Episcopalians: What’s a Protestant?

Are Episcopalians Protestants? Yes, say Low Church evangelicals; no, answer High Church Anglo-Catholics. Last week delegates to the Episcopal General Convention in St. Louis tried to resolve this debate over what’s in a name with a typically Anglican compromise: letting each faction in the church decide for itself what it wants to be called.

When the nation’s Anglican divines in 1789 chose to call themselves “the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.,” the name seemed like a suitable description. Originally applied to German Lutherans in 1529, “Protestant” then implied rejection of papal authority, which Anglicans had stood for since Henry VIII; the word also paid tribute to the influence of Luther, Calvin and other Continental reformers on Anglican doctrine and liturgy. “Episcopal,” on the other hand, was a reminder that Anglicanism preserved the ancient tradition of rule by bishops, and was still a branch of the “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church.” But ever since the middle of the 19th century, Anglo-Catholics have been trying to drop Protestant from the church’s title, on the grounds that it had come to mean anti-Catholic rather than antipapal. Because of its historic significance, evangelicals have fought just as hard to keep the word.

The Wrong Name? At the General Convention, the bishops this year sided with the High Churchmen. By a vote of 79 to 56, they passed a resolution proposing that “the official name of the church be changed by expunging the word Protestant from its title.” After a stormy, three-hour debate in the House of Deputies, priests and lay delegates instead suggested adding a preamble to the church’s constitution, recognizing “the Episcopal Church” as a lawful alternate designation and the term best suited for everyday use. Most of the delegates seemed pleased by the compromise, which merely sanctifies what Episcopalians have been doing for years, although some continued to argue that the resolution was an Anglo-Catholic coup. “There are a few deputies,” muttered one Low Church bishop, “who feel that we are dropping the wrong name.”

Hard feelings were also raised by church decisions on participation in the National Council of Churches and in the Negro struggle for civil rights. In the House of Deputies, delegates easily quashed a proposal by Southern churchmen to withdraw from the National Council because of its stands against school prayer and for civil rights. But the deputies compromised their support of the Council by urging Episcopal representatives “to seek to restrain the N.C.C. from efforts to influence specific legislation.” Also in the interests of Southern harmony, lay deputies voted down a resolution, previously passed by the bishops, that recognized “the right of any person for reasons of conscience to disobey” laws that are “in basic conflict with the concept of human dignity under God.”

Usurpation of Power. Harmony, as it happens, was the last thing the deputies achieved. The Anglo-Catholic publication American Church News denounced the vote as “an outrageous usurpation by the laity of the teaching function of the church,” and as a slap at the “hundreds of courageous priests who have joined in the most significant social revolution of our time.” Federal Judge Thurgood Marshall, first Negro to represent the Diocese of New York at the General Convention, thought so too. He walked out of the House of Deputies and went home.