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 A crucial
date for members of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America is
the consecration of the first Bishop of the Anglican Communion in the United
States. During the colonial era, there had been no Anglican bishops in the
New World; and persons seeking to be ordained as clergy had had to travel to
England for the purpose. After the achievement of American independence, it
was important for the Church in the United States to have its own bishops,
and an assembly of Connecticut clergy chose Samuel Seabury to go to England
and there seek to be consecrated as a bishop.
However, the English bishops were forbidden by law to consecrate anyone who
would not take an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. He accordingly
turned to the Episcopal Church of Scotland. When the Roman Catholic king
James II was deposed in 1688, some of the Anglican clergy (including some
who had been imprisoned by James for defying him on religious issues) said
that, having sworn allegiance to James as King, they could not during his
lifetime swear allegiance to the new monarchs William and Mary. Those who
took this position were known as non-Jurors (non-swearers), and they
included almost all the bishops and clergy of the Episcopal Church in
Scotland. Accordingly, the monarchs and Parliament declared that thenceforth
the official church in Scotland should be the Presbyterian Church. The
Episcopal Church of Scotland thereafter had no recognition by the
government, and for some time operated under serious legal disabilities.
However, since it had no connection with the government, it was free to
consecrate Seabury without government permission, and it did. This is why
you see a Cross of St. Andrew on the Episcopal Church flag.
In Aberdeen, 14 November 1784, Samuel Seabury was consecrated to the
Episcopate by the Bishop and the Bishop Coadjutor of Aberdeen and the Bishop
of Ross and Caithness. He thus became part of the unbroken chain of bishops
that links the Church today with the Church of the Apostles.
In return, he promised them that he would do his best to persuade the
American Church to use as its Prayer of Consecration (blessing of the bread
and wine at the Lord's Supper) the Scottish prayer, taken largely unchanged
from the 1549 Prayer Book, rather than the much shorter one in use in
England. The aforesaid prayer, adopted by the American Church with a few
modifications, has been widely regarded as one of the greatest treasures of
the Church in this country.
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