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Division in the Episcopal Church

Trinity Cathedral
The Rev. Dr. Grant S. Carey
Canon Residentiary

When the Prayer Book of 1549 was made official, so many people in Yorkshire reacted against it that it was necessary to quell the riots with the army.

During the English Civil War in the 16th century, the Prayer Book was outlawed and the bishops expelled.

At the time of the organization of the American Episcopal Church in the 18th century, some left for the  Presbyterians because of the wording of the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer (“we are bold to say…” which they defined as “that naughty phrase…”

During the Civil War, some people left because the Northern Episcopal Church was abolitionist. During the Civil War there were two Episcopal Churches. They reunited following the war. One Southern Bishop became a Confederate General and was killed in battle.

Following the Civil War there was disagreement over the wording and understanding of the Baptismal Service leading to the formation of “The Reformed Episcopal Church” which still exists in the East Coast.

In Sacramento, in the early years, there was a division led by the Governor. The congregation met in the rooms designated for the Assembly and called themselves “The Church of Holy Communion.” I suspect it was a conflict over whether Holy Communion or Morning Prayer should be the chief Sunday service.

Later there were High and Low Church concerns. This was a strong issue within the Missionary District of Northern California and later the Diocese of Sacramento. This controversy lasted from the 1880’s through the 1950’s. There was much writing pro and con in the church’s newspaper “The Pacific Churchman.”

Around 1915, there was a division in this diocese over the proposed building of a cathedral. The feeling was that a cathedral would be too “high church” and dominate over the other congregations.

There was a major division during and following the First World War over the concept of A Just War. The debate which reached General Convention was whether or not war was Christian. The National Episcopal Church stated that war was just, and Bishop Jones of the Missionary District of Utah was removed from office because of his pacifist views. Others left the Church over the issue.

"High and Low" reared its head during the debate over the 1929 Prayer Book.  The original draft was scrapped because it was “too Anglo Catholic…”

A Dean of the Trinity Cathedral in the 1940’s was asked to resign. Not only was he considered too High Church, he also wore a black shirt rather than a clerical vest. It was believed that “Black Shirts” were worn by only by Fascists. (I am not kidding).

When I was ordained in 1958, The Sonoma Convocation (of which I became Rural Dean) was considered to be High Church because all the priests wore Eucharistic Vestments . . . and some (Napa, Benicia, Saint Helena, Fort Bragg) even used incense!

Members of the ladies guild in my congregation in Lakeport became very concerned because I taught the choir to sing the Eucharist thus leading the congregation straight to Rome. When I informed my critics that all the music was in the back of the Hymnal 1940, they decided that singing Communion was all right after all.

Most things were somewhat quiet in the 50s and early 60’s until the issue of civil rights.  Many Episcopalians believed the Church should not take part in this controversy. When priests and bishops as well as laypeople marched in protest, some left because of the Presiding Bishop’s and the National Church’s liberal position.

The “New Prayer Book” (1976) and “The Ordination of Women” proved  controversial during the Seventies and many left the Episcopal Church refusing to surrender the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Many objected because they considered the new prayer book liturgy to be  too Catholic, maintaining that Jesus had chosen only men to represent him in the ordained ministry - -recalling that the Apostle Paul had written that women should keep silence in church as well as keep their heads covered.

When women were officially recognized as priests, some people left to found a Continuing Episcopal (Anglican) Church.  This schism seems to have died out over the years - - however its ghost lingers on in those dioceses that have chosen to leave the Episcopal Church and to become associated with The Anglican Province Southern Cone in South America. The issues today include those of the past as well as the ordination of an openly homosexual person as the Bishop of New Hampshire.

Oliver Wendell Holmes is reported to have remarked regarding the Episcopal Church: “If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.” That may have been the case in the Nineteenth Century, but today it seems no longer to hold true.  Issues confronting the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion will have far reaching consequences, and our ability to come to terms with our differences is sure to have a profound effect on (and in) the world in which we “live and move and have our being.”