Book, church, and film reviews helpful to scholars of church history are featured in the spring 2026 issue of Anglican & Episcopal History (AEH). Reviews of current scholarship include:

Engaged History

Mark Beckwith reviews the 35-minute documentary-style film Prophets Among Us (Heritage Films) recounting the life and ministry of the Rev. Cn. Ed Rodman (1942-2024).

Rodman was a long-time civil rights activist who operated largely behind the scenes. Beckwith recalls that “With great pride Ed had often said that he never left any fingerprints or footprints in the many conversations and initiatives that he was involved in over more than four decades.” Beckwith writes that the church “needs to see those fingerprints and footprints” from Rodman’s ministry.

Rodman, a canon missioner in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, helped establish the Union of Black Episcopalians and played a crucial role in the group adopting the 1969 “Black Manifesto” calling for $500 million in reparations.

Beckwith is the retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark.

Church Reviews

Church reviews provide readers a glimpse of divine services throughout the Anglican Communion, especially within the Episcopal Church.

In this issue, readers first get a glimpse of Sunday worship at the Church of St. Paul in the Desert in Palm Spring, California, part of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego.

The second church review takes readers to an Advent service at Xujiahui Cathedral during the Covid-19 pandemic. The cathedral is the headquarters of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association’s Diocese of Shanghai.

12 Book Reviews including:

• Anglican Theology: Postcolonial Perspectives edited by Stephen Burns and James Tengatenga | Reviewed by Don H. Compier of the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry
• Black Contemplative Preaching: A Hidden History of Prayer, Proclamation, and Prophetic Witness by E. Trey Clark | Reviewed by Sylvia A. Sweeney of Bloy House, the Episcopal Theological School at Los Angeles
• Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch | Reviewed by Peter Carlson of California Lutheran University
• Call and Commitment: A Journey of Faith from Nakba to Palestinian Liberation Theology by Naim Stifan Ateek | Reviewed by Newland Smith
• Faith: Conversations in Global Anglican Theology by Michael Battle| Reviewed by Ian T. Douglass, retired bishop of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut
• Changing Mission, Unchanging Faith: Episcopalians and Influence in Indianapolis by Lee Little | Reviewed by Michael Nichols of Purdue University

Anglican and Episcopal History is the peer-reviewed journal of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. It is published quarterly. For subscription information visit www.hsec.us/membership.

Historians examine the lasting global influence of the Anglican Congress of 1963 and its emphasis on “mutual responsibility and interdependence” (MRI) in the spring issue of Anglican & Episcopal History (AEH).

Eight papers by leading scholars consider legacies of MRI based on discussions from the ‘MRI at 60’ conference hosted in Toronto in 2024. These papers provide a timely complement to the 2024 Nairobi-Cairo Proposals slated for discussion during the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Belfast in June.

Bishop R. William Franklin introduces the spring issue of AEH by reminding readers that the 1963 Anglican Congress in Toronto included 1,000 lay and clergy representatives from 350 dioceses. The Congress’ first Eucharist welcomed 16,000 worshippers setting the tone for discussions about Anglican identity in a post-colonial world.

The eight studies in the issue are:

Transfiguring Presence: An Anglican Contribution to Interreligious Dialogue and the Life of the Church

Anglican theologian Clare Amos discusses ways we engage with other faiths and branches of Christianity. She draws on the work of Church Missionary Society leaders Max Warren and John V. Taylor along with Kenyan Anglican theologian Jesse Mugambi to explore the tension between particularity of context and universality as a core paradox of Anglican tradition.

Amos has taught in Jerusalem, Beirut, Cambridge, South London, and Kent. She has worked for the Anglican Communion Office and World Council of Churches.

Instruments and Instrumentality in koinonia: Competing Anglican Identities and the Future of Unity

Charlie Baczyk-Bell contends that 60 years after Anglican Congress of 1963 “the key hopes largely remain unresolved.” He writes that “Vestiges of the colonial age continue to blight the Communion’s ability to re-imagine itself, leading to ongoing disquiet about the role of the ‘Instruments of Communion’ and to the continued instrumentalization of LGBTQIA Christians as pawns in a wider debate about power, authority, identity, and colonial legacy.”

