Origin from 1784
The Church of England had been the established church of several American colonies before 1776, but the Revolution stripped that status away outright: an American church could no longer pray for the British crown it had just rebelled against, and every state that had established it disestablished it within a generation. Samuel Seabury, elected bishop of Connecticut in 1783, found he could not be consecrated by English bishops at all, since as an American citizen he could not swear the oath of allegiance to the crown the Church of England required. He turned instead to the non-juring Scottish Episcopal Church, which had no such obligation, and was consecrated at Aberdeen on 14 November 1784 by three of its bishops. With Seabury and the Pennsylvania bishop William White, the American church organised itself at the General Convention of 1789, adopting its own constitution and Book of Common Prayer as a fully autonomous, self-governing Protestant Episcopal Church, no longer established by any state and no longer dependent on the Church of England for its own bishops.
Facts
Dates
Start Year1784 is Samuel Seabury's consecration at Aberdeen by non-juring Scottish bishops, after the Church of England refused him for want of an oath he could not swear as an American citizen; the loss of colonial Anglicanism's established status had already begun with the 1776 Revolution itself. End Year1789 is the General Convention that unified the American dioceses under a single constitution and Book of Common Prayer as an autonomous, self-governing church. Learn More
How the Episcopal Church Separated from the Church of England
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The Church of England had been the established church of several American colonies before 1776, but the Revolution stripped that status away outright: a church whose liturgy prayed for the British crown could not go on doing so once its own members had rebelled against that crown, and every state that had established it disestablished it within a generation. Samuel Seabury, elected bishop of Connecticut in 1783, ran straight into the resulting difficulty. English bishops could not consecrate him at all, because as an American citizen he could not swear the oath of allegiance to the crown that an English consecration required of him.
Seabury turned instead to the non-juring Scottish Episcopal Church, a body with no such crown allegiance to demand, and was consecrated at Aberdeen on 14 November 1784 by three of its bishops, giving the American church its first bishop by a route that owed nothing to Canterbury. With Seabury and the Pennsylvania bishop William White both now in place, the American church organised itself formally at the General Convention of 1789, adopting its own constitution and its own Book of Common Prayer.
What this changed for Christianity's spread was the creation of a fully autonomous, self governing Protestant Episcopal Church, established by no state and no longer dependent on the Church of England even for its own bishops. Seabury's unconventional consecration in Scotland solved, at a stroke, the very problem that had prevented an American Anglican church from having any bishop of its own at all.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Church of England directly: "The Church of England had been the established church of several American colonies before 1776, but the Revolution stripped that status away outright: an American church could no longer pray for the..."
Occurred In
Seabury's own consecration took place at Aberdeen, Scotland, but the disestablishment and refounding this event describes is the American church's own; anchored to the United States.
Spread Event Of
The disestablishment and refounding is as much a part of Anglicanism's own spread history as any arrival, and this atlas records it exactly that plainly.
Sources
1. The Episcopalians
David Hein and Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr., Church Publishing, 2004
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