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HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWS

  • 27 Jul 2022 8:00 PM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church is pleased to announce the awarding of the Robert W. Prichard Prize to Dr. Jannelle Legg, an Assistant Professor in History at Gallaudet University. The Prize recognizes it as the best Ph.D., Th.D., or D.Phil. dissertation which considers the history of the Episcopal Church. It is named to honor the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard, longtime board member and president of the Society, noted historian and author in the discipline. The prize is awarded every three years. Applications are received and reviewed by a selection committee with a recipients determined by the Board of Directors.

    Legg’s dissertation, “With Eloquent Fingers He Preached: The Protestant Episcopal Mission To The Deaf,” was submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at George Mason University. It explores the emergence of the Church Mission to Deaf Mutes (later the Conference of Church Workers Among the Deaf) in the second half of the nineteenth century. Largely organized by and for deaf people, it formed a network of signing congregations across the United States. The Episcopal Church was the first denomination to offer signed worship services in a church for deaf people.

  • 27 Jul 2022 7:30 PM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church announced the awarding of $16,060 in grants to 12 recipients during the Annual Meeting July 27, 2022. The funds are provided to support significant research, publication and projects related to the history of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Over the past decade, the Historical Society has provided over $100,000 in grants to nearly 100 recipients.

    Applications are considered by the Grants and Research Committee and determined by the Historical Society’s Board of Directors. Recipients are encouraged to share their research and projects, especially in Anglican and Episcopal History, the peer-reviewed, quarterly journal of the Historical Society. Detail about the granting program may be found at hsec.us/grants.

    Grant recipients and their areas of research are:

    • Christy Baty – MA candidate at University of Nebraska at Kearney, to research the role of embroidered book bindings in women’s religious lives in early modern England.
    • Devin Burns – PhD candidate at Florida State University, to study the Confederate Episcopal Church and its relationship to the making of Lost Cause historiography.
    • Mongezi Guma – Canon, Anglican Church in South Africa, to research Sister Alberta Ngudle, a Religious Sister from Tsolo, who founded in 1919 an African female Religious Community of St. John the Baptist (CSJB).
    • Laura Hernandez-Ehrisman – Faculty member, Department of History, Austin Community College, to research the place of slavery and race relations in the history of St. David’s Episcopal Church, Austin.
    • Stephen Kapinde – Lecturer, Religion and Public Life, Pwani University, to investigate the long standing and ambiguous history of the Anglican Church and ex-slave’s descendants at Frere Town in Kenya.
    • Simon Lewis – independent scholar, to study doctrinal debate in the early-eighteenth century Church of Ireland, focusing on the contributions made by the clergyman Edward Nicholson.
    • Donn Mitchell – independent scholar, for research on Frances Perkins and the religious dimension of the New Deal by placing it within the context of the Episcopal Church’s role in social mission.
    • Daphne Noyes – independent scholar, to continue her research on the life of Adeline Blanchard Tyler (1805-1875), the first deaconess in the Episcopal Church.
    • Donna Ray – Senior Lecturer in History and Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, to research the voices of laywomen, especially their “soft power,” in shaping the Episcopal Church in the American Deep South.
    • Bart Segu – PhD candidate in systematic theology, St. Paul’s University, Kenya, to study the influence of liberation theology upon John Henry Okullu and his pursuit for social justice in Kenya.
    • Diocese of Mississippi –  to digitize five audio cassettes and thirty-three VHS tapes, 1975-2003, which will include sharing the stories online through the diocesan website.
    • Diocese of Milwaukee –for the collection and dissemination of oral histories of the Milwaukee Diocese of the Episcopal Church.
  • 15 Jun 2022 12:30 PM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    Three articles on the history of the Lambeth Conference are featured in the June 2022 issue of Anglican and Episcopal History. The quarterly journal is published by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. The articles are publicly available at hsec.us/Lambeth. This open source access is designed to enhance knowledge of historical perspective to the 15th Lambeth Conference being convened at the end of July 2022 by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

    “Our three authors provide different perspectives on what the Lambeth Conference was to help inform what it is “ noted AEH Editor, Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook. “The writing is well researched and peer reviewed to meet standards of scholarship. Even so, one doesn’t need to be a scholar to enjoy the perspectives presented.” Kujawa-Holbrook began planning a themed issue over a year ago and intended to “make it available beyond our members. We want anyone who wants to be able to read them to have access. We hope they provide a service to the Church as it grapples with the issues of mission in the world today.”

