283 A LETTER ON THE Anglican Church’s Claims REV. INGRAM N. W. IRVINE, D.D. Canon of St. Nicholas’ Cathedral WITH A PREFACE BY THE REV. FR. DANIEL I. ODELL, B.D. Rector of the Church of the Annunciation, Philadelphia AND APPENDICES BY THE RT. REV. GEO. F. SEYMOUR, D.D., LL.D. Bishop of Springfield, 111. THE REV. RANDALL C. HALL, D.D. Professor (Emeritus) of Hebrew, General Theological Seminary THE REV. WM. J. SEABURY, D.D. Professor of Ecclesiastical Polity and Law in the General Theological Seminary AND THE HON. NICHOLAS N. DE LODYGENSKY Imperial Russian Consul-General ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ST. NICHOLAS’ CATHEDRAL* Madison Ave. and 97th St. NEW YORK % Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. , University of Illinois Library A LETTER ON THE Anglican Church’s Claims BY THE REV. INGRAM N. W. IRVINE. D.D. Canon of St. Nicholas’ Cathedral WITH A PREFACE BY THE REV. FR. DANIEL I. ODELL, B.D. O O Rector of the Church of the Annunciation, Philadelphia AND APPENDICES BY THE RT. REV. GEO. F. SEYMOUR, D.D., LL.D. Bishop of Springfield, 111. THE REV. RANDALL C. HALL, D.D. Professor (Emeritus) of Hebrew, General Theological Seminary THE REV. WM. J. SEABURY, D.D. Professor of Ecclesiastical Polity and Law in the General Theological Seminary AND THE HON. NICHOLAS N. DE LODYGENSKY Imperial Russian Consul-General ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ST. NICHOLAS’ CATHEDRAL MADISON AVE. AND 97th ST. NEW YORK ^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/letteronanglican00irvi_0 Ir- J. ■ PREFACE. T N VIEW of the assembling of a council of the Holy ^ Orthodox Russian Church for the recasting of its internal ecclesiastical affairs during the coming Autumn and the approaching Fourth Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops in 1909, it would seem pre-eminently fitting that the letter of the Reverend Dr. Irvine, ‘‘On the Anglican Church's Historical Claims, Doctrines, Disci- pline, Worship, etc./' written to his Grace, the Most Reverend Archbishop Tikhon of North America and Aleutian Islands, shortly after the reception of Dr. Irvine into the Priesthood of the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church, should be reprinted ; with the earnest hope that the cordial relations hitherto existing between the two Churches may be restored and, further, that something definite and explicit may be done by the Bishops of the respective Councils which, under the controlling guid- ance of the Holy Spirit, will make for righteousness and the reunion of Christendom. The unhappy position of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as an integral part of the Anglican Communion, in allowing herself to be constantly and continuously classified with the Protestant bodies which have no His- torical Episcopate, and scarcely ever, as she should, fear- lessly asserting her Catholic and Apostolic heritage, has 4 naturally permitted herself and the whole Anglican Com- munion to be grievously misunderstood by the Holy East- ern Church. And again, as Dr. Irvine most clearly points outj she has never zealously and unitedly ‘'pressed her claims before the four Eastern Patriarchates’’ during the past “three hundred years.” The English Church and her daughter churches, with the Protestant Episcopal Church, after drifting along all these years, apparently content with herself and in the self-depending knowledge of her own claims or, possibly, in a spirit of indifference as to what others may think or say of those claims, finds herself to-day in the unique and notable position where she alone, amidst the entire religious world. Catholic and Protestant, acknowledges and maintains her historical claim of Catholic heritage and Apostolic continuity. She has been unjust to herself, and her Episcopate is to-day receiving the due reward of their own compromising weakness and failure in not safeguarding the Priesthood of their own Church, which looks to them for perpetua- tion and protection. In ordaining Dr. Irvine to the Priesthood of the Holy Orthodox Church, his Grace, Archbishop Tikhon, acted, ' as he was morally and canonically bound to do, in strict obedience to the canonical and ancient usage of the Cath- olic Church, and the ordination has not been held sacri- • legious nor discourteous to the Anglican Church outside of one or more irresponsible Church newspapers and some individual ecclesiastics who wrote hastily and unfavor- ably of the action as doing harm to the cordial relations then obtaining between the Protestant Episcopal and Holy 5