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HISTORY OF DURHAM PARISH
A Sketch Read at Durham Church, on Sunday,
August 7th, 1892
| We ought to esteem it a high
and holy privilege that God has cast our lot in that branch of His Divine Kingdom which is known in these United States as the Ameri- can Episcopal Church. We belong, not to any modern sect or society, but to one of the great historic Churches of Christendom --and the purest one of them all. This Church of ours traces her origin back, not to any uninspired man however famous, but back, through all the ages, to the Apos- tles of or Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Apostolic in her lineage, she is also primi- tive in her Faith and Order. Her Baptis- mal Creed is short and simple, consisting only of the Apostolic Symbol. She has, for her ministry, the Three Orders of Bish- ops, Priests, and Deacons, which have been in Christ's Church from the very begin- ning. Her worship is reverent and beau- tiful; her devotional system well adapted to make devout and intelligent Christians of those who are trained up under her sa- cred influences. Well writes the poet-bis- hop of Western New York: "I love the Church, the holy Church, |
The American Church is the
daughter of the Church of England, at once the larg- est, grandest, and most important religious body among English-Speaking Christians.* The Anglican Communion (altogether) had 275 Bishops, 30,000 Priests, and al- most 30,000,000, baptized adherents. + Her dioceses and missionary jurisdictions are found in every quarter of the globe. Never was the Church growing more rapidly than she is to-day, +++ and never was her influ- ence upon religious thought and life as far-reaching and beneficent. Looking over her past history, her present prospects, we can only exclaim, with thankful hearts, "What hath God Wrought." The First Church clergyman to visit |
| $ "Marvelous are the providences intertwined with the history of the (Anglican)
Church. It was painted by Apostolic men and numbered heroes like St. Patrick and St. Alban before the missionary Augustine came to Canterbury. Through all its history, it has been the Church of the English-Speaking race. The liturgy contains the purest English of any book except the English Bible which was translated by her sons...The venerable Hooker said "Our liturgy must be acknowledged as the singular work of the providence of God".....The Book of common Prayer has preserved for us Catholic faith and Catholic worship."-Bishop Whipple. + The religious statistics of the English-speaking race (as given in a recent issue of Whitaker's (London) Almanack) are as follows: Anglican Communion or Episcopalians, 28,500,000;Methodists, 18,250,000; Roman Catholics, 15,225,000; Presbyterians, 14,175,000; Baptists,9,000,000; Congregationalists, 6,000,000; Other religious sects, 11,000,000; Of no religion,15,000,000; Total, 117,175,000. ++There are persons who affect to believe that religion is dying out of the hearts of the people, but the religious statistics of our last Census do not confirm such an opinion. The population of the United States from 1880-1890 increased about 21 percent. During the same decade the percentage of increase of the larger religious bodies was as follows: Lutherans, (who increased largely by immigration from Europe) 67 percent; Episcopalians,55 percent; Baptists, 44; Presbyterians, 37; Congregationalists, 33;Methodists, 31; Roman Catholics, 15 percent. |