Glossary of Terms

Church of the Carpenter, Boston

Organized in 1890 by William Dwight Porter Bliss as an experiment in Christian Socialism, the notice announcing its formation declared that “the Church of Christ, in her true spirit, is a Christian Socialist Church.” It attracted many Christian Socialists, including Wellesley professor and staunch churchwoman Vida Dutton Scudder. The church participated in the struggle for […]

Church of the Holy Communion, New York

The parish was founded in 1844 by William Augustus Muhlenberg. The cornerstone was laid on July 25, 1844. The church was built with funds from Muhlenberg's sister, Mary Anna C. Rogers, the widow of John Rogers. The church building was designed by Richard Upjohn and consecrated on Dec. 13, 1846. The parish's ministry took the […]

Church of the Transfiguration, New York

A pioneer Anglo-catholic parish of the Episcopal Church. It was organized in 1849. The founder and first rector was the Rev. George H. Houghton. Confessions were heard there, and it had altar candles and a processional cross, which were rare and controversial for the time. This parish claims to have had the first vested choir […]

Church Orders

Ancient church documents containing a variety of materials for the instruction and ordering of the church, including liturgical descriptions, models, and directions. Significant Church Orders included the Didache (second century), the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (215), the Didascalia Apostolorum (third century), and the Apostolic Constitutions (late fourth century). These Church Orders were formative for the […]

Church Record, The

See Episcopal Recorder, The.

Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register, The

This periodical was published under five different titles. It was at various times quarterly, monthly, and bimonthly. From Apr. 1848 until Apr. 1858, and from Apr. until Oct. 1889, it was called The Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register. From July 1858 until Jan. 1870, it was The American Quarterly Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register. It […]

Church Review, The

See Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register, The.

Church Standard, The

The weekly Standard of the Cross merged with The Church in 1892 to become The Church Standard. It was a weekly periodical published in Philadelphia. The first issue was published on May 14, 1892, and in July 1908, it was absorbed by The Churchman.

Church Training and Deaconess House of the Diocese of Pennsylvania

The second training school for deaconesses in the Episcopal Church. It opened in Jan., 1891, in Philadelphia. It had a two-year course of study for women desiring to be deaconesses. In 1939 the school became the Department of Women of the Divinity School in Philadelphia. As the Department of Women, it trained women as deaconesses, […]

Church Weekly

In 1870 the Church Monthly of Boston became the Church Weekly of New York. It survived for only about one year.

Church Work

This journal was founded and edited by Mary Abbot Emery Twing to promote communication among women church workers. Its sub-title was “A Monthly Magazine for Church Workers,” and it was published from Nov. 1885 until Oct. 1889. Twing used the journal to promote the deaconess movement. The General Convention passed a Canon on Deaconesses in […]

Church, The

The community of faith headed by Christ, the body of Christ in the world (see 1 Cor 12:12-27; Eph 1:22-23, 4:12, 5:29-30). Baptism is full initiation into the church, and all baptized persons are members of the church (BCP, pp. 299, 854). The church is the community of the New Covenant, the People of God, […]

Church’s Teaching Series, The

The Church's Teaching Series is a series of volumes written to provide adults with the basic content teaching of the Episcopal Church. The first series was done by an author's committee under the chairmanship of John Heuss, the director of the Department of Christian Education of the National Council. The first series had six volumes: […]

Churching of Women

A liturgy for the purification or “churching” of women after childbirth, together with the presentation in church of the child. The rite is based on scriptural sources, especially the ritual purification of Mary and Presentation of Christ in Lk 2: 22-38. Following the title in the Sarum use, Cranmer called the 1549 rite “The Order […]

Churchman, Churchmanship

Before the sixteenth-century Reformation, when there was only one Christian church in England, the word “churchman” designated an ecclesiastic or clergyman. After the establishment of religious toleration in England by the Act of Toleration in 1689, it came to designate any person, whether cleric or lay, who is a member of the established church-the Church […]

Churchman, The

This weekly journal began publication on Mar. 26, 1831. It carried the slogan, “The Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth.” In Nov. 1833, it absorbed the Episcopal Watchman. It suspended publication with the May 2, 1861 issue because of the Civil War, and then resumed publication in 1867. It […]

Churchman’s Human Quest, The

See Churchman, The.

Churchman’s Magazine, The

The first regular periodical in the Episcopal Church. It began publication in Jan. 1804, at New Haven, Connecticut. Its full title was The Churchman's Monthly Magazine, or Treasury of Divine and Useful Knowledge. In Apr. 1808 it began to be published in New York. John Henry Hobart served as Editor until 1811. It was not […]

Churchman’s Monthly Magazine, The

This journal described itself as a repository of religious, literary, and entertaining knowledge for the Christian family. It was published in New York from Jan. 1854, until Dec. 1861.

Cincinnati Summer School

Founded in 1923, the school was a joint project of the Department of Social Service of the National Council of the Episcopal Church and the Social Service Department of the Diocese of Southern Ohio. It was called the Cincinnati Summer School in Social Work and sometimes the Cincinnati Summer School in Social Service. Its work […]

An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church

Glossary of Terms