    “‘You Share Our History’: Historiography of the Lambeth Conference” is the lead article by Benjamin Guyer, a history and philosophy lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Martin and contributing editor for the issue. Guyer examines changing interpretations of the Lambeth Conference among historians since 1867.

     “Archbishop Michael Ramsey and the Lambeth Conference,” is by Peter Webster, an independent scholar of contemporary British religious history. Webster considers the relationship between the 1968 Lambeth Conference and Michael Ramsey’s tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury.

    “Anglicanism, the Lambeth Conferences, and International Relations in the Twentieth Century,” is by Andrew Chandler, a professor of modern history at the University of Chichester. He notes that historians have seldom emphasized discussions of international relations at Lambeth Conferences and identifies a number of recurring approaches to global politics.

    Anglican and Episcopal History, formerly The Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, is a peer-reviewed journal that seeks to raise the level of discussion, provide a forum for exchange of ideas, and review books of worth and interest to educated Anglicans. It is published quarterly and provided as a benefit to members of the Historical Society and educational institutions. Visit hsec.us/AEH.

    For over a century the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church has been an association dedicated to preserving and disseminating information about the history of the Episcopal Church and its Anglican heritage. Founded in 1910 as the Church Historical Society, its members include scholars, writers, teachers, ministers (lay and ordained) and others who have an interest in the objectives and activities of the Historical Society.

  • 1 Mar 2022 12:00 AM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    Church historians investigate poetry, tables and altars, ritualism, and the development of Spanish-speaking ministries in Central America in the March issue of Anglican and Episcopal History.

    In the lead study “Altar of Print, Altars of Stone”, Jarrell D. Wright, a literature instructor at the University of Pittsburgh, examines “The Altar” and other poems in English poet George Herbert’s (1593-1633) collection The Temple.

    Wright views Herbert’s legacy as the exemplar English parson as prompting endless debates as to where his writings belong on the continuum of English reformed belief and praxis. Wright offers a new view as to Herbert’s place on that continuum.

    The Rev. Warren C. Platt then explores the development of ritualism in “St. Alban’s Church in New York City: the First Avowedly Ritualistic Church in the United States.”

    Platt’s work examines the transformation of Church of Intercessor into St. Alban’s in 1865 as it became a beacon of liturgical ritualism in the Diocese of New York including use of liturgical vestments, elaborate processions, and celebrations of High Mass.

    In the final study of the March issue, the Rev. John Rawlinson investigates the development of Spanish-language ministries by Episcopalians in Central America.

    Rawlinson’s “Literature for the Latino Church: An Episcopal Translation Project” examines the success of a center established in San Jose, Costa Rica, for translation and publication of books and tracts in Spanish established by the 1963 General Convention.

    Rawlinson, a bilingual priest who currently serves as archivist for the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, describes long-time missionary Carman St. John Wolff (1923-2000) as a driving force for the project. He identifies confusing governance models, financial challenges, and limited staffing as ongoing challenges for the project. Rawlinson concludes, “The national staff of the Episcopal Church began the Centro with good intentions, but without realistic expectations.”

    AEH also includes 2 church reviews and 24 book reviews. Among the book reviews, readers will find:

    • Stonewall Jackson, Beresford Hope, and the Meaning of the American Civil War in Britain by Michael J. Turner | reviewed by Benjamin J. King of Sewanee: The University of the South
    • Saving Fear in Christian Spirituality edited by Ann W. Astell | reviewed by Molly James of the Episcopal Church Center
    • The Missionary and the Maharajahs: Cecil Tyndale-Biscoe and the Making of Modern Kashmir by Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe | Reviewed by C. Brad Faught of Tyndale University
    • Welfare and Waves: Calvinists and Charismatic in the Church of England by Peter Herriot | Reviewed by Justus D. Doenecke of New College of Florida
    • Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church by Michael J. Kruger | reviewed by Valerie Abrahamsen of Brattleboro, Vermont
    • The Colonial Records of Kings Chapel 1686-1776, vol. 2 edited by James B Bell and James E. Mooney | reviewed by Joan Gunderson of California State University San Marcos

    AEH is a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. Active members are able to access each issue digitally. Join here.

  • 1 Feb 2022 12:30 AM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    Grants LogoThe Historical Society of the Episcopal Church invites applications for grants for research and projects which promote the preservation of the particular heritage of the Episcopal Church and its antecedents. Applications must be submitted by May 1st with awards announced in July.

