This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

208GRAFTON, CHARLES CHAPMAN18; “The American Council for Organic Union,” Churchman, 21 February 1920,12.B. ANB 8, 699–700; ECUS, 374; WWWA 1, 439.GRAFTON, CHARLES CHAPMAN (12 April 1830, Boston–30 August 1912,Fond du Lac, Wis.). Education: LL.B., Harvard Law School, 1853; studied theologyunder William R. Whittingham, Baltimore, 1853–55. Career: Curate, St.Paul’s Church, Baltimore, 1859–64; in England, 1865–72; rector, Church of theAdvent, Boston, 1872–88; bishop, diocese of Fond du Lac, 1889–1912.Charles C. Grafton, a bishop and prominent Anglo-Catholic leader, was bornin Boston in 1830. Influenced as a youth by William Croswell, the founding rectorof the Church of the Advent in Boston, Grafton decided after completing lawschool that he would pursue a career in the ordained ministry of the EpiscopalChurch. He went to Baltimore, where he read theology under the direction ofWilliam R. Whittingham,* the renowned high church bishop of Maryland. Followinghis ordination, Grafton served briefly as chaplain to a house of deaconessesin Maryland and then became a curate at St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore. Attractedby the idea of the religious life, he journeyed to England in 1865 to learn moreabout monasticism. While in England he served as chaplain of a hospital forcholera patients, worked as a priest in London’s impoverished East End, andhelped organize a successful preaching mission. After being introduced by EdwardB. Pusey, the Oxford movement leader, to the English priest R.M. Benson,he and Benson joined an Eton College tutor, S. W. O’Neill, to make their professionto the religious life. This event, which took place at Cowley, near Oxford,on December 27, 1866, marked the beginning of the Society of St. John theEvangelist (also known as the Cowley Fathers), the first permanent monastic orderfor men in the Episcopal Church.The vestry of the Church of the Advent in Boston invited the Cowley Fathersto take charge of their parish, and in 1872 Grafton became rector of the parishhe had known since boyhood. During his tenure, he increased the church’s membershipand oversaw the construction of its present Gothic revival edifice. In 1888he left the Church of the Advent, intending to preach missions, conduct retreats,and build up the Sisters of the Holy Nativity, the women’s religious order he hadfounded in Providence, Rhode Island. Later that year, however, he was electedbishop of the diocese of Fond du Lac in Wisconsin. After some delay caused byconcerns about his extreme Anglo-Catholic views, he was ordained bishop inApril 1889. As bishop, Grafton began with 20 vacant parishes and missions andonly 18 clergy. He not only significantly increased the number of parishes andpriests in his diocese but also improved diocesan finances, started schools, andraised money for Nashotah House, the Anglo-Catholic seminary in Wisconsin. Inaddition, he was eager to pursue ties with Orthodox Christianity, and he becamethe first Episcopal bishop to travel to Russia to meet with Orthodox churchleaders.