-JOurnal.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
1t will be seen by the letter published
below, that Rt, Rev. George d. Cummins,
Assistant Bishop of the Diocese OF Ken
lucky, has resigned the office which he has
so efficiently filed in Kentucky for the last
six years.
The Assistant Bishop, in communicating
this fact to the Presiding Bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal Church, gives his
reasons in eXtenuation for the step, among
which is the painful fact that the Bishop
has encountered personal disrespect and Of
fetal opposition from very considerable
portion of the clergy and laity Of the do
cese, amounting to a restriction of his use
fulness and in a measure, a persecution of
himself.
He also assigns as an immediate moving
cause the strong censure upon his recent
act of communion with Christians of a
non-Episcopalian church inthe city of New
York, and the diSsensiOn likely to occur
both in the Church at large and in the do
cese of Kentucky in particular, from this
act.
The following is the text of Bishop Cum
Minis letter to Bishop Smith:
New YORK, Nov. 10, 1S73.-To the Ri.
Reverend Benjamin Bosworth Smith, D. D.,
Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church
in the Diocese of Kentucky. Ri Rev. and
Dear Bishop: Under solemn sense of
duty, and in the fear of God, have to tell
YOU that am about to retire from the
work in which l have been engaged for the
last seven years in the Diocese of Ken
lucky, and thus to sever the relations which
have existed so happily and hamoniOusly
between us during that time.
1t is due to you, and to my many dear
friends in the Diocese of Kentucky and
elsewhere, that 1 should state clearly the
causes which have led me to this determi-
nation.
First, then, you well know how heavy
has been the trial of having to exercise my
office in certain churches in the Diocese of
Kentucky, where the services are conducted
so as to symbolic and to teach the people
doctrines subverSive of the ''truth as it is in
Jesus" and as it was maintained and de
Tended by the reformers Of the sixteenth
century.
On each occasion that | have been called
upon to Officiate in these churches, have
been most painfully impressed by the con-
yiction that was sanctioning and indoors
ing by my presence and official acts the
dangerous errors symbolized by the services
customary in TitualiStic churches.
can no longer, by my participation in
such services, be "a partaker Of other mems
SINS" and must clear my own soul OF all
completely in such errors.
Seeond-I have lost all hope that this
system of error now prevailing so extern
sively in the Church of England, and in
the Protestant Episcopal Church in this
country, can be or will be eradicated
by any action of the authorities
of the church legislature, or executive.
The only true remedy, in my judgment,
is the judicious, yet thorough revision of
the prayer-book, eliminating from it, all
that gives countenance, directly or indirect