July 28, 2004

Huntington

William Reed Huntington was the author of the 1886 Chicago Quadrilateral that was incorporated into Resolution 11 of the 1888 Lambeth Conference (cf BCP pp 876ff). Yesterday was his “lesser” feast. A thoughtful friend (and reader of OoN) reminded me of that and suggested that these words from Huntington’s book “The Church Idea” (1870) seem altogether relevant for today.

“If our whole ambition as Anglicans in America be to continue a small, but eminently respectable body of Christians and to offer a refuge to people of refinement and sensibility who are shocked by the irreverences they are apt to encounter elsewhere; in a word, if we care to be only a countercheck and not a force in society; then let us say as much in plain terms, and frankly renounce any and all claim to Catholicity. We have only, in such a case, to wrap the robe of our dignity about us and walk quietly along in a seclusion no one will take much trouble to disturb. Thus may we be a Church in name, and a sect in deed.

“But if we aim at something nobler than this, if we would have our Communion become national in truth, in other words, if we would bring the Church of Christ into the closest possible sympathy with the throbbing, sorrowing, sinning, repenting, aspiring heart of this great people, then let us press our reasonable claims to be the reconciler of a divided household, not in a spirit of arrogance (which ill befits those whose best possessions have come to them by inheritance), but with affectionate earnestness and an intelligent zeal.”

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