This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGES 89national denomination that, unlike the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, andLutherans, was not officially divided on either sectional or ethnic lines; it wassolidly established in cities; its membership included a disproportionately highnumber of the nation’s corporate and governmental leaders; it upheld a traditional,though not theologically rigid faith; and its polity, democratic as well as hierarchical,reflected both ancient and modern sensibilities.Although a few Episcopalians advanced proposals touting American Protestantunity prior to the Civil War (e.g., William Augustus Muhlenberg’s 1853 memorial),the most noteworthy contribution was advanced by William Reed Huntingtonlater in the century. Then rector of a parish in Worcester, Massachusetts,Huntington preached to his congregation in January 1870 about the ecumenicalstrategy he thought Episcopalians should adopt. According to Huntington, Anglicanbeliefs could be reduced to four key tenets: (1) the Old and New Testamentsas the church’s authoritative scriptures; (2) the primitive creeds (Apostles’ andNicene) as the church’s rule of faith; (3) the two sacraments (baptism and theEucharist) ordained by Jesus himself as the essential acts of Christian worship;and (4) the episcopate as the cornerstone of church government. To be successfulin conversations with other denominations, Episcopalians needed to emphasizethese central elements of the Anglican tradition. Huntington hoped that his “quadrilateral”would not only avoid the complexities of such Reformation statementsas the Thirty-nine Articles, the Augsburg Confession, and the Westminster Confessionbut also appeal to many liberal-minded Roman Catholics in the UnitedStates. 16Writing in the optimistic spirit that inspired many Americans in the northernstates immediately after the Civil War, Huntington stated that national unity—ecclesiastical as well as political—was both desirable and achievable. He elaboratedfurther on his theological and social views in his two major works, TheChurch-Idea: An Essay towards Unity (1870) and A National Church (1898).Huntington did not think that either Roman Catholicism or Protestantism wascapable of embodying the full richness of Christianity. While he admitted that allChristians were unlikely to be subsumed into one already existing religious organization,he still believed that the Episcopal Church represented the most effectivemeans of unity. It not only embodied the fundamentals of Christian faithand practice but also, unlike Roman Catholicism, was racially and ethnicallypure—the “Church of the Anglo-Saxon . . . a plant of hardy growth, . . . true assteel.” 17 Because of these theological and cultural advantages, Huntington arguedthat his denomination had a critical role to play in shaping the country’s moralcharacter. He also encouraged Episcopalians to think of themselves as the de facto“national church” or “Church of America”—a hegemonic vision eventually incarnatedin the construction of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., at thebeginning of the twentieth century. 18As a result of Huntington’s efforts, the House of Bishops of the EpiscopalChurch officially adopted his four principles of church unity at the meeting ofthe 1886 General Convention in Chicago. In their statement, the bishops ex-