A Conference to Mark the 60th Anniversary of the 1963 Toronto Anglican Congress is planned for the 12th and 13th of April 2024. Initiated by the Canadian Church Historical Society and co-sponsored by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, the conference will be held in Toronto with in-person and online participation. Additional details will be available soon. Other organizations interested in sponsoring the Conference should write to Laurel Parson lparson@national.anglican.ca.

The 1963 Toronto Anglican Congress was attended by about 1,000 archbishops, bishops, priests, deacons, and laity from virtually all the dioceses of the Anglican Communion. It approved a Manifesto, “Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence [MRI] in the Body of Christ,” which proposed a radical examination of inequalities across the Communion. The purpose of the 2024 conference is to examine the legacy of the 1963 Toronto Congress. 

The keynote speaker will be Canon Professor Mark D. Chapman, Professor of the History of Modern Theology, University of Oxford. This conference, with its emphasis on mutual responsibility and interdependence, could make an important contribution to planning a the next Anglican Congress. A Thanksgiving Service will take place on Sunday 14  April.

Call for Papers: Papers of twenty minutes (approx. 2,500 words) are invited on any theme related to the 1963 Congress (historical, missiological, theological, international, and local significance) with abstracts due by December 15, 2023.

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The ordination of eleven Episcopal women to the priesthood on July 29, 1974, at Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, has transformed the face of Episcopal clergy. We are reminded that all of God’s children are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve in every capacity. To honor the celebration of the 50th Anniversary, the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church (HSEC) and the Episcopal Women’s History Project (EWHP) have collaborated on the publication: “In Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood in the Episcopal Church.” Articles were originally published in the Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church and its successor, Anglican and Episcopal History (AEH).

The ordination of The Philadelphia Eleven was followed by the ordination of the Washington Four which is also addressed in this collection. Other articles address women inclined to holiness, the religious role of women in the 18th century, Anglican clergy wives, the Woman’s Auxiliary, 19th century Episcopal Sunday School, and education of Black women plus more.  These articles give the background and context for why the logical next step was the ordination of women beyond the diaconate.  These articles preserve the story that reminds us that the proper place of women is in all orders and roles of the Church.

Time passes and memories fade, but this anniversary calls us to acknowledge the courage of women called and ordained to holy orders of the priesthood.  They paved the way for the church’s many women priests and bishops, something that is not unusual today.

These fifteen articles found in this 178-page volume help us keep this history alive and reflect on the actions of the past. Article authors, listed in order, include Sheryl-Kujawa-Holbrook, Barbara C. Harris, John F. Woolverton, Fredrica Harris Thompsett, Joan R. Gundersen, Anne Llewellyn Barstow, Joanna B. Gillespie, Mary Sudman Donovan, Arthur Ben Chitty, by Heather Huyck, Qiana Johnson, Susan D. Buell, and Catherine M. Prelinger. The volume was curated by Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, Editor-in-Chief of AEH, the cover was designed by Robin Sumners of EWHP, and the production was managed by Matthew Payne of HSEC.

Copies of this soft cover volume may be ordered online at hsec.us/honor50 for $10.00 plus shipping. Bulk orders and discount inquiries may be made to the Historical Society Director of Operation, Matthew P. Payne at administration@hsec.us.

The hope of the authors and publisher is this collection will inspire and educate the people of Church — women and girls, men and boys — about the work of the Holy Spirit through her people.

Anglican and Episcopal History (AEH) focuses on race, slavery, and ministry in three regions in its September issues. Scholars examine Anglican ministries in the context of Britain’s sugar colonies, Rhode Island, and the U.S. South. Readers also enjoy reviews of a film, exhibit, and 22 scholarly books.

The lead study, “Anglican Ministry Amongst Britain’s Caribbean Slaves,” by Stephen J.S. Smith examines the Church of England’s ministry in Britain’s slave-based sugar colonies throughout the long eighteenth century using case studies of clergymen James Ramsay (1733-1789), George Wilson Bridges (1788-1863), and William M. Harte (1776-1851).

Smith writes that, “For better, or for worse, the Church of England’s presence in Britain’s Caribbean slave colonies provided a framework for contrasting Anglican clergy voices… to throw light on the reality of established church ministry in Britain’s slave colonies. The value of these voices is immense.”

Smith is an Episcopal priest and retired research scholar in church history at SUNY Buffalo.

The second study is “Christ Church, Providence, 1839-1851: An African American Parish in Antebellum Rhode Island” by John D. Alexander, a retired Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Rhode Island.