    Regular Grants

    Applications for a regular grant may be from individuals as well as academic and ecclesiastical groups. Requests may as to support significant research, conferences, and publication relating to the history of the Episcopal Church as well as the Anglican church in the worldwide Anglican Communion. A typical request may include funding for travel to visit an archives or other resource, dissertation research, seed money or support for a larger project. Examples of past awards include support of documentary films, dissertation research, publication of books and articles, and history conference support. Awards are generally $500-$2,000, depending on the number of awards approved and funds available.

    Robert W. Prichard Prize

    The triennial Robert W. Prichard Prize is offered in 2022. It recognizes the best Ph.D., Th.D., or D.Phil. dissertation which considers the history of the Episcopal Church (including 17th and 18th century British colonies that became the United States) as well as the Anglican church in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The prize is named to honor the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard, a noted historian and author in the discipline who was a longtime member and President of the Historical Society Board.

    Applicants may submit a dissertation for consideration successfully defended between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2021. It may be submitted by the author or on their behalf. The dissertation need not focus solely, or even principally, on the history of the Episcopal Church or Anglicanism. The selection committee welcomes dissertations which place that history in conjunction with other strands of church history, or even place it in dialogue with non-ecclesial themes of American history. The Episcopal or Anglican element of the work should be a constitutive, not peripheral, part of the dissertation. Submissions should be a full electronic version of the dissertation, complete with all scholarly apparatus. The recipient will receive a $2,000 prize and be a guest of the Historical Society to receive the award.

    For details including application instruction and information, visit hsec.us/grants.

  • 22 Jan 2022 9:15 PM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    Anglican and Episcopal History CoverEpiscopal historians’ winter issue of Anglican and Episcopal History examines ways plays and prayers both confirmed and subverted order in England and Southern Africa.

    The winter issue includes 2 peer-reviewed studies, 2 church reviews, 23 book reviews, and 2022 annual reports from the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.

    In “Staging Reformation: John Bale and the Performance of Protestantism”, Alexandra Whitley examines the work of Carmelite friar turned playwright and Protestant preacher John Bale (1495-1563).

    Whitely analyzes multiple plays, including King Johan (ca. 1538) and Three Laws (1548), to show ways Bale subverted the traditional English morality play that was closely aligned to Roman Catholic practice in order to promote Protestantism.

    As she notes, “Theater occupied a provocative place in the early years of the Reformation, and the English monarchy clearly understood just how dangerous, or valuable, it could be.”

    Whitley is a third-year Ph.D. student in history at Louisiana State University.

    A second study asks, “How has the prayer book responded to African contexts, and how did these impact the text?”

    The Rev. Henry Mbaya writes, “The symbolic role of the prayer book as a focus of unity in the Anglican Communion was a decisive issue at the first Lambeth Conference in 1867. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer in English determined the borders of Anglicanism and was considered the litmus test of Anglican identity.”

    Mbaya, an Anglican priest and associate professor of church history at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, critiques reasons offered by scholars for not engaging in radical adaptation of prayer book liturgy in Southern Africa between 1749 and 1989. He applies the concept of invented tradition while investigating prayer book changes as the “English Church” adjusted to new contexts.

    Examples used in this study include acclimating to the amaXhosa and Zulu, the Gray-Colenso dispute that led to the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, rain prayers, circumcision, and apartheid. Ultimately, Mbaya contends that the prayer book was used to reinforce power structures but also became a tool for Africans to subvert European rule because “It had been ‘owned’ by Blacks and used for purposes never intended by the missionaries.”

    Church review editor J. Barrington Bates then provides a glimpse of worship services at Church of the Nativity in Boyne City, a small town and popular summer destination on the shores of Lake Charlevoix in the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan. A second review features Advent at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, in the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

    As always, AEH boasts numerous book reviews related to recent church history and Anglican scholarship. Among them:

