The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-03
The General Convention.

Episcopal Church in the United States of Amer
lea will meet in Chicago on Wednesday, Oct. 3,
1886, and continue its sessions about three
weeks. The opening services will be held in st.
Jamess Church. corner of Huron and Cass
streets, at 1890 A. NJ. of that day. Admittance
to this first service will be by card owing to the
limited space and the over-large number who
will desire to attend. The after sessions of the
House of Deputies will be held in Central Music
Hall, central and capacious, to which the public
will ordinarily find ready admission For two
or three days succeeding the opening the con-
vention will sit as general board or missions
and listen to addresses by the bishops of the sew
eral missionary Jurisdictions. ten of them being
from the Territories of the Western United
States, and three foreign, one from west Africa,
one from China, and one from Japan. This
general missionary meeting will constitute one of
the most interesting occasions of the convention.
The chairman of the convention in joint Session
will be the presiding bishop, the Rt Rev. AL
fred Lee, D. D.. bishop of Delaware, he having
that place by seniority of conservation, his con-
secration dating A. D., 1S41. The convention in
business sessions is composed of two separate
bodies, the House of Bishops and the House of
Clerical and Lay Deputies. The sessions of the
House of Bishops are not open to the public.
The House of Deputies elects one of its own num-
Der for their chairman, and hold their discus
sions with open doors. except when some subject
before the house makes it expedient for them to
go into secret session.
Article or the constitution of the church.
adopted in October. 1889, was, October. 1S41,
amended to it's present FORM as follows lin part):
There shall be General Convention of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States
of America on the first Wednesday in October in
every third year from the year A D. 1841, and
in such place as shall be determined by the con-
venton, and special meetings may be called
at other times"
Preliminary conventions were held in 1884, So
&C. The first complete convention. including bish-
ops. clerical deputies and lay deputies, was held
in 1889. There were then only three American
bishops which number was increased to five in
the next convention (1792l. three of whom had
their conservation by and through the Church of
England. The strictest centenary of the Ameri-
can Church will be in October, 1890, at which
time, a hundred years before, there were three
bishops in the English line and one in the
Scottish line, resident and competent to trans
NIT orders; as also at that time the Liturgy or
Book of Common Prayer was, for the first, by
authority of the convention, the ordered Use in
all Episcopal churches. Conventions until 1841
were held, some in the spring, others in sum
mer, some in the fall. Triennial conventions
have been held regularly since 1903, one special
convention being added in 1921. The places of
meeting have been sixteen times in Philadel-
phia, twelve times in New York, twice in
Baltimore, once each in Trenton, New
Haven, Cincinnati. Richmond and Boston.
The convention was held in Cincinnati in 1850,
other than which general convention has been
held this side of the Allegheny Mountains. This
convention at Chicago is made quite notable for
its location, as also il has been made notable by
few Eastern protests against its being held so
far west and out of the way. Several of these
.'protestants" will have their eyes wide opened
to the magnitude and mobility of the second city
in the land.
The succession of bishops in the American
church numbers lao, exactly one-half of whom
seventy are now living, and will constitute the
House of Bishops in the convention of 1886.
These are classified as follows: Forty eight do
cesar, Ave assistant diocesan, thirteen mission
airy item domestic, three foregn), and four re-
tired. This number will probably be increased
by the conservation of two bishops elect and two
missionary bishops during the next month 1t
is presumed that nearly the whole number of
these seventy bishops will be present at
the opening services, robed and in
procession, very imposing spectacle.
The House Of Bishops choose their secretary
from among the presbyters, the Rev. DR.. VIM.
Tatlock. of Stamford Conn, now being in that
Office, elected about the time of the conservation
of Bishop Fl. G. Potter, who had held that place
for fifteen years precedent.
The House of Deputies is composed OF four
clerical and four lay members from each Of the
forty niue dioceses, and one of each order from
five different missionary jurisdictions. making
400 members. Very few representative bodies
of men, selected out of the whole country, present
a more substantial and scholarly appearance
and none excel them in their capabity and
courtesy in debate. 1t is grand gathering to-
gether of wise and earnest Christian men with
heroic and holy purpose, to guide with discretion
the greater matters of the church. New York
State, with her five dioceses sends up forty
members, one-ffth of all, among whom of the
laity, are Hamilton Fish. John A. King, Erastus
Corning and Judges Comstock and Smith
Pennsylvania and Illinois, with three dioceses,
send twenty four members each, among whom, of
the laity, are j. H. Shoenberger, c. S. Patterson
r. A. Lamberton, S. Corning Judd, Emory Cobb
and Samuel Wilkinson. Other laymen arc ex-
Gov. H. P. Baldwin. of Michigan; Judge H. W.
Shelley, of Virginia; Senator Geo. F. Edmunds
of Vermont; Angus Cameron, of Wisconsin; Co.
lumbus Delano. Of, Ohio; Isaac Atwater, of Min