Alexander writes that “Christ Church’s story affords a fascinating glimpse into antebellum New England’s social and religious history, as well as into the dilemmas confronting African Americans in the wider Episcopal Church.”

A final study related to race compares and contrasts ways three white Episcopal priests in the Antebellum South approached ministry among newly freed people following the U.S. Civil War. “The lives and ministries of Peter Fayssoux Stevens, A. Toomer Porter, and William Porcher DuBose illustrate the range of choices facing white ministers in the postwar church,” according to authors J. Michael Martinez and the late Loren B. Mead.

Martinez currently teaches political science at Kennesaw State University. Mead was an Episcopal priest and founder of the Alban Institute at Duke Divinity School. He passed away in 2018.

A final study offers a different theme focusing on women in West Africa. Sade Oluwakemi Ayendi, a field researcher for Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique, examines ways Anglican women in Nigeria “occupy significant position” and “have broken through traditional prejudices” in the Anglican Church of Nigeria’s Diocese of Akoko.

Ayendi’s study is titled, “Women in the Nigerian Church: A Study of the Akoko Anglican Diocese,” was partially funded by a grant from the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.

AEH also features two church reviews providing glimpses of worship at St. John’s Episcopal Church in the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Edinburgh and at St. James’ Anglican Church, Vancouver, part of the Diocese of New Westminster in the Anglican Church of Canada.

The September issue includes movie, exhibit, and book reviews related to church history and Anglican scholarship. Among them:

• Ecumenical Encounters with Desmond Mpilo Tutu: Vision for Justice, Dignity, and Peace edited by Sarojini Nadar et al | Reviewed by Kefas Lamak, University of Iowa
• Envoys of Abolition: British Naval Officers and the Campaign Against the Slave Trade in West Africa by Mary Wills | Reviewed by Suzanne Geissler, William Paterson University
• Peter Akinola: Who Blinks First? Biblical Fidelity Against the Gay Agenda in the Global Anglican Communion by Gbenga Gbesen | Reviewed by John Rawlinson, Church Divinity School of the Pacific
• The Shape of Anglican Theology: Faith Seeking Wisdom by Scott MacDougall | Reviewed by Mark D. Chapman, University of Oxford
• Making Evangelical History: Faith, Scholarship and the Evangelical Past edited by Andrew Atherstone and David Ceri Jones | Reviewed by Christopher Corbin

And Moses said to the people, ‘Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how the Lord freed you from it with a mighty hand…. Exodus 13:3 (JPS)

The people…they got lost. They don’t even know the story of how they got from tit to tat…The people need to know the story.  See how they fit into it.  See what part they play.”  Stool Pigeon, Prologue, King Hedley II, 1999.

On October 11, 2023, as the Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) commemorates its Bicentenary, the African American Episcopal Historical Collection (AAEHC) will celebrate its 20^th Year, with keynote speakers and symposia that focus on the importance of knowing the challenging and complex history of Blacks in the Episcopal Church.  The AAEHC will stop and Remember this major journey to Freedom and the part African Americans played in it. 

The AAEHC, along with the Archives of the Episcopal Church. is the primary repository for records that document the history of Black Episcopalians, and it is the principal archival resource for scholars and researchers interested in the history of African American Episcopalians. Inspired and reinvigorated by the Scriptural exhortations to “Remember,” we will feed those memories only through which can we truly know who we are, and how redemption of a people and racial reconciliation in the Church were (and are to be) paid for. August Wilson’s Stool Pigeon is right: know and tell how we got from tit to tat. Bear Witness.

The keynote address in the morning will be delivered by Julieanna Richardson, the founder and director of The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive oral history archive -- now fully accessioned by and housed in the Library of Congress.  Richardson’s HistoryMakers sets the gold standard for collecting oral histories and the AAEHC emulates its techniques and much its archival policies and objectives. The evening address will be delivered by the Rt. Rev. Gail Harris, assisting bishop for the Diocese of Virginia.  In between there will be presenters who will share their wisdom and experience in having achieved, and who are working still to achieve, success in their historical research on Black Episcopalians.

African American Episcopalians comprise a fairly small percentage of communicants in the Episcopal Church.  The influence of that relatively few, including bishops Dillard Brown, Walter Decoster Dennis, and Arthur Williams, along with canon Thomas W. Logan, Sr., scholar Harold Lewis, and lay theologian Verna Dozier, is disproportionate to the enormity of their efforts to make the Church more inclusive.  Records of their lives, along with many more, are housed in the AAEHC, where they will be held in perpetuity and fully accessible to researchers.