He invites “the possibility of a future Anglican Congress that is focused on listening, encounter, and worship, and takes an Anglican expression of relational unity in bishop-in-Synod as a starting point and not the creation of unity as a goal?”

Baczyk-Bell is a priest in the Church of England’s Diocese of Southwark, author of several books, and a fellow in medicine and public theology at Girton College, Cambridge.

A Tale of Two Anglican Congresses: London 1908 and Toronto 1963

Bishop Stephen Bayne’s role as architect of 1963 Anglican Congress and MRI leading to rebirth of the Anglican Communion and a repudiation of colonialism is the focus of Mark D. Chapman’s work.

Chapman writes that, “The Toronto Congress undeniably helped reorient the approach to mission across the Anglican Communion and helped forge many new relationships between churches.”

Chapman is Professor of the History of Modern Theology at the University of Oxford and Distinguished Fellow of Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He is a priest in the Church of England.

Theological and Missiological Implications of ‘MRI’ in the Digital Age: A Perspective from the Episcopal Church in Connecticut

Greg Farr, director of archives and records managements for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, investigates major adjustments to communications and Anglican identity in the Episcopal Church of Connecticut as shaped by the 1954 and 1963 Anglican Congresses in Minneapolis and Toronto.

Farr writes that, “The Church’s messaging and communications, which must reckon continually with its historical legacies and its core beliefs in the context of present-day realities, naturally demand ethical reflection. Such moral concern is indicative of how authentic religious faith interacts with the world. The 1963 Anglican Congress held in Toronto stands as an example of this kind of deliberation in its articulation of both the hopes and the challenges to Anglican faith applied in that historical context– the central outcome being the advancement of a gospel centered mission outreach program rooted in global mutual interdependence.”

MRI in Australia. ‘Miracle’ or ‘More Ruddy Interference?’

MRI failed in Australia, according to Paul Mitchell, even though nearly 90% of Australian dioceses were represented by 55 delegates at the Toronto Congress in 1963.

Mitchell explores eight reasons for this failure, including resistance to a centrally, directed Anglican Communion; fear of change; finances; and theological differences – especially from the Diocese of Sydney.

Mitchell has served in various dioceses in Australia since ordination in the Diocese of Adelaide in 1989. He is currently rector of St. John the Baptist, Bulimba, in the Diocese of Brisbane

The Death of Death: A Linguistic Devolution in Anglican Self-Understanding

“Why have the structures of the Communion not really developed in any demonstrative way since the Toronto Congress? Why have the catholic tendencies never really come to fruition?” asks Matthew S.C. Olver.

Olver examines the reasons for limited change to Anglican Communion structures, including prioritization of “autonomy” and provincial individualism over mutuality and self-sacrifice.

Olver is, executive director and publisher of The Living Church Foundation and senior lecturer in liturgics at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin.

The Ten Principles of Partnership in the Anglican Communion: an Expression of Commitment to Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence

This study explores ways dioceses have transitioned from western missionary Christianity into being indigenous churches, a transformative shift from paternalism to partnership, using experiences from the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and the Anglican Diocese of Botswana.

James N. Amanze and Leon P. Spencer describe the 1992 Ten Principles of Partnership in the Anglican Communion as “perhaps one of the most important but lesser-known documents emanating from the structures of the Anglican Communion.”

Amanze is canon theologian for the Diocese of Botswana and principal of St. Augustine Theological College.

Spencer has worked with companion links between the Dioceses of Alabama and Namibia in the 1980s and between the Diocese of North Carolina and Botswana since 2008. He is dean of studies at the Diocese of Nairobi’s theological college.

The Baas Boy Called Global South: A Misread of the Toronto Anglican Congress

James Tengatenga describes MRI and the 1963 Toronto Anglican Congress as envisioning the death of old ways and emergence of a new Anglican Communion “with no region exerting hegemonic control. In a word, it was the emergence of a decolonial Anglican Communion.”