    • Roy G. Pollina’s Justified by Her Children: Deeds of Courage Confronting a Tradition of Racism examining ministry at Christ Episcopal Church in Martinsville, Virginia | Reviewed by John L. Kater of Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Ming Hua Theological College in Hong Kong
    • Francis Young’s A History of Anglican Exorcism: Deliverance and Demonology in Church Ritual | Reviewed by Tanner J. Moore of Purdue University
    • Mischa Honeck’s Our Frontier is the World: The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy | Reviewed by J. Douglas Ousley
    • Hilary M. Carey’s Empire of Hell: Religion and the Campaign to End Convict Transportation in the British Empire, 1788-1875 | Reviewed by C. Brad Fraught of Tyndale University
    • ·Incarnating Authority: A Critical Account of Authority in the Church edited by Paul Avis et al | Reviewed by Christopher L. Webber
    • Nancy Saultz Radloff reviews Martin Luther as He lived and Breathed by Robert Kolm and Luther and the Jews by Richard S. Harvey
    • Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ Christ the Heart of Creation | Reviewed by David Neal Greenwood of the University of St. Andrews

    About Anglican and Episcopal History Anglican and Episcopal History seeks to raise the level of discussion, provide a forum for exchange of ideas, and review books of real worth and of interest to educated Anglicans. It is published quarterly. Full text articles are available through JSTOR.org and for members of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church at https://hsec.us/AEH.

  • 21 Oct 2021 6:53 PM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    Anglican and Episcopal History CoverThe latest quarterly issue of Anglican and Episcopal History is now available featuring 2 peer-reviewed studies, 3 church reviews, and 23 book reviews.

    The latest issue is the first to be published under newly appointed editor Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, who serves as vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Claremont School of Theology.

    The lead study by Dr. Alexander Pavuk examines the “ecumenical dance” between the Orthodox Church of Greece and The Episcopal Church hosted at General Theological Seminary in New York City during the waning days of World War I in 1918.

    Pavuk, an associate professor of history at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, draws attention to the mix of Progressive political agendas, ecumenism, and ethno-political Hellenism. His study is titled “What Has Athens to do with New York? Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Meletios Metaxakis and the 1918 Conference on Unity with the American Episcopal Church.”

    A second study, “The Assyrian Reliefs at Virginia Theological Seminary: A History of Decisions,” takes readers to Seminary Hill.

    Using extant textual records, co-authors Amanda P. Bourne and Melody D. Knowles offer a detailed account of decisions made regarding the famed Assyrian reliefs from their time of arrival at Seminary Hill in 1859 until VTS seminary trustees decided to sell one of the two reliefs in October 2018 for a record-setting $31 million.

    The authors acknowledge, “Articles that examine the decisions around acquiring and deaccessioning artifacts are rare, and there are many reasons why they are not written or published. The minefields in writing about an institution’s decisions around ancient artifacts are abundant since the assumptions behind key terms are often at odds.”

    Bourne and Knowles are members of the VTS community. The Rev. Bourne is an alumna who currently serves as curate in the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina while the Rev. Dr. Knowles is vice president of academic affairs at VTS.

    Church review editor J. Barrington Bates then concludes an AEH series examining pandemic-era worship with a Corpus Christi service at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, part of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

    Other church reviews include “A New Day for Pennsylvania Lutherans” inviting readers to the inaugural graduation at newly formed United Lutheran Seminary. Worship in the context of graduation allows readers to see how two one-time rival institutions located in Gettysburg and Philadelphia are forging a future together.

    A final church review provides a glimpse of cultural synthesis with multi-lingual readings, poetry, and soulful African-American spirituals during Pentecost at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Geneva, Switzerland, part of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe.

    As always, AEH boasts numerous book reviews related to recent church history and Anglican scholarship. Among them:

    • Twentieth Century Anglican Theologians: From Evelyn Underhill to Esther Momboedited by Stephen Burns, Bryan Cones, and James Tengatenga | reviewed by Kujawa-Holbrook
    • How the Choir Converted the World: Through Hymns, With Hymns and In Hymns by Mike Aquilina | reviewed by Nancy Saultz Radloff
    • Who is an Evangelical? The History of a Movement in Crisis by Thomas Kidd | reviewed by Benjamin M. Guyer of the University of Tennessee at Martin
    • Soul Liberty: The Evolution of Black Religious Politics in Post-emancipation Virginiaby Nicole Myers Turner | reviewed by Glen Bowman of Elizabeth City State University
    • Heeding the Call: A Study of Denise Giardina’s Novels by William Jolliff | reviewed by Samuel J. Richards of Shanghai American School
    • The Christian Academic in Higher Education: The Consecration of Learning by John Sullivan | reviewed by Justus D. Doenecke of New College of Florida

    About Anglican and Episcopal History Anglican and Episcopal History seeks to raise the level of discussion, provide a forum for exchange of ideas, and review books of real worth and of interest to educated Anglicans. It is published quarterly. Full text articles are available through JSTOR.org and for members of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church at https://hsec.us/AEH.