The AAEHC had its beginnings in the 1990s when a group of historians from the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church (HSEC) set out with special effort and intention to document the history of African Americans in the Episcopal Church. In 2003 the HSEC and the Bishop Payne Library of the Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) agreed on a plan that would set the archival effort on solid footing at VTS.  The AAEHC is governed by a Steering Committee, the leaders, and members of which are shared equally between the Bishop Payne Library and the HSEC.  Over the first two decades of its existence the AAEHC has ably expanded the scope of the library’s mission to tell the Bishop Payne Divinity School (BPDS) story and to document the history of African American Episcopalians for research and for the education of the Church at-large.

Now, twenty-years after the partnership began the collection continues to grow -- a recognition of its central place both as a repository of records, but also as an essential source for research and study. Its oral history collection is expanding greatly and because of ZOOM technology the most recent recorded sessions are now fully accessible online in video format.  Scholars visit the AAEHC regularly, seeking both institutional and personal papers.  Furthermore, over the course of its life, the AAEHC has awarded travel grants to over 20 scholars.  Their research has generated books, journal articles, dissertations, and online resources. This year, as part of that total (and after a COVID pandemic hiatus), five grants were awarded. We have selected a few whose research will be discussed on October Anniversary Day.

The AAEHC has also been enriched greatly by unexpected and most welcome inquiries and donations of records from parish churches -- primarily white majority congregations -- that have begun to unearth their race histories.  Most of the stories are from the South (but by no means exclusively so) and begin in the pre-Civil War years when the enslaved worshipped in the same church as the persons who enslaved them.  Freedom and Reconstruction had in most cases existential and fundamental effects on the continued lives and racial identities of the parishes -- most of which quickly evolved to become racially segregated.  Often the result was the establishment of Black Episcopal parishes throughout the nation. And in most cases the segregation that meant the absence of Black worshippers in white spaces, remained unexamined until recently.  The salutary result is that much of this individual parish research and archival work has become essential to understanding and reaching for what the church needs in seeking the all-elusive racial reckoning and reconciliation.  Several of these parish historians will be present on our October Anniversary Day to share the results of their research and the accompanying myriad challenges.

To learn more about attending the celebration on October 11, contact the AAEHC staff at askaaehc@vts.edu. 

The proposed volume will consist of a series of essays, each by an individual scholar or a small (not more than three) number of co-authors, focusing on a particular geographic region or island / country.

While each essay will have its own focus, the volume as a whole will need to approach Anglican Studies as an interdisciplinary field, including Anglican history, theology, liturgy, preaching, postcolonial studies, ecclesiology, spirituality, literature, missiology, ethics/moral theology, ministry, pastoral care, ecumenism, and interreligious studies. Not all of these areas need be considered in a single essay. Rather, authors are encouraged to select particular aspects of the whole that best suit the specific focus of their proposal. But in all cases some consideration must be given to the history of the Church of England / Anglican Church in the locale under discussion, whether as a distinct section or as a framing device. Essays that also consider the current position of that locale’s Anglican Church within a broader contemporary framework are most welcome.

The editor is interested in essays that consider Barbados and Jamaica, specifically, each as a single subject. Other essays might consider individual islands or groupings.

Essays on the Church of England / Anglican Church in the Spanish, French, and Dutch Caribbean are also welcome.

Please submit proposals of no more than 500 words and, if possible, provide a tentative title and a two- to three-sentence summary of the proposed work. The title and summary need not be part of the 500-word count. A target word count for the finished essay would also be appreciated.

Graduate students and recent graduates are particularly encouraged to submit a proposal. Authors working in, or with strong ties to, the place of their topic are also encouraged and should make note of their connections in the email accompanying the submission.

If a proposal can be developed for the interested publisher, style guides, deadlines, etc. will be disseminated at that stage.

Please submit a proposal to Chris Fauske via cfauske@salemstate.edu. Plain text or a Word attachment / link are both acceptable.

The deadline for submission of a proposal is 30 November 2023.

If you know someone who might be interested in this project, please share this CFP with them.

The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church announces Heidi Olson Campbell as recipient of the 2023 Nelson R. Burr Prize. Olson Campbell is a PhD candidate at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She is honored for the article ‘Of Blessed Memory’: The Recasting of Elizabeth I as England’s Protestant Patron Saint, 1603-1645, published in the Winter 2022 issue of Anglican and Episcopal History (Volume 91, No. 4).

