Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-10-11
CHURCH LEGISLATURE
Relation Of Episcopal General Convention to
the Membership.
Analogous in Competition to United
states ConSresS-Secret Sessions
of House of Bishops.

The general convention of the Episcopal
| Church may be called the legislature OF The
! church. 1t Is analogous in its congestion
| to the Congress of the United States being
| composed of a house of bishops and q
| mouse of deputies, sitting separately.
| Inc house of bishops is composed Of
ABOUT elghty-four bishops. presided over by
| the senior bishop in time of conservation
| the present presiding bishop being the Ri
| Kew. john Williams, DID, of Connecticut
! who Is. however, absent from the present
| convention. His place is filled by Bishop
| Whipple with Bishop Doane in The chair
The house Of clerical and lay DEPUTIES
| consists Of four clergymen and four lay
| men from each diocese, and Of one clergy
| man and one layman from each mission
af9 JURISDICTION. The deputies from the
| missionary Jurisdiction enjoy the pi ivileges
| or debate, but cannot vote
| Inc clergy and laity of d diocese elect
| ana support their own bishop. For iuris-
| dlctlon the general convention chooses the
| plshop, who is sent out as the church's
| missionary. and is supported by the board
| of missions, which receives and dtsburses
| the general missionary contributions of all
| the dioccSes.
Each diocese is divided into parishes,
| which annually elect lay representatives
| VINO. with the rectors and other clergy
| economically resident in the diocese, meet
IN diocesan convention presided over by the
! bishop, and this convention is the govern
| iEg body of the diocese
! Every three years each diocese in con-
vention. elects four clerical and four lay
| representatives, who meet as the house of
clerical ard lay deputies. and with the CO.
J ordinate branch, the house of btshons
F., compose the general convention
| The general convention enacts canons for
| the government of the church at large
| There can be no legislation unless the two
| houses agree in their actions There are
| diocesan rights
| convention is Lowerless to bind the dioceses
| In those matters, just as the Congress OF
| the United States cannot make laws on
| matters reserved to the states
The Secret Sessions
| The house of bishops sits behind closed
| doors but the sessions of the deputies are
! public. with few exceptions There has
| long been considerable opposition among
many of the clerical and lay delegates. and
even among the bishops themselves, to the
star chamber sittings of the house OF bish-
| ops.
Upon this point Bishop Henry c. Potter
| of New York states:
| Il became secretary of the house of
| bishops when vary young man. and so. az
| servant or member of that body l have
| known it for more than thirty years If
| now. l were asked what had hindered har-
! moniouS judiciouS and efficient legislation
| mere than anything else. | would say, rot
| party spirit, not the arrogance, the obsti-
| macy, or the stupidity of bishops, but the
constitutional and traditional provisions
| which compelled the two houSeS-the house
Of bishops and the house of deputieS-al-
| ways to sit apart and which permitted one
of them to sit with closed doors.
| Il have been a member of lten general
conventions, and l have never known one
| of them that, however, it began, did not
end in an atmosphere of SUSPICION. The cry
of the deputies, clerical and lay, has al
| ways been, sooner or later, We don't know
| what the bishops ara doing behind their
| closed doors! They spring things upon US.
| 1t is a star-chamber business etc, etc
| For myself, l wish heartily that the bish-
| ops might put end to the closed door
| business But some of us who have tried 20
| induce them to do so have failed, and are
! likely to fail again, L suppose.
| But if they cannot give US that reform,
| let us at least have the joint session. In
| that JOINT body l would drive the bishops
| off the platform and insist that they should
| not herd as Brahmin caste by themselves
| but sit, each bishop with his own deputa-
| ton. And then, if you choose, that no
| bishop may domineer the joint body let
| the joint body elect a layman to preside.
! What difference does it make, what princi-
pie does ii invade, if he is a good presiding
| officer? In the diocese of New York I sit in
| a great many commissions, boards and the
| like, in which laymen preside and l have
| never found either my dignity my rights
| to suffer-
| Plea of American Bishops.
| The church existed in this country long
before she had a governing body of her
| own. The church in the colonies long and
| in vain importuned the mother Church of
| England to consecrate bishops for America
| but these requests were denied for political
| and other reasons. When the independence
| of the colonies was acknowledged in 1913
| the clergy met in various parts Of the
| NIT cd at tn hatt
| &c nization. Bishops were necessary for
the development and extension of the
church. In May, 1884, a meeting of clergy
| and laymen was held in New Brunswick
| N. j., and a larger gathering in October in
| New York. Delegates from eight states
| were present and arranged for a general
| &C invention, which met in Philadelphia in
September, 1855. Meanwhile DR.. Samuel
| Seabury had been elected bishop by the
| diocese of Connecticut, had gone to Eng
| land for conservation, and after waiting
| two years in the vain hope that political
| feeling would die out, and that the act Of
| parliament, necessarily preliminary to his
conservation, might be passed, had gone to
Scotland and had been consecrated by the
| nonjuring bishops of Aberdeen, Moray and
| Ross, and the bishop coadjutor of Aberdeen.
On February f. 1887 DIR. White, from Penn
| sylvania, and DR.. Provost fer New York,
! were consecrated at Lambeth Chapel, Lon
den, by the archbishops of Canterbury and
| York, and the bishops of Peterborough and
| of Bath and Wells. In 1890, DIR. Madison
| was consecratsd, in England, bishop for
| Virginia.
| Bishop of Maryland.
The three bishops of the English success
| sion, Provost, Madison and White, agreed
to unite with Bishop Seabury in the con-
secration of bishop in America, and in
September 1892, DIR. Thomas John Claggett
was made bishop for Maryland. In Bishop
Claggett were united, therefore, two pure
lines Of the apostolic succession. The epis-
| copate was thus happily obtained for Amer
| lea, and <his branch was complete with
the three orders of the ministry, bishops.
| priests and deaconS
| The bishops. clergy and laity of the
church in the United States of America in
| general convention in Philadelphia in 1859
| adopted a constitution and ratified and es-
| tablished the book Of common prayer. Tri-
| ennial meetings Of the convention have
been held ever since, as required by the
| constitution.
/ Gen. Ennn3uUQr,s Retfraneuf