 |
Post Revolutionary War Rebuilding to Reorganization
| 1783 |
Jeremiah Leming and Samuel Seabury
elected bishop in Connecticut. Leming considered too frail to travel to
England. |
| 1784 |
The northern churches conduct
meetings to
plan reorganization of the church. Later that year, the Methodists left
the Anglican Church. |
| 1785 |
The first General Convention, at
Christ
Church, Philadelphia. There was no bishop. Georgia was not represented
since there was no organized diocese. |
| 1786 |
The proposed Book of Common Prayer. A
second General Convention, without representation from Georgia, at
which essentially nothing was done. |
| 1789 |
A third General Convention, without
representation from Georgia. Bishops White and Seabury were in
attendance. Authorization of a Book of Common Prayer, and a Hymnal. |
| 1798 |
On July 4th, William J. Hobby, Esq.
delivers an oration at Saint Paul's on the 22nd anniversary of American
independence. |
| 1802 |
Ordination of Absalom Jones, the
first black priest in the Episcopal Church, by Bp. William White. |
| 1814 |
Beginning of the Sunday School
Movement in the Episcopal Church. |
| 1817 |
General Convention approves founding
of General Seminary in New York City. |
| 1821 |
Founding of the Domestic and Foreign
Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA. |
At the end of the war, the Church of England
was no longer
established. As was the case with Saint Paul's, the parishes lost their
"glebe", the land given to them by the colonial government. The Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) departed, and
many clergy returned home to England or moved to Canada. There were no
bishops, thus no confirmations or ordinations. Some felt that the
Church should cease to exist in the new United States.
There were three factions, New England, the
middle colonies, and the
southern colonies. The New England churches, were led by Samuel
Seabury, who had been an SPG missionary. A High Churchman, he favored
the consecration of bishops as soon as possible. Churches of the middle
colonies felt that church organization was a higher priority. William
White of Philadelphia, a Low Churchman, favored ordination of priests
without bishops. Churches in the South had been controlled by their
vestries, were not particularly interested in founding an American
episcopate, and insisted that the laity participate in the organization
of the national church. Seabury was not in favor of this idea.
Connecticut elected Seabury as bishop in
1783. He traveled to
England, but was denied ordination and consecration. He went to
Aberdeen, Scotland, where in 1784 he was ordained by Scottish nonjuror
bishops, a group in schism with the Church of England. In 1785, he
presided at a convention of the Church of Connecticut and ordained 4
people to the diaconate.
In the middle colonies, William White of
Philadelphia had been a
patriot in the Revolutionary War, and was of the "low church"
tradition. The 1789 constitution of the Episcopal Church was based on
ideas in his treatise of 1782. White was later consecrated bishop,
along with Provoost of New York and Griffith of Virginia. By this time,
Parliament had passed legislation authorizing the Church of England to
consecrate bishops for America. Provoost challenged the legality of
Seabury's ordination by "schismatic" bishops.
The 1789 General Convention at Christ
Church, Philadelphia, adopted
a constitution and canons, and authorized an American Book of Common
Prayer. The first session had a single House of Delegates, and White
presided. Seabury did not attend because of his objections about the
presence of the laity. For the second session, which he attended, there
was a separate House of Bishops.
| 1783 |
The Trustees of the Academy of
Richmond County are incorporated by the legislature of the State of
Georgia. They are given broad powers in Augusta, including subdividing
and selling lots from the commons, building a school and a church,
hiring teachers for the school. |
| 1785 |
What is left of the members of Saint
Paul's
Parish Church begins to hold services, led by a Lay Reader, in one of
the rooms in the Academy building on Bay Street. |
| 1786 |
Augusta becomes the temporary capital
of
the State of Georgia while the site of Louisville is being laid out and
developed as the permanent capital. Saint Paul's Church is used from
time to time for public meetings including an observance by the
legislature of Thanksgiving in 1789. The capital moves to Louisville in
1795. |
| 1786 |
Trustees of the Academy contract to
have a
new church constructed on the site of the former church, which had been
destroyed in 1781 by the British or\loyalist allies. After many delays,
the church was finally completed in 1789 by William Mead. |
| 1786 |
The Reverend Adam Boyd (Armentrout: a
patriot in the Revolutionary War) comes to Augusta from Wilmington,
North Carolina to officiate for the parish. Formerly a chaplain in the
Revolutionary Army, and probably a Presbyterian licentiate, Boyd had
been recently affiliated with Saint James Episcopal Church in
Wilmington. Boyd was a newspaper editor, publishing the Cape Fear
Mercury before moving to Georgia. |
| 1787 |
Springfield Baptist Church is
believed to
have been established in this year by a group of free blacks that moved
from Silver Bluff in South Carolina. |
| 1788 |
The Parish of Saint Paul's in Georgia
sponsors the Reverend Adam Boyd, who seeks Holy Orders from the Right
Reverend Samuel Seabury, Bishop of Connecticut and the first Episcopal
Bishop in the United States. Boyd returns to Augusta to officiate at
Saint Paul's in 1789. |
| 1789 |
A Reverend Elihu Palmer requests
permission
to teach religious classes in Saint Paul's Church. He is a teacher at
Richmond Academy. (Charles C. Jones, Memorial History of
Augusta, Georgia,) writes that in 1789 the Rev. Mr. Palmer
was in charge of the church.) |
| 1789 |
On November 26, members of the
General Assembly gave thanks at a worship service at Saint Paul's,
listening to a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Palmer. |
| 1796 |
Presbyterian trustees are appointed
by the legislature and to be given a lot in Augusta. |
| 1798 |
The Methodists form a congregation in
Augusta after being thrown out of Saint Paul's for offensive preaching
by the Reverend Stith Mead. |
| 1799 |
The Reverend Adam Boyd leaves Augusta
in
the Spring, traveling to Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee where he
preaches the first Episcopal service in both places. He later moves to
Natchez, Mississippi, where he dies in 1803. |
| 1799 |
The Trustees of the Academy appoint
the
Reverend James Foster Hull as Rector of Saint Paul's Church in July
1799. He serves for 18 months until about January 1801. Rev. Hull is
from Belfast, Ireland and had been sent to America as a Presbyterian
missionary. He later became a lawyer, and moved to Cambridge, South
Carolina, and subsequently to New Orleans, where he became the second
rector of Christ Episcopal Church. He dies in New Orleans in 1833. |
| 1804 |
The Trustees of the Academy appoint
the
Reverend Washington McKnight as Rector of Saint Paul's Church, who
organized a Presbyterian Congregation there in the same year. The
Presbyterians begin renting Saint Paul's for their exclusive use. Mr.
McKnight dies in 1805 and is buried in Saint Paul's Churchyard. John R.
Thompson becomes rector of Saint Paul's and Pastor of the
Presbyterians, who plan their own building in 1807 and are incorporated
by the legislature in 1808 as Christ Church. |
| 1809 |
The Trustees of the Academy withdraw
the
exclusive use of Saint Paul's by the Presbyterians, citing the need to
make the church available to all denominations. They begin construction
of the present First Presbyterian Church on Telfair Street. |
| 1809 |
An Act of the legislature was passed
to grant the Baptist Society a lot in Augusta. The Baptists are later
incorporated in 1817. |
| 1811 |
Roman Catholics are incorporated and
granted a block on Telfair Street to build a church. |
| 1816 |
The Protestant Episcopal Society in
Augusta
is incorporated on December 13th 1816. Trustees appointed were John
Milledge, John Carter, Valentine Walker, George Walton, Thomas Watkins,
Richard Tubman, (Edward F.\Campbell, Augustine Slaughter, Freeman
Walker, Joseph Hutchinson), William M. Cowles, (Walter Leigh), John A.
Barnes, Milledge Galphin, and Patrick Carnes. |
| 1817 |
The Right Reverend Theodore Dehon,
Bishop
of South Carolina plans to come to Augusta to administer confirmation,
but dies August 6, 1817 before he can make the visit. |
| 1817 |
Members of the Protestant Episcopal
Society in Augusta determine to build a church by stock subscription on
April 3, 1817. |
| 1817 |
On the same day (April 3rd), the
Trustees
of the Academy of Richmond County grant two lots bounded on the north
by Walker Street, west by Jackson (8th) Street and south by Watkins
Street, to the Protestant Episcopal Society. (This is where the Civic
Center is now located). This location apparently didn't satisfy the
Episcopalians, who on April 23rd requested the lot on the eastern side
of the Presbyterian Church to be held in reserve for their use, so that
they could build a church in the same range as the Academy and the
Presbyterian Church. (Several years later to become the site of the
original Medical College of Georgia building). |
| 1818 |
The Legislature grants the original
site of
Saint Paul's Church, along with the old town burying ground, to the
Trustees of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the City of Augusta on
December 19th 1818. Three pews in the church are to be reserved for the
use of strangers. |
| 1818 |
On December 30, the Trustees of the
Academy
direct their attorney to look into the validity of the title they had
formerly granted for the lot on Telfair Street. |
| 1819 |
The 1789 church is removed to the
corner of Broad and Kollock Streets in preparation for building a new
church. |
| 1819 |
John Lund, architect, is commissioned
to
design and build a more suitable building. The cornerstone is laid on
January 27, 1819 with Masonic ceremonies and is subsequently built for
$24,000. |
| 1819 |
Hugh Smith of Brooklyn, New York is
called as the first Rector of the reorganized church on July 29th 1819. |
| 1819 |
Saint Paul's Church is incorporated
on
December 21, and the legislature appoints John Carter and Augustine
Slaughter as churchwardens and Richard Tubman, Samuel Hale, Valentine
Walker, George Walton, Thomas Watkins, John A. Barnes, Edward F.
Campbell, Freeman Walker, James C. Winter, L. C. Cantelou, Milledge
Galphin, Patrick Carnes and John Course as Vestrymen. |
| 1820 |
The first election of the Wardens and
Vestrymen of the church since Saint Paul's is reorganized, takes place
on Easter Monday, April 3rd, 1820 as directed by the Act of
Incorporation. |
| 1820 |
The first baptisms are recorded in
the
oldest existing Parish Register on April 30th. (Earlier parish
registers have apparently been lost or destroyed.) |
| 1821 |
Bishop Nathaniel Bowen of South
Carolina
consecrates the new church on March 20. On the same day he administers
the Rite of Confirmation for the first time ever at Saint Paul's Church. |
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