Yet With a Steady Beat: The African American Struggle for Recognition in the Episcopal Church

Rating:
Summary: Jim Crow Among the Episcopalians
Review: This is the story of two denominations in one; separate but a little more equal than our society in general was during most of the same time period. The African-American church can be said to have had its beginning in Philadelphia in 1787 when black parishioners were expelled from St. George's Methodist Church. The two leaders of the group then went in opposing directions: Richard Allen became the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Absalom Jones went to the Protestant Episcopal Church and started a parish for blacks, St. Thomas'. St. Thomas' Church then spent the next 82 years unrepresented in the councils of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. This fact effectively sums up the condition of the black church prior to the Civil War. The Episcopal Church takes pride in saying that it was the only major denomination which did not split over the slavery question, but the other denominations that did, the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist, were no more racist in their conduct when those divisions turned out to be permanent following the war. The Episcopal Church considered two options in seeking to answer the question of what to do about the freedmen: should they be ministered to by the Church, or recolonized back to Africa? When the latter course was deemed impractical and the former adopted, two further options presented themselves: should blacks be integrated into existing church structures or provided with their own segregated facilities? Of course segregation prevailed, and until the 1960's blacks occupied the anomalous position of being a mission field right here at home. The first black bishop to oversee his own people was elected in 1918; the first to have jurisdiction over white churches as well came in 1962. Lewis writes with a generally equitable balance between praise for the work of the Episcopal Church (he is an African-American Episcopal rector) and recognition of guilt for past abuses. It is regrettable that he has virtually nothing to say about the Reformed Episcopal Church's rescue of the former slaves of South Carolina who were ejected from white Episcopal parishes and refused organization or ordination for work among themselves by the parent Church. Nonetheless, for those interested in the African-American religious odyssey, this is a worthwhile book.

Rating:
Summary: Jim Crow Among the Episcopalians
Review: This is the story of two denominations in one; separate but a little more equal than our society in general was during most of the same time period. The African-American church can be said to have had its beginning in Philadelphia in 1787 when black parishioners were expelled from St. George's Methodist Church. The two leaders of the group then went in opposing directions: Richard Allen became the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Absalom Jones went to the Protestant Episcopal Church and started a parish for blacks, St. Thomas'. St. Thomas' Church then spent the next 82 years unrepresented in the councils of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. This fact effectively sums up the condition of the black church prior to the Civil War. The Episcopal Church takes pride in saying that it was the only major denomination which did not split over the slavery question, but the other denominations that did, the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist, were no more racist in their conduct when those divisions turned out to be permanent following the war. The Episcopal Church considered two options in seeking to answer the question of what to do about the freedmen: should they be ministered to by the Church, or recolonized back to Africa? When the latter course was deemed impractical and the former adopted, two further options presented themselves: should blacks be integrated into existing church structures or provided with their own segregated facilities? Of course segregation prevailed, and until the 1960's blacks occupied the anomalous position of being a mission field right here at home. The first black bishop to oversee his own people was elected in 1918; the first to have jurisdiction over white churches as well came in 1962. Lewis writes with a generally equitable balance between praise for the work of the Episcopal Church (he is an African-American Episcopal rector) and recognition of guilt for past abuses. It is regrettable that he has virtually nothing to say about the Reformed Episcopal Church's rescue of the former slaves of South Carolina who were ejected from white Episcopal parishes and refused organization or ordination for work among themselves by the parent Church. Nonetheless, for those interested in the African-American religious odyssey, this is a worthwhile book.