The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-05-13
COMMEMORATIVE Of
FOUNDING THE
CHURCH
Three Hundreth Anniversary
of Episcopalians in United
States.
HISTORY OF WORK
DONE SINCE THEN
Given BY Rev. j. K. Burleson
in Able Sermon Sunday at
St. Paul's Church.

Sunday sermons commemorative of
| the founding of the Church of Eng
land, later known as the Episcopal
church in the, United States. were de-
| livered by Rev. j. X. Burleson of st.
Paul's Episcopal church. Today is
| the three hundredth anniversary of
the founding of the church. it being
Nav IS, 1907 that band of the men,
bers of the church first worshipped at
jamestown. Following is Rev. Bur-
leson's sermon:
Add sermon.
1 Timothy. 3:15. The church of
the living God. the pillar and ground
of the truth
1t was about the year A. D. 100
that the Christian faith was planted
in England. Christian missionaries
from Ephesus in Asia Minor came to
the country of Gaul-now called
France-and established Christianity
there. Beckoned by the white cliffs
of Britain's island they voyaged thith-
err also, and taught the heather is
landers to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Christian religion soon spread
over the entire southern two-thirds of
the island, and thence was carried in
to ireland. Constantine, the emperor
or Rome. who put final stop to the
Roman prosecutions of the Chris
tians. was a native of Britain, and
there gained the knowledge of the
faith which made him the Christians
friend
When Italy. threatened with bar
barian invasion from the north, re-
called the garrsons from the distant
parts OF the empire, Britain was
stripped of her defenders and left
open to the attacks of the heather
foes who had long been threatening
her. Wave after wave OF invasion
followed. The Christian population
was driven back or overwhelmed,
| fighting to the last, and by the year
$50 Britain-now called England, aft
| er the invaders-was again largely
heather.
But this condition was not allowed
to continue. The British Christians,
helped in turn by the Celtic mission
aries from Ireland. and greatly as
sisted in the southeastern part of the
island by missionaries from Rome
under Augustine, began the work of
Notwithstanding the land. And this
work was done so we'll that by the
year 700 England was again Chris
tian. About this same time the mis-
sions OF the Celtic and the Roman
missionaries became amalgamated,
and the church was formed which
then and ever since has called itself
1.-The Church of England
| 1t would be of absorbing interest
to trace the history of this Christian
church and people through the vicis-
STUDIES and changes which they were
called upon to undergo, but that is
not our purpose this morning. We
are to think at this anniversary time
about the offspring of the Church of
England. which is called the Protest
ant Episcopal church. 1t must sui
flee us to say that through all the
changes in England, both political
and ecclesiastical, the Church of Eng
land has been faithful to the form
and substance of the faith and Gus
toms which she received from her
early teachers. She has kept, and
still keeps, the apostolic faith, the
apostolic order. the apostolic scrip
lures, the apostolic sacraments. So,
from her beginnings in the early Sec
ond century. she has shown herself
to be true branch OF the one holy
catholic and apostolic church.
On the 18th day of May, 1907, three
ships sailed up the James river. The
weary voyagers who manned them
cast anchor in front of a promintory
not far from the riven's mouth. There
they landed and proceeded to estab-
lish the first permanent English set
Element in America. They called this
jamestown. These men were both
| Englishmen and also members of the
Church of England. They had brought
with them to their new home their
chaplain, a priest of the English
church, Robert Hunt by name. On
the Sunday after their landing, which,
like today. was the Sunday after the
ascension. the colonists held their
first service in the new land. There
were no houses, so sail was
stretched for a roof between the
trees; logs made seats for the congre-
CATION; bar of wood served for al
tar, lecturn and pulpit. There and
thus the colonists gave thanks to God
for His mercy and blessings to them
1t helps US, in our realization of this
scene and of our knship to these ear
ly settlers. to remember that the
prayers which we have used this
morning. the collect, epistle and Cos
pei the psalms and the scripture les
sons are identically the same as those
which three hundred years ago sound
ed out from the sail-covered chapel
at jamestown.
The voice of the church raised then
and there has gone sounding on ever
since. All that now remains of the
jamestown settlement is the ruined
tower of their brick church. but the
work begun there grew and extended
through the colony. through the state,
through the nation. There were many
vicissitudes and failures; there were
mistakes and evils; there were false
teachers and false followers. But in
spite of them all the church lived; it
grew; and through trials and tribula-
lions has come to be what we see it
today.
Many of the conditions which sur
rounded the church in it's early years
here were most unfavorable to it.
For the first $50 years her work was
carried on under the enormous handi-
cap of an incomplete organization.
There was no bishop in America. An
Episcopal church without bishop is
an anomaly. The bishop of London
had charge of the church here, but he
never visited it. No one could be
confirmed, no one could be ordained
deacon or priest, without making the
] dangerous and extensive yOyago to