Olson Campbell’s dissertation titled "Women at the Cross” focuses on the impact of politics on the representation of female exemplars in Paul’s Cross’s sermons in sixteenth and early seventeenth century England. She recently received the Charles Perry Graduate Student Paper Award at the Southern Conference on British Studies. In addition to her article in Anglican and Episcopal History, her writing has appeared in the Journal of British Studies and Renaissance and Reformation.

The Burr prize honors the renowned scholar Nelson R. Burr, whose two-volume A Critical Bibliography of Religion in America (1961) and other works constitute landmarks in the field of religious historiography. A committee of the Historical Society determines an author of the most outstanding article in the quarterly, peer-reviewed journal. The award recognizes that which best exemplifies excellence and innovative scholarship in the field of Anglican and Episcopal history.

Copies of this article, as well as those by previous recipients, may be found at hsec.us/Nelson-Burr-Prize or a printed copy may be secured by contacting Matthew. P. Payne, Director of Operations of the Society at administration@hsec.us or (920) 383-1910.

The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church announced the awarding of over $24,000 in grants to 12 recipients during the Annual Meeting July 26, 2023. These funds support significant research, publication and projects related to preserving and sharing the history of the Episcopal Church and churches of the Anglican Communion. Over $350,000 of grants have been awarded since the inception of the program in 1988.

Applications are considered by a Grants and Research Committee then awarded by the Board of Directors. Grants were made from budgeted funds and from the Cragon Fund for Special Projects. Recipients are encouraged to share their research and projects, especially in the peer-reviewed, quarterly journal of the Society, Anglican and Episcopal History. Details about the grants program may be found at hsec.us/grants.

Recipients with their areas of awarded research are:

·        Aaron Pelot – doctoral student at St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews. Studying the inculturation of the Book of Common Prayer in the Anglican Church in Japan.

·        Angelica Duran – professor at Purdue University, and Katie Calloway, professor at Baylor University. Offsetting the cost of reproducing visual art in their forthcoming study on the influence of John Bunyan.

·        Brian Hanson – professor at Bethlehem College and Seminary. Studying pastoral care and church discipline in the early modern Church of England.

·        Charles Egleston – independent scholar. Studying the history of African American Episcopalians in South Carolina between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

·        Jon Thompson – postdoctoral research associate at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and Jacob Conrod, an undergraduate at William & Mary. Studying the spiritual history and influence of William and Mary.

·        Kefas Lamak – doctoral student in Religious Studies at the University of Iowa. Studying religion, colonialism, and missions in the Niger area, c. 1860-1920.

·        Marianna Klaiman – independent scholar. Studying vestments and ecclesiastical textiles in dioceses of New York and Long Island.

·        Stephanie Derrick – independent scholar. Studying the influence of Episcopalian women on religious publishing in the United States.

·        Philadelphia Eleven – a documentary film project about the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church. Awarded from the Cragon Fund for Special Projects.

·        The Living Church –continued digitization of back issues of TLC. Awarded from the Cragon Fund for Special Projects.

Over 50 members attended the Annual Meeting of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church on July 26, 2023 via Zoom. The meeting elected members and officers to the Board of Directors and included reports on Society activities over the past year. Time was allowed for members to share announcements, thoughts and ideas for the good of the order.

Dr. J. Michael Utzinger, President, chaired the meeting. He reported on activity from his first year as President, including meeting with leadership from other religious historical societies.

Additional reports included the awarding of grants to twelve recipients, the status of the Historical Society’s peer-reviewed, quarterly journal, Anglican and Episcopal History, the recipient of the Burr Prize for the best article in the journal, a financial report reflecting strength, and announcements of upcoming events including the 20^th anniversary of the African American Episcopal Historical Collection and the 2025 Tri-History Conference.

The following officers were elected: President: Dr. J. Michael Utzinger; First Vice President: the Rev. John Runkle; Second Vice President: the Rev. Dr. Robyn Neville; Secretary: Susan Stonesifer; Treasurer: Mr. George DeFilippi.

The following were elected to the Board of Directors: The Rev. Qiana Johnson, Dr. Jonathan Lofft and Dr. Hannah Matis.

Members of the Historical Society are able to view the recording of the Annual Meeting at hsec.us/annualmeeting.

The Digital Assets page of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church has added four new resources to promote the preservation of the history of the Episcopal Church. Each is available at hsec.us/da.

