Report of Commemorative Services with the Sermons and Addresses at the Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885.Episcopal Church. Diocese of Connecticut
Religion
Report of Commemorative Services with the Sermons and Addresses at the Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885.
Episcopal Church. Diocese of Connecticut
Seabury, Samuel, 1729-1796
You have now heard, my dear brethren, the report of the pilgrims
whom you sent on a pilgrimage of love to that old city where our
succession begins. Visible memorials of all that came together in
Aberdeen in the first week of last month are before you or in your
thoughts. There is the Mitre which tells you of the transmitted
Episcopate; there hangs the Concordate which speaks to you of our
Communion-office. Across the water they have received the holy
Sacrament of the Body and the Blood from the Chalice and Paten
which you sent, and standing here you see this Pastoral Staff--
gifts the interchange of which attests that the pledges and the
gifts of that elder day are not forgotten, but live and will live
while time shall last. The dear old Church of Scotland! How it has
lived through trials deep and wearing and in the face of "dungeon,
fire, and sword!"
They have kept this day which we are keeping now and here, in
Aberdeen; they have kept it in London, in St. Paul's Cathedral,
where the Primate of all England was the preacher. So has the
triple, bond been--I will not say knit again, but--recognized
anew. So be it forever! I will only add what I said in Aberdeen to
the blessed Church of Scotland, having now in mind all the
national Churches of the English succession, as they are all one
in Christ: "Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within
thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will wish
thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I
will seek to do thee good."
The Bishop then proceeded with the Communion-service, announcing
that the offerings would be for the benefit of St. Thomas's
Church, Hartford, a memorial to Bishop Brownell, of whom he said
that the longer he lived the more he was impressed with the value
to the diocese of the long and faithful episcopate of his revered
predecessor. Bishop Williams was assisted in the service by the
Bishop of Massachusetts. In consecrating the elements a paten and
chalice were used which once belonged to Bishop Seabury and are
now the property of the Berkeley Divinity School; and for the
administration of the elements two patens were used which were
left by Bishop Seabury to St. James's Church, New London. The Rev.
Dr. Giesy of Norwich, and the Rev. Messrs. McCook, Buckingham, and
Nichols assisted in the administration, a large number of clergy
and laity receiving the Holy Sacrament. Bishop Williams gave the
benediction, holding his pastoral staff. At the close of the
service the clergy left the church, singing the old version of the
first part of the ninetieth psalm, beginning "O God, our help in
ages past."
After the service the clergy were entertained by the Churchwomen
of Hartford in the parish-rooms of Christ Church.
The following is a nearly complete list of the clergymen who were
present:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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