The death of hegemony hasn’t quite happened, according to Tengatenga. He asserts that fragmentation within the Anglican Communion today is connected to an ironic situation in which new attempts to control have emerged from conservative American clergy attempting to make “Global South” leaders their mouthpiece. He describes the Global South within the Anglican Communion as a new theo-political grouping where “as much as there is a lot of South in it, the hegemony is Northern, and the tendency is schismatic.”

Tengatenga, a former Bishop of Southern Malawi, challenges the falsehood of a single voice in the Global South and describes ways that Africans who question conservative positions have “our African-ness questioned.”

Bishop James Tengatenga is the former diocesan leader of Southern Malawi and a distinguished professor of global Anglicanism at the School of Theology at the University of the South (Sewanee). He was a member of the Anglican Consultative Council from 2002-2016, where he served as chair from 2009.

The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church invites applications for grants to be awarded in July 2026. These grants support projects that advance the Society’s mission, particularly the preservation and dissemination of the history of the Episcopal Church, its Anglican heritage, and the churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Requests must be submitted no later than May 1, 2026, to be considered for this year’s awards.

General grant requests may be submitted by individuals, academic institutions, or church entities seeking financial assistance to support research and publication in Episcopal and Anglican history. Grants are available to facilitate travel for archival or other research, to defray the cost of research materials such as duplication or permissions, and to support public history initiatives.

Grant requests are not considered for stipends, equipment purchases, website creation, or digital storage.

Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the grants committee chair before submitting an application.

In recent years, grants have supported archival research, the publication of books and scholarly articles, public digital history projects, and conferences focused on church history. Awards typically range from $500 to $2,500, depending on the number of approved requests and the funding available.

For full guidelines and application details, visit hsec.us/grants.

The African American Episcopal Historical Collection (AAEHC) is a partnership of The Bishop Payne Library of Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) and the Historical Society of The Episcopal Church (HSEC).

AAEHC is now accepting applications for its 2026-2027 research travel grants, supporting scholars and researchers working with its unique archival collections. Travel reimbursement grants are open to faculty, students, independent researchers, clergy, and laypersons. Funds may be used for travel, lodging, meals, photocopying, and other research expenses.

Application deadline: May 1, 2026
Travel window: August 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027

In 2025-2026, the AAEHC awarded $8,400 to three grantees, supporting a range of projects, including welcoming its first international researcher from the Diocese of Tete in the Anglican Province of Mozambique and Angola.

AAEHC preserves vital materials documenting the histories of African American Episcopalians. Collection strengths include parish histories, clergy mentorship networks, the Union of Black Episcopalians, Bishop Payne Divinity School, and the contributions of significant African American Episcopal leaders.

"It is an extraordinary blessing to have access to the AAEHC's historic research and memorabilia of noted Black clergy and scholars. These collections add fullness to the rich and true history of our Church," said The Rev. Canon Betsy Smith Ivey (retired).

Learn more at vts.edu/AAEHC.

Download announcement here.

The winter issue of Anglican and Episcopal History features a range of church, exhibit, podcast, and book reviews helpful to scholars of church history. Reviews of current scholarship include:

Engaged History

The rich archival collections of General Theological Seminary in New York City are the focus of this issue’s engaged history, especially the popular spiritual direction program there that was founded in 1976.

In “Illuminating Buried History at the General Theological Seminary,” Melissa Chim chronicles the successes and challenges of publishing Living Archives: A History of the Center for Christian Spirituality (2022) with colleague Anne Silver. This includes ways Open Educational Resource (OER) can be a strategy to highlight collections using Creative Commons licenses.

Church Review

Church reviews provide readers a glimpse of divine services throughout the Anglican Communion, especially within the Episcopal Church. In this issue, readers get a glimpse of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Durango. The reviewer describes it as having a friendly congregation where the reviewer was “delighted” to sing – rather than say – the psalm. St. Mark’s is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado.

