The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church announces the Rev. Dr. John D. Alexander as recipient of the 2024 Nelson R. Burr Prize. Alexander is a retired priest of the Diocese of Rhode Island, who received a Ph.D. in Christian Social Ethics from Boston University in 2014. The honor is made for the article ‘Christ Church, Providence, 1839-1851: An African American Parish in Antebellum Rhode Island’, published in the September 2023 issue of Anglican and Episcopal History (Volume 92, No. 3). The Publications Committee was impressed by the depth of Dr. Alexander’s research and scholarship.

The article, which focuses on the beginning of Alexander Crummell’s remarkable and multi-faceted career, sheds important light not only on the history of the short-lived New England parish where Crummell served as rector, but also on the overall position of African Americans within both the Episcopal Church and American society in the mid-nineteenth century. The committee was particularly appreciative of Dr. Alexander’s willingness to extend his narrative beyond the internal affairs of a single parish, placing the history of Christ Church, Providence, within the much larger context of political events in Rhode Island during the tumultuous period before the Civil War

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 considers all articles for the year to determine 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.

The Committee also conferred an “Honorable Mention” on John Saillant’s article, ‘A Black Woman’s Baptism in the Episcopal Church: Prudence Gabriel in an Hour of Crisis, 1812’ published in the December 2023 issue. Dr. Saillant is a Professor of English and History at Western Michigan University. Similar in many ways to Dr. Alexander’s article, Dr. Saillant’s extensively researched essay deserves commendation for its ambitious analysis of the baptism of an African American woman in a Rhode Island Episcopal parish, interpreting that event as a paradigm of broader religious and social changes sweeping across the United States in the early nineteenth century.

Copies of articles of Burr Prize 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 mpayne@hsec.us or (920) 383-1910.