Journey Highlights Seabury's Legacy
Episcopal News Service. November 29, 1984 [84234]
NEW YORK (DPS, Nov. 29) - With rousing celebrations in Aberdeen, Scotland; Boston; Hartford, Conn. and Washington, and with humbler ones in many other places, the Anglican Communion has commemorated the 200th anniversary of its birth.
The actual event celebrated, of course, was the consecration of Samuel Seabury as the first Anglican bishop ordained for service outside the British Isles. Seabury was consecrated as bishop of Connecticut in Aberdeen on Nov. 14, 1784.
To honor that event, Presiding Bishop John M. Allin and Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie joined the Primus of Scotland, the Most Rev. Alistair Haggart, in services at Aberdeen Cathedral on the 14th. Allin and Haggart then flew to the United States for the culmination of the Diocese of Massachusetts bicentennial events and then on to Hartford for those of Connecticut. Haggart ended the immediate round of commemorations when he preached at a Eucharist in Washington Cathedral Nov. 25.
Allin's bicentennial journey actually began in early November at the Anglican Centre in Rome -- a 15-year-old place of study and dialogue in ecumenism -- and with the congregation of St. Paul's Episcopal Church there. He praised the "first class" work of the Centre -- whose Council is chaired by Anglican Consultative Council General Secretary Samuel Van Culin -- and asserted that the congregation needed to "be seen and supported by us as our Episcopal Church embassy at the Vatican."
From Rome, he journeyed to western Scotland to the Holy Loch naval base that is overseas home to a fleet of United States ballistic nuclear submarines.
"The fleet commodore offered every courtesy and opportunity for celebrating the Eucharist with Episcopalians and just meeting and talking with these young men. There are no 'macho men' there, no talk of winning a nuclear war. They know if they have to fire their missiles, they have failed their mission."
"Just as importantly to me was the new evidence of the old link between our Church and Scotland. The rector there, Father Alan McLean, has seen to it that Holy Trinity (the Church of Scotland parish) is a pastoral base for the American personnel. They are welcomed and made a full part of the parish life."
The more formal expressions of unity came Nov. 14 at the anniversary Evensong in Aberdeen at which the Archbishop of Canterbury preached. "I made him give me his annotated program after the service," Allin said, "so that we could prove that Canterbury was actually there this time." At the centenary, Canterbury's predecessor sent excuses.
Allin and Haggart then flew together back across the Atlantic to join the Diocese of Massachusetts in concluding its own year-long bicentennial. They took part in a daylong panel that explored the role of the Church in its next century, joined in worship services and enjoyed a concert that featured opera star Leontyne Price and an orchestra of St. Margaret's School, Haiti. A performer in that ensemble was the daughter of the Bishop of Haiti, the Rt. Rev. Luc Garnier.
Allin went next to Worcester, Mass. to be with the congregation of All Saints Episcopal Church as they celebrated their 150th anniversary and, on Nov. 18, joined Haggart, Connecticut Bishop Arthur Walmsley and 16,000 communicants in the Hartford Civic Center.
Connecticut had spent 20 months - paralleling the time between Seabury's election and his consecration - preparing for this event and has made it an opportunity for renewal and recommitment throughout the more than 180 congregations of the diocese.
"You can see that is working," Allin said. "I could sense the enthusiasm and interest there, and I was pleased to be able to lead them in a renewal of their Baptism vows and to give them a charge: 'Be A Hand For God.'"
Back in New York, Allin prepared for the last leg of his bicentennial journey. He would travel to Bogota, Colombia where delegates to the Province IX synod would grapple with the future of that region of Anglicanism as another autonomous entity. Reflecting on Seabury's consecration, he offered a comment that applies as well to the latest fruits of that event: "The persistence and courage of those individuals cannot be underestimated. A tiny church, under persecution, stood fast, knowing the importance of commissioning, of handing on the tradition. There was great courage and great faith demonstrated on that day."