Immersive Concert Review

The concert “Secret Bird” by the Gesualdo Six is a “priority to experience” for “anyone with a passing interest in sacred music of the Tudor period” according to Kate Charles. The group’s tours have included performances at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. “Secret Bird” recreates covert Roman Catholic Mass settings by William Byrd (1540-1623). Charles encourages booking tickets for the 2026 tour writing “you won’t regret it.”

Podcast Review

Walking the Dogma hosted by David Hedges and Dominic Moore is “a fascinating new podcast on Anglican and Episcopal theology” according to reviewer Edward Rowlands. Rowlands praises it for its broad spectrum of historical knowledge, low and high church perspectives, friendly banter, and ability to make theological history interesting.

21 Book Reviews including:

• Daughters of Palestine: A Memoir in Five Generations by Leyla K. King | Reviewed by Brian J. Grieves of the Episcopal Church in Hawaii
• Mary of Nazareth: the Mother of Jesus as Remembered by the Earliest Christians by Christopher Bryan | Reviewed by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, editor-in-chief of Anglican & Episcopal History
• On Laudianism: Piety, Polemic, and Politics During the Personal Rule of Charles I by Peter Lake | Reviewed by Lora J. Walsh of the University of Arkansas
• The Oxford Movement and the People of God: Enslavement, Education, and Empire by Benjamin J. King | Reviewed by John D. Alexander
• Storied Witness: the Theology of Black Women Preachers in 19^th Century America by Kate Hanch | Reviewed by Sylvia Sweeney of Bloy House, Los Angeles
• Anglo-Catholicism and the Church of Ireland by Michael Yelton | Reviewed by Warren C. Platt of the Church of the Transfiguration, New York City
• George Herbert and Early Modern Musical Culture by Simon Jackson | Reviewed by Nancy Saultz Radloff

Anglican and Episcopal History is the peer-reviewed journal of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. It is published quarterly. For subscription information visit hsec.us/membership.

Historians explore the breadth of the Anglican Communion in the winter issue of Anglican and Episcopal History. The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church’s peer-reviewed journal has been expanding the depth and breadth of content over the last year. The winter issue includes five research articles including:

Afro-Centric Liturgical Music and Its Implementation at St. Philip’s Church, Harlem

An exploration of ways music, Episcopal liturgy, and African diasporic culture elements have been woven together at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Harlem, the second Black congregation of the Episcopal Church founded in 1809.

Carl Maultsby explores the evolution of liturgical practices at St. Philip’s with special attention to ways “music played a crucial role in both community outreach and worship.” Maultsby draws on sources like Langston Hughes’ 1934 poem “But Not at Saint Philips,” the influence of jazz talent Thomas A. Dorsey, and highlights the successive influence of St. Philip’s music leaders. Those leaders included William B. Cooper from 1953 to 1974, Eugene Wilson Hancock from 1974 to 1982, and Aaron Thorton who Maultsby recalls as the “most versatile and overall best musician in the second half of the twentieth century.”

Maultsby also chronicles ways Cooper heavily influenced the development of Lift Every Voice and Sing (LEVAS I), the first Episcopal hymnal focused on the Black experience. Maultsby is currently the director of music at St. Richard’s Episcopal Church in Winter Park, Florida, and formerly served as assistant organist at St. Philip’s, Harlem.

Anne Wheathill: Her Person and Her Prayer Book Reenvisioned

Thomas P. Mulvey Jr. challenges previous research related to early modern poet Anne Wheathill and her English devotional text A handful of holesome (though homelie) hearbs published in 1584.

Mulvey contends that focus on Wheathill’s literary qualities alone downplays her significance as an influential spiritual leader. His close examination of her 49 degendered collage psalm prayers leads to the conclusion that Wheathill was heavily influenced by the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer.

“Wheathill writes straightforwardly and mellifluently with the insight and maturity of an author who Is sensitive to the spiritual needs and reading capabilities of her imagined audience,” according to the author.

Mulvey is an independent scholar and priest in the Episcopal Church with research interests on late medieval and early modern piety in England and Northern Europe.

