The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-04-01
READS CATHOLICS
OUT OF EPISCOPAL
TO ROMAN CHURCH
DIR. Cummings of Poughkeepsie
Advises High Churchmen to
Go Over AS He Thinks
They Belong There

New York, April There was a
great stir in EpiscopaIian circles in
| this city when many of the rectors re-
ceived their copies of the parish pa
per of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie,
containing an attack on the High
Church element by the Rev. DR.. A. G.
Cunmins, rector, who predicts and in
vites a split in the Episcopal Church
| in this country and who fatty sug-
gests that the Catholics among the
Episcopalians betake themselves with
out more ado into the Church of
Rome The extent of the interest
| aroused by this article was due not
only to it's text but in small part
| to the prominence of the rector in
this diocese.
DR.. Cummins is not only rector of
one of the most important parishes in
the diocese, butt he is member of the
standing committee, an authority CO.
| ordinate with the authority of the
bfshopric, and his parish paper has a
diocesan circulation.
The attack takes for it's text the re-
cent detection of a Benedectine COM
mun1ty on Caldy Island from the
Church of England to the Church of
Rome. The Poughkeepsie rector says
the Church of England is stronger
without these Benedictines, and that
the Protestant Episcopal Church in
America would be stronger without
the Order of the Holy Cross. He
mentions the members of the Com
munity of the Resurrection who
preached in Lent in Trinity Church.
Broadway and Wall street, and at
tacks Bishop Greer's official newspa-
per, the Great Commission, for re-
ferring to them as Father SO and
so. He describes what he thinks to
be the Episcopal Church, and also
what he believes to be the Roman
II he
word Catholic to show that ne
means the High Church men in his
own Church, and also, as he says, to
indicate his dislike for them, not as
men, but as zea1ots in the wrong com
munion. He then proposes a separa-
ton in the Episcopalian Church. Here
are his words:
1--WE have come to a critical mo-
ment. A party fight has been begun
by the Catholics The era of toll
over the cessation of strife, has been
brought to an end. Either this Church
is to remain Protestant, or it is to be
made Catholic the matter of a
change of it's name is only an entering
wedge. Back of the wedges point
lie all manners of Catholic doctrines
and practices.
There is and long has been less
mutual sympathy between Catholic
and Protestant elements in the Epis-
copal Church than between either ell
ement and it's corresponding outside
church-Roman Catholic on the one
hand and Presbyterian on the other.
These two elements, the high and the
low, we may forcibly hold together,
but we cannot make them mingle.
Why should they be held together at
all?
There is no place in the Protest
ant Episcopal Church for Catholics
he
attack has been made, is of necessity
transient. It is no longer tenable.''
DR.. Cummins mentions the English
Fathers of the Resurrection, and
then formally asks Catholics, in the
Episcopal Church in America to get
out.
Follow the Ca1dy Islanders, dear |
fellow Catho1ics,' he advises. 1--WE |
shall grieve at the loss of numbers, but |
rejoice in your gain. There is an
acknowledged Catholic Church. That |
is surely where all true Catholics |
lie friends, do as Caldy has done? |
Resolve highly and firmly to accept |
with its destinations the discipline of |
Rome, unpleasant though it be for
those accustomed to the freedom CT |
Professionalism. Take the bitter with /
the sweet. 1t needs only a little cour-
age, a little consistency. Why ex-
pect to have the sweet without the
bitter? Please let US Professionals
alone, let us enjoy our errors in
peace. We shall love you much bet
ter when you are on. the other side
of the gulf
Although DR.. Cummins named very
few, it was understood here that he
had in mind the churches of ST. Ed
ward the Martyr in 1o6th Street, St
Paul in Clinton Street, Brooklyn; St.
Ignatius in West End Avenue, and st.
Mary the Virgin in West Forty-Sixth
Street. The latter is very High Church,
and it was from its congregation, by
the way, that Father Vaughan won
one of his most distinguished con-
verts last year in the person of Mrs.
Henry w. Taft, sister-in-law of the
ex-President.
The Order of the Holy Cross is a
small one. It's membership includes
the Rev. J. Q. Huntington, son of the
late Bishop Huntington of Syracuse
and the Rev. F. H. Sill, whose faith
er was long the vicar of st. Chrysos-
TOMS Chapel.