  • 2 Aug 2021 9:35 PM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    Dr. Ed BondDuring the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Dr. Robyn M. Neville, President, honored the work of Dr. Ed Bond as Editor-in Chief of Anglican and Episcopal History, the journal of the Society. Below is the citation presented.


    Citation in honor of the work of Dr. Ed Bond

    Dr. Bond came to the editorship of Anglican and Episcopal History as a seasoned scholar.  He received he B.A. in religion from the College of William and Mary; an M.A. from the University of Chicago; and a Ph.D. in history from Louisiana State University.  His scholarly work is significant and wide-ranging.  He has published works on colonial Virginia, including Damned Souls in a Tobacco Colony: Religion in Seventeenth-century Virginia and Spreading the Gospel in Colonial Virginia, comprising two volumes dedicated to preaching and sermons in the Old Dominion. He also lent his expertise to local history publishing a book on the history of St. James Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge Louisiana, as well as co-authoring, with Joan Gunderson, a volume on the history of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, which commemorated the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth.  As a teacher, Dr. Bond served as professor of history at Alabama A&M University and as a Visiting Professor of Church History of the School of Theology at the University of the South. 

    In 2006 the Board of the Historical Society approved the appointment of Dr. Bond as the editor of Anglican and Episcopal History.  The Society’s minutes reflect (then) President Fredrica Harris Thompsett noting that “Dr. Bond will in June 2007 succeed the longtime editor, the Rev. Dr. John F. Woolverton upon his retirement.”  Since his first number of the Journal in September 2007, Dr. Bond admirably served as the John F. Woolverton Editor of Anglican and Episcopal History for the next 56 numbers, totaling 14 years of service. Under his capable leadership, the journal maintained excellent scholarship with an international scope including authors hailing from every continent of the globe (except Antarctica).  Dr. Bond also supervised the transition of the journal to the twenty-first century, supporting the changeover to an electronic format for members and various subscription services, which vastly expanded the accessibility and readership of AEH. Dr. Bond, in recent years, also forged a strong working relationship with the Board’s Publications Committee, whose chair remembers gratefully regular dinner meetings and fellowship in Richmond, while Dr. Bond worked with his newest co-author on their latest book project about the Episcopal Church in Virginia.

    Such career accomplishments are worthy indeed of praise, but the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church also recognizes that Dr. Bond’s efforts were not for his own sake alone but for the greater service of the Church.  To this end, Dr. Bond’s service furthered the mission of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church by promoting “the preservation of the particular heritage of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and its antecedents in order that the Church may be served in its mission of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen, and in its servanthood in the world.”  For this, Dr. Bond has the thanks of the Publications Committee, the Board, this president, and the membership of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.

    We have come to understand that Dr. Bond collects vintage cufflinks. We present to Dr. Bond, as a token of our esteem and gratitude, this pair of vintage Soviet-era Amazonite cufflinks.

    Vintage Soviet-era Amazonite cufflinks In my own undergraduate years at the College of William and Mary, I double-majored in both Religious Studies and Geology. It might interest Dr. Bond to know that potassium feldspar, which is what Amazonite is (in the "microcline" family of potassium feldspars), actually has a storied history. It was used by the Egyptians in funerary decorations (on King Tut's funeral mask, for example), and by Amazon peoples in religious rituals (although what those rituals entailed, we simply don't know). The cufflinks as they appear here have a number of Albite inclusions (those are the white, wavy-looking strata that appear in alternating patterns), which would have seeped in during the process of igneous formation. Igneous minerals form in the Earth's crust out of the dual processes of both pressure and time. It seems to me that both historians and editors operate under analogous processes of pressure and time, with demonstrably beautiful results.

    We are grateful to Dr. Bond for his dedicated service, witness, and sense of Christian mission. I invite us now to bow our heads for a prayer in thanksgiving of Dr. Bond’s work as editor, a ministry that he has imbued with his own personal style and expertise.

    The Lord be with you.

    And also with you.

    Let us pray.

    We give thanks to you, O Lord our God, for all your servants and witnesses of time past: for Abraham, the father of believers, and Sarah his wife; for Moses, the lawgiver, and Aaron, the priest; for Miriam and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, and Samuel with Hannah his mother; for Isaiah and all the prophets; for Mary, the mother of our Lord; for Peter and Paul and all the apostles; for Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene; for Stephen, the first martyr, and all the martyrs and saints in every age and in every land. In your mercy, O Lord our God, give us, as you gave to them, the hope of salvation and the promise of eternal life; and we ask especially for your continued blessings on our colleague, Ed Bond, in gratitude for his ministry and service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, the first-born of all who serve the Kingdom through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.