Anne Finch, countess of Winchilsea, and Nonjuror: The Power of Poetry in Time of Persecution

“Church historians overlooked Anne Finch’s (1661-1720) contributions to the English Nonjurors for two centuries,” according to John William Klein. He reminds readers that faith was an empowering space for early feminists like Finch.

Klein helps readers rediscover ways that Finch made important feminine contributions related to the social and aesthetic aspects of the English Nonjuror movement alongside male clerical leadership of the time. This included Finch’s hymn writing and socio-economic commentary.

“Anne Finch demonstrated a commitment to the dignity of women and to their place in the intellectual, artistic, and ecclesiastical community of England. Her work was profoundly valued within the community of Nonjurors and was admired by many in the establishment,” writes Klein.

Klein is a 1971 graduate of the Philadelphia Divinity School and a priest with 53 years of service in 9 parishes and 20 years as a US Army Chaplain.

Martyred Anglicans: the Persecution of the Nippon Sei Kō Kai and its Implications for Anglican Ecclesiology

Many Anglicans suffered during wartime persecution in Japan. Thomas Frances Caroe considers what lessons we might learn today from the wartime martyrdom of Paul Sasaki Shinji (1885-1946) and Sugai Todomu (1883-1947). Both men were leaders of Nippon Sei Kō Kai, the Anglican province in Japan.

Caroe writes that they were persecuted not as Christians, but specifically for their Anglican identity because the denomination had links to Japan’s military adversaries in the US and UK. Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang’s condemnation of Japan’s invasion of China in 1937 increased pressure on Anglicans in Japan.

“What Sasaki and Sugai gave their lives for was an episcopal church order that they believed to demonstrate the fundamental principle of Christian communion: an ultimate concern for personal relationships above norms, teachings, ideologies, or legalities,” writes Caroe. He suggests a powerful lesson can be learned from their commitment and wiliness to share life together, not as an institution, but as persons of faith willing to face challenges.

Caroe studied Japanese, music, and theology at the University of Oxford. He is currently an assistant curate in the Church of England.

“English Church Leaders and Travel to Rome in the Late Nineteenth Century” Episodes in Ecumenical Consciousness”

Jeremy Morris considers whether travel can broaden the religious mind. His study focuses on ways visiting Rome contributed to changing attitudes toward the Roman Catholic Church among senior Church of England clergy from 1800-1850s.

Morris investigates four case studies: Edward White Benson (1829-1896), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 to 1896; Randall Davidson (1848-1930), Archbishop from 1903 to 1928; Mandell Creighton (1843-1901), historian of the papacy and bishop of London from 1897 to1901; exceptionally long-lived Charles Wood (1839-1934), 2nd Viscount Halifax, long-time president of the (Anglo-Catholic) English Church Union.

Morris is a former Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a historian of modern Anglicanism and ecumenicism.

These studies along with exhibit and book reviews are available in the latest issue of AEH. Anglican & Episcopal History is the peer-reviewed journal of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. It is published quarterly. For subscription information visit hsec.us/membership.

The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church—an Affiliate Society of the American Historical Association—will host the session “Anglican Slavery in New Jersey: Reparations Work in the Diocese of New Jersey and the Episcopal Church” at the AHA Annual Meeting.

Session Details
Saturday, January 10, 2026
10:30 AM–12:00 PM
Wilson Room, Third Floor
Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois

Our presenters include:

• The Rev. Dr. Valerie Bailey, HSEC Board Member

• The Rev. Dr. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, Historiographer of The Episcopal Church

• Dr. Jolyon Pruszinski, Princeton University

The program will also highlight the work of the Historical Society and include time for questions and discussion. We welcome all who are interested to join us for this important and engaging session.

If you are interested in attending and are not a participant in the Annual Meeting, please contact the HSEC Director of Operations, Matthew Payne at mpayne@hsec.us.

All are invited to attend “Charting a Legacy: African Americans in the Episcopal Church, Past and Present” on January 10, 2026, sponsored by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church and presented at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, 3801 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. St. Thomas has the distinction of being the first Black Episcopal Church in Chicago, with a continuing mission “not to be just a strong Black parish, but a parish that is wholly Christian, reaching out to those in the surrounding community who need to see the manifestation of God’s love through his people.”

