2. THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

Bishop Cummins,

This body was organized in 1873. of Kentucky, withdrew from the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church that year, in consequence of certain criticisms which had been uttered respecting his participation in a union communion service in connection with the Sixth Conference of the Evangelical Alliance. Bishop Cummins met, in December, 1873, with seven clergymen and twenty laymen in the city of New York, and it was resolved to inaugurate a separate movement. Bishop Cummins was chosen presiding officer of the new church, and the Rev. C. E. Cheney, D.D., of Chicago, was elected bishop, and subsequently consecrated by Bishop Cummins. A declaration of principles was adopted setting forth the views of the new body respecting doctrine, polity, worship, and discipline. These principles were as follows:

"I. The Reformed Episcopal Church, holding' the faith once delivered unto the saints,' declares its belief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God and the sole rule of faith and practice; in the creed' commonly called the Apostles' Creed'; in the divine institution of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper; and in the doctrines of grace substantially as they are set forth in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion.

"II. This church recognizes and adheres to Episcopacy, not as of divine right, but as a very ancient and desirable form of church polity.

"III. This church, retaining a liturgy which shall not be imperative or repressive of freedom in prayer, accepts the Book of Common Prayer, as it was revised, proposed, and recommended for use by the general convention of

the Protestant Episcopal Church, A.D. 1785, reserving full liberty to alter, abridge, enlarge, and amend the same, as may seem most conducive to the edification of the people, ‘provided that the substance of the faith be kept entire.'

"IV. This Church condemns and rejects the following erroneous and strange doctrines as contrary to God's Word : "First, that the Church of Christ exists only in one order or form of ecclesiastical polity;

Second, that Christian ministers are 'priests' in another sense than that in which all believers are 'a royal priesthood';

"Third, that the Lord's Table is an altar on which the oblation of the body and blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father;

"Fourth, that the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is a presence in the elements of bread and wine;

"Fifth, that regeneration is inseparably connected with baptism."

At a general council of the Reformed Episcopal Church, held at Chicago, Ill., in May, 1874, articles of religion were adopted, thirty-five in number. They follow closely the Anglican articles of religion, with such changes as are indicated by the principles adopted in 1873. At the same meeting of the general council a revised Book of Common Prayer was also adopted. The church recognizes but two orders in the ministry, that of presbyter and that of deacon. It holds that the episcopate is not an order but an office, the bishop being simply first presbyter. The bishops do not constitute a separate house in the general council as in the general convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church. They preside over synods or jurisdictions, which correspond

more or less closely to dioceses and jurisdictions of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

The Reformed Episcopal Church has 83 organizations, 84 church edifices, valued at $1,615,101, and 8455 communicants. It is represented in twelve States, including Virginia and South Carolina, and it has two synods and three missionary jurisdictions. The average seating capacity of the edifices is 285, and their average value $19,227. There are 2 halls, with a seating capacity of 300.

The totals of the two bodies are: Organizations, 5102; church edifices, 5103; seating capacity, 1,360,877; value of church property, $82,835,418; communicants, 540,509.

The Reformed Episcopal Church adds no considerable number to the communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church, except in Pennsylvania (2640), Illinois (1755), and South Carolina (1723). It contributes to the total valua、 tion of church property upward of $1,600,000.