  • 31 Jul 2021 7:53 PM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church awarded grants to 8 recipients in 2021 to support significant research, publications and projects related to the history of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Recipients are encouraged to publish, when appropriate, in Anglican and Episcopal History, the quarterly journal of the Historical Society. Applications for consideration were reviewed by the Grants Committee with final awards determined by the Board of Directors at their meeting in June. $13,000 was available for grants in the 2021 budget.

    The Rev. Dr. Robert Tobin, Chair of the Grants Committee, announced recipients from applications received.

    • Sade Oluwakemi Ayeni, MA candidate at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, to pursue fieldwork in Akokoland, as part of her research into the role of women in the growth and development of the Anglican Diocese of Akoko, 1983–2019.

    • Mary Báthory Vidaver, PhD candidate at the University of Mississippi, to pursue archival research at libraries in northern Virginia and at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, as part of her investigation into the role of the Social Gospel among southern white middle-class activists during the first half of the twentieth century.
    • Graydon Dennison, PhD candidate at Temple University, to study the archives of Episcopal missionaries at the Episcopal Archives in Austin as part of his inquiry into how U.S. citizens treated not just the Canal Zone but the entirety of the Panamanian Republic as a colonial space during the period 1912–1936.·
    • Daniel Emoru, PhD candidate at North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa, to fund completion of his doctoral thesis examining the impact of Anglican Christianity on the cultural beliefs and practices of the Iteso people of Western Kenya.
    • Clayton Koppes, retired professor of history at Oberlin College, Ohio, to examine the archives of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition, housed at the Episcopal Archives, Austin, as part of a book-length project on religious groups’ involvement in the AIDS crisis.
    • The Living Church, for the purchase of a flatbed scanner and part of the stipend of a summer intern, in support of the publication’s continuing digitization project.
    • Jessica Simmons, MA candidate at Oklahoma State University, to examine the Papers of Bishop William Hobart Hare, located at the Episcopal Archives, Austin, as part of her investigation into the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Indigenous nations living in the Dakotas between 1875–1920.
    • Heather White, assistant professor of Religion and Queer Studies at the University of Puget Sound, to study the archives of William Stringfellow, located at Cornell University, as part of a book-length project on the role of Episcopalians in early gay organizing in New York City, 1945–1980.

    Additional details may be found at hsec.us/grants.

  • 30 Jul 2021 8:26 PM | HSEC Director of Operations (Administrator)

    The Rev. Dr. Alan HayesThe Historical Society of the Episcopal Church is pleased to announce the Rev. Dr. Alan Hayes as recipient of the 2021 Nelson R. Burr Prize. Hayes is the Bishops Frederick and Heber Wilkinson Professor of the History of Christianity, Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. A priest in the Anglican Diocese of Niagara, Canada, he earned a B.A. from Pomona College, a B.D. and a Ph.D. from McGill University.

    Dr. Hayes is honored for his article “The Elusive Goal: The Commitment to Indigenous Self-Determination in the Anglican Church of Canada, 1967-2020,” published in the September 2020 issue of Anglican and Episcopal History (Volume 89, No. 3), where he argues “…colonial assumptions and structures have proven tenacious, and that, although Indigenous self-determination is consistent with historical patterns of Christian mission and organization, the theological, constitutional, and financial obstacles to decolonization have defied solution.” Models which could better promote indigenous self-determination within the Anglican Church of Canada are explored.

    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 selection committee of the Historical Society determines an author of the most outstanding article in the Society's journal. The award also honors that which best exemplifies excellence and innovative scholarship in the field of Anglican and Episcopal history.

    The Burr selection committee also decided two other articles that merit recognition for excellent and timely scholarship. Samuel J. Richards’ “Historical Revision in Church: Re-examining the ‘Saint’ Edward Colston,” published in the September 2020 issue, investigates the legacy of a philanthropist, enslaver, and High Anglican who lived from 1636 to 1721. David M. Goldberg’s “Drink Ye All of This: The Episcopal Church and the Temperance Movement,” published in the March 2020 issue examines the Episcopal Church’s approach to the temperance movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

    Each article is available as a PDF by clicking the title.

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