The program features multiple speakers with time allowed for questions and discussion.

• The Rev. Dr. Valerie Bailey, Chaplain at Williams College, is leading an effort to build a comprehensive timeline of African American history within the Episcopal Church.
• Member of the Anti-Racism Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.
• Dr. Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Princeton University, serves as Research Historian for the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey’s Reparations Commission.
• The Rev. Dr. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, Historiographer of The Episcopal Church, will moderate the program.

The program will take place Saturday, January 10, 2026 starting at 2:30 p.m. with light refreshments. The featured speakers start at 3:00 p.m. and the session ends at 5:00 p.m. with a short prayer service. In-person attendance is encouraged and there is no cost to attend. St. Thomas has ample street parking. The program will be recorded and shared publicly.

To help us prepare, please RSVP to administration@hsec.us.

The Historical Society is an Affiliate Member of the American Historical Association, which will hold its 139th Annual Meeting in Chicago. Dr. Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski will also be presenting at the AHA. If you are interested in attending the AHA session, contact Matthew Payne at mpayne@hsec.us.

Exhibit, podcast, church, and book reviews featured in the autumn 2025 issue of Anglican and Episcopal History (AEH) provide a range of insight helpful to scholars of church history. Highlights from the latest issue are included below.

ENGAGED HISTORY

Engaged History considers the “Walking Together Finding Common Ground Traveling Exhibit” in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. Leora L. Tadgerson describes it as an interactive educational installation about “the genocidal era of the Native American boarding schools from a Tribal perspective.” The project was developed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan through a collaboration of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, the Great Lakes Peace Center, and Northern Michigan University with a primary goal of deepening the understanding of the Native American experience.

Tadgerson’s overview is the latest example of Engaged History in AEH. These articles are an opportunity for churches, organizations, committees, schools, and other church-related institutions to report to the wider Anglican/Episcopal history community. Projects of the most interest to the journal are those whereby research initiates a change process informing the future identity, ministry, and mission of a church-related organization.

CHURCH REVIEWS

Two church Reviews take readers to services in different parts of the world. The first profile is a Sunday service at the Trinity Congregation in Shanghai, China. The congregation served a wide range of Protestant foreigners living in suburban Shanghai. The second article profiles worship at the Anglo-Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, a western Philadelphia suburb in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

PODCAST REVIEW

Edward Rolands reviews Episode #98 from the Episcopal Divinity School podcast series. The episode titled “the Church’s Role in Indian Residential Schools and a Path to Reconciliation" interviews Anton Treuer, professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University. Rowlands writes that, “Treuer’s interview is moving, insightful, and challenging to the listener.”

BOOK REVIEWS

The autumn issue of AEH features reviews of 24 books representing a wide range of Anglican and church history scholarship. Reviews include:

• Wakan Cekiye Odowan (The Dakota Hymnal) | Reviewed by Rachel Taber-Hamilton of Schackan First Nation
• James DeKoven: Biography of a Famous Yet Forgotten Man by John E. Magerus | Reviewed by Warren C. Platt of Church of the Transfiguration in New York City
• Abbeys and Priories of Britain by Stephen Platten | Reviewed by Brett Donham
• Amazing Grace: A Cultural History of the Beloved Hymn by James Walvin | Reviewed by Sister Mary Winifred
• The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism edited by Bernice M. Kaczynski | Reviewed by Severin V. Kitanov of Salem State University
• Freedom Seekers: Fugitive Slaves in North America 1800-1860 by Damian Alan Pargas | Reviewed by Christopher L. Webber
• Migration and the Making of Global Christianity by Jehu J. Hanciles | Reviewed by Carla E. Roland Guzmán of General Theological Seminary
• Religious Vitality in Victorian London by W.M. Jacob | Reviewed by Stephen Spender of the Anglican Communion Office
• Negotiating the Christian Past in China: Memory and Missions in Contemporary Xiamen by Jifeng Liu | Reviewed by Samuel J. Richards of the International School of Kenya
• Christians in the City of Hong Kong: Chinese Christianity in Asia’s World City by Tobias Brandner and Christians in the City of Shanghai: A History Resurrected Above the Sea by Susangeline Y. Patrick | Reviewed by John L. Kater of Ming Hua Theological College in Hong Kong

Anglican and Episcopal History is the peer-reviewed journal of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. It is published quarterly. For subscription information visit hsec.us/membership.