"A New Era in Engaged Anglican & Episcopal History: Memory, Legacy & Embodied Practice," the 2023 Manross Lecture by the Rev. Dr. Sheryl Kujawa Holbrook, details a shift in the way we understand and explain Episcopal Church History. The 45-minute lecture is available in video and as a downloadable PDF.

"A Sermon on Place and God," was preached by the Rev. John A. Runkle at the Holy Eucharist during the 2023 meeting of the Board of Directors. This 15-minute video reflects on the way that place, especially worship space, can help us to better connect with God.

"The Person of James DeKoven," was presented prior to the 2023 Manross Lecture which was held at The DeKoven Center in Racine, Wisconsin. John Magerus, PhD and biographer of DeKoven, shares how DeKoven interacted with the students of Racine College.

The Digital Assets page of the Historical Society is a curated page of digital materials that may assist those with interest in Episcopal Church history. If you are aware of any digital assets that may enhance the page, please contact the Director of Operations, Matthew P. Payne at administration@hsec.us.

Prayer Book Revision is the focus of the latest issue of Anglican and Episcopal History, the quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.

Readers can enjoy 5 peer-reviewed essays, 2 church reviews, and 22 book reviews. The June issue of AEH is also the first to include “Engaged History,” a new feature examining ways Anglican and Episcopal communities are encountering once buried history.

Prayer book studies include:

•  “Remembering Our Baptism: Memoir of a Continuing Project” by William H. Petersen. The emeritus dean of Bexley Hall Seminary examines the “sea-change” related to the liturgy and theology of Baptism that occurred between 1949 and 1979 while pondering ways lessons learned during earlier eras of liturgical renewal might influence work today.
• Sylvia A. Sweeney, contributing editor of this issue is also professor of liturgics and homiletics at Bloy House in Los Angeles. She explores the understudied role of second wave feminism during development and ratification of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer in an essay titled “The Role of the 20^th Century Women’s Movement in Liturgical Renewal in the Episcopal Church.”
• Juan M.C. Oliver, Custodian of the Book of Common Prayer between 2015 and 2022, outlines challenges Anglicans face and suggests standards to consider when translating liturgical materials in “Liturgical Translations in the Episcopal Church.”
• “The History of Liturgical Revision in the Church of England and Its Implications for The Episcopal Church” by Shawn Strout, assistant professor of worship and associate dean of chapel at Virginia Theological Seminary, contextualizes ways proposed changes to redefine the prayer book in Article X of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church mirrors earlier moves in the Church of England.
• The final study offers 8 guiding principles to counter anti-Judaism in liturgy and worship. The essay titled “Talking About Jews: Principles, Problems, and Proposals for Prayer Book Revision” is written by Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, an Episcopal priest and the Kraft Family Professor and Director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College.

In addition to these 5 peer-reviewed essays, church reviews take readers to a Sunday worship service at St. Paul’s, Clifton, in the Church of England’s Diocese of Bristol and to an ecumenical retreat of Lutherans, Anglicans, and Roman Catholics in northern Michigan.

This issue of AEH launches the journal’s new “engaged history” feature. Engaged History refers to collaborative projects undertaken by Anglican and Episcopal institutions that confront buried historical narratives. Robert Black illustrates ways St. Luke’s Episcopal Parish in Salisbury, North Carolina, has engaged with the legacy of race and racism as a barrier to Christian mission. This includes commissioning a new Pentecost icon to better illustrate the Beloved Community “…as it includes people of different shapes, sizes, ages, genders, races, and abilities all gathered around a table and receiving the gift of the Spirit.”

As always, readers enjoy a treasure trove of book reviews related to church history and Anglican scholarship, including:

• Privilege and Prophecy: Social Activism in the Post War Episcopal Church by Robert Tobin | Reviewed by John L. Kater of Church Divinity School of the Pacific
• The Book of Common Prayer: A Guide by Charles Hefling | Reviewed by Sean Otto of the Anglican Diocese of Quebec
• Mother Earth, Postcolonial and Liberation Theologies edited by Sophia Chirongoma and Esther Mombo | Reviewed by Carla E. Roland Guzmán of General Theological Seminary
• Iris Murdoch and Others: A Writer in Dialogue with Theology by Paul S. Fiddes | Reviewed by Molly James of The Episcopal Church Center

Anglican and Episcopal History is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December. Full text articles are available through JSTOR.org and for members of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church at https://hsec.us/AEH.