The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1913-10-18
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL
GENERAL CONVENTION.

Some forgotten wag of cynic said
of Wagner's music that it was bet
ter than it sounded" One might
say of triennial convention of what
is still titularly 1.-The Protestant
Episcopal Church in the United
States of America" that it is bigger
than it looks. Statistically that
church is overlooked and domineered
over by many other denominations.
In the tables of the census it does
not loom UNFORTUNATELY large; but
its influence cannot be statistically
estimated. Coleridge said of it's
parent church of England that every
parish church in England was a
and even so yet; and considerable dis
establishers in England ought to
take that into consideration. It is
even so in America. The Episcopal
Church is an intensely conservative
force In this community. 1t has al
ways been SO. In the early days, in
the days of the Revolution, it was
Stunned and avoided on that very
ground, and for long years after
ward. But in the very crisis of the
Revolution 1t is recorded that, up In
Westchester or Duchess, an aid of
Washington offered the conjecture
about a building that the staff was
passing, 1T is an English church -
'It is my church, the chief respond
ed with a gravity that tended TO
make ashamed the American who pre-
tended to be a better American than
George Washington.
That the general anglophobia of
the Revolutionary successes, express
ed in the outrageous and indefensi-
BILE treatment of the remaining
Tories after the victory, should have
|reacted on the Tory church was
quit inevitable. During the later
years of the eighteenth century it be-
came point of patriotism to revile
land objurgate the English" church,
and for long after. Doubtless this
tendency was promoted by the po-
llitical and racial anglomania of the
weaker brethren among the Church
men" themselves. Lord Coleridge at
tested in private correspondence
which has since come to publication
his disgust with the fatuous Ameri-
can Bishop who spoke to him with
pain and resentment of the activity
of the "Dissenters." "Dissenters In
America quoth the Lord Chief Jus.
tice in his anger.
! 1t is quite true that the Protestant
Episcopal Church is ESSENTIALLY AN
glican." Any description of 1t tha
omits or slurs that connatation Is tx
that extent invalid. But then con
slider how valuable, how invaluable
the connotation is. He has his les
sons, said Matthew Arnold, speaking
of Emerson, to both the branches o
Jour race; to ours, meaning the Eng
lish, 1t is his lucid freedom, nj
lcheerfulness and hope; to yours
lmeaning the American, he leave
l"dignity. delicacy, serenity, eleva
ton" Among the designations pro
lposed for the Episcopal Church b,
those who are in favor of changin,
its style and title 1t is strange tina
nobody has proposed its proper title
THE Church of England in the Unit
ed States of America The Episco
pal Church has had it's scandals, ever
Its episcopal scandals. But tn
"dignity" and serenity and re
Iticence. combined with free justice
with which it dealt with the lates
offence were truly and unmistakabl
la lesson" Is there anything c
which this nation is more in nee
/ than the qualities its English
church supplies, dignity. delicacy
: lserenity, elevation?
II 1t is related of an English tours