Prominent church historians explore Episcopalian ministries among Native Americans, Huguenot influences, and legacies of the Oxford Movement in the autumn issue of Anglican and Episcopal History (AEH).

In the lead article, Robert W. Prichard explores ways Episcopalians interacted with U.S. Government policy toward Native Americans following the Civil War. His study draws attention to high-profile Episcopalians who participated in U.S. President Ulysses Grant’s policies. These leaders included Minnesota diocesan bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822-1901), Philadelphia merchant William Welsh (c. 1810-1878), Pittsburgh railway director Felix R. Brunot (1820-1898), artist Vincent Colyer (1824-1888), and Grant’s Secretary to the Interior Columbus Delano (1809-1896).

Prichard concludes that, “Episcopalians provided significant leadership on the Board of Indian Commissioners.” He also notes that they differed from other Christian denominations in that, “Episcopalians were exceptionally willing to criticize government figures and even their own co-religionists.”

The article is titled “The Ministry of the Episcopal Church among Native Americans from the Grant Administration to the Early Twentieth Century.” Prichard is professor emeritus at the Virginia Theological Seminary and a past president of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.

Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, currently Historiographer of the Episcopal Church and editor-in-chief of AEH, then explores Anglo-Catholic influences among the Oneida in “The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity and the Wisconsin Oneida.”

Kujawa-Holbrook finds that the sisters “exercised their roles with compassion and commitment to alleviate human suffering. They were progressive for their time in recognizing the heritages, gifts, and dignity of the [Oneida] people.” However, she cautions readers that “It is difficult to assess the relationship between the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity and the Oneidas in binary terms. The relationship between the Oneida and the Episcopal Church must be considered within the context of five centuries of Indigenous-Christian encounters in the Americas.”

Anne Richter, a retired priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, traces the work and evangelism of Elias Neau (1662-1722), a sailor and merchant with connections to France, Saint-Dominque (modern Haiti), Boston, and New York City. Neau founded a school for enslaved persons in New York City in 1704. He constantly fought to be accepted as he faced criticism from white masters who disapproved of him teaching the enslaved and struggled with Anglican clergy who were skeptical of his Reformist roots.

Richter’s study is titled “Elias Neau’s School: Early Anglican Catechesis of Enslaved Africans in New York.”

Two studies explore themes related to the ministry of English Anglican theologian and Oxford Movement Leader Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882).

These are:

• “The ‘Reanimation Principle’ of Edward Bouverie Pusey: the Re-establishment of Monasticism in the Church of England” by Greg Peters, professor of medieval and spiritual theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary. Peters’ outlines Pusey’s steps for reanimating institutions of the primitive church, such as monasticism, that could improve the health of the church.
• “E. B. Pusey’s The Minor Prophets and the Devotional Reading of Holy Scripture” by Timothy Larsen, McManis Professor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College and President of the American Society of Church History. Larsen critiques earlier historical works by arguing Pusey embraced modern biblical criticism. He points to Pusey as a key theological voice for inclusion as part of a growing interest in Anglican interpretation of scripture. Larsen argues that Pusey’s “The Minor Prophets is a surprisingly neglected text that is ripe for study.”

The final study in the fall issue of AEH is “The Impact of Charles James Stewart upon Anglican Worship in the Diocese of Quebec, 1825-1835.” Paul Christianson, emeritus professor of history at Queen’s University, invites readers to discover the significant impact Stewart had on worship among Canadian Anglicans. Stewart was the second Anglican Bishop of Quebec from 1826 until 1837.

These studies along with reviews of exhibits, podcasts, and scholarly books are available in the latest issue of Anglican and Episcopal History. The journal 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 hsec.us/AEH.