Glossary of Terms

Christians have apparently worn finger-rings with Christian symbols since the third or fourth centuries. Rings have been associated with fidelity. There are several specific Christian uses of rings. Wedding Rings. It was a Roman custom for the man to give the woman a ring at the time of betrothal. The use of wedding rings by […]

Rio Grande, Diocese of

The 1892 General Convention established the Missionary District of New Mexico. The 1895 General Convention voted to take the counties of El Paso, Reeves, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Presidio, Brewster, Terrell, Hudspeth, and Pecos from the Missionary District of Western Texas and add them to the Missionary District of New Mexico. On Feb. 6, 1923, the […]

Ritchie, Arthur

(June 22, 1849-July 9, 1921). Anglo-catholic leader. He was born in Philadelphia, and received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1867. After teaching at the Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, 1867-1868, he entered the General Theological Seminary. He received his S.T.B. in 1871. He was ordained deacon on July 2, 1871, and priest on June […]

Rite

A form for religious ceremony. It includes both what is said and what is done in the religious observance. Rite expresses the church's relationship with God through words, actions, and symbols. It orders the church's common worship. Rite enables the community to share its faith and experience God's presence in a particular liturgical and pastoral […]

Rite 1, Rite 2

The 1979 BCP provides the services of Morning and Evening Prayer, the Holy Eucharist, and the Burial Office in both traditional language and contemporary language rites. The traditional language rites are known as Rite 1, and the contemporary language rites are known as Rite 2. The BCP also presents the collects for the church year […]

Rite 3

The nickname given to “An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist” (BCP, pp. 400-405). This rite is in the form of an outline that allows the participants to prepare many of the liturgical texts that will be used in the eucharistic celebration while maintaining the same basic structure of the eucharistic liturgy that is found […]

Ritual

Liturgical texts and ceremonies of divine worship. The term originally indicated the prescribed words of worship, but it came to include the entire liturgical action and presentation of the rite. The nineteenth-century ritualist controversy in the Episcopal Church included disputes over such practices as the use of processional crosses, altar lights, eucharistic vestments, incense, genuflection […]

Ritual Controversy

See Ritualism.

Ritualism

Ritual refers to the prescribed form of words of an act of worship and also has been used to indicate the ceremonial of worship. The term “ritualism” was applied to the ceremonial enrichment of public worship by re-introducing pre-Reformation ceremonial practices into Anglicanism. These included practices at the eucharist such as the use of vestments, […]

Roanridge Training Conference Center

Wilbur Cochel, a deputy from West Missouri to the 1940 General Convention, believed that a good rural priest needed to know about farming. In 1942 he and his wife offered their 320-acre demonstration farm, twenty miles north of Kansas City, to the Episcopal Church. It was called Roanridge Farm because of the mixed red and […]

Robbins, Harold Chandler

(Dec. 11, 1876-Mar. 20, 1952). Cathedral dean, preacher, and writer. He was born in Philadelphia. Robbins received his B.A. from Yale University in 1899 and graduated from the Episcopal Theological School in 1903. He was ordained deacon on May 17, 1903, and priest on May 29, 1904. Robbins was rector of St. Paul's Church, Englewood, […]

Roberts, Owen Josephus

(May 2, 1875-May 17, 1955). First lay president of the House of Deputies, and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was born in Philadelphia. Roberts received his B.A. in 1895 and his LL.B. in 1898, both from the University of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1898. He was […]

Robertson, John J.

(1796-Oct. 5, 1881). Missionary to Greece. He was born in New York City. After study at the Virginia Theological Seminary, Robertson was ordained deacon on Dec. 10, 1820. He was ordained priest the next year, and then became president of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. Robertson later became the president of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, […]

Rochester, Diocese of

The 1931 General Convention voted to divide the Diocese of Western New York. The primary convention of the Diocese of Rochester met at Trinity Church, Geneva, New York, Dec. 15-16, 1931. The diocese includes the following counties: Allegany, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, and Yates. The diocese does not have a cathedral.

Rochet

A vestment of white linen or similar material which replaced the alb and which in time came to be used only by bishops. Early American bishops found the huge balloon sleeves difficult both to launder and to carry, so the rochet was sleeveless, and the sleeves were tacked lightly to the chimere. Styles have changed […]

Rodenmayer, Betsy

(June 11, 1909-Jan. 14, 1985). Christian educator. She was born in Detroit, Michigan. Rodenmayer received her B.A. from the University of Michigan, her M.R.E. from Columbia Teachers College, and her B.D. from Union Theological Seminary, New York. She married the Rev. Robert Rodenmayer on July 8, 1935. She was director of Christian Education, Christ Church, […]

Rogation Days

Traditionally, these are the three days before Ascension Day on which the litany is sung (or recited) in procession as an act of intercession. They originated in Vienne, France, in the fifth century when Bishop Mamertus introduced days of fasting and prayer to ward off a threatened disaster. In England they were associated with the […]

Rollo

At Cursillo, one of the fifteen talks on Christian faith and life. The person assigned to give the rollo is called a “rollista.”

Romanticism

The term is applied to an intellectual and cultural development which flourished in western Europe and North America in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was largely a reaction against the Enlightenment and the neo-classicism which accompanied the Enlightenment. In place of the earlier emphasis on reason, order, and mechanism there came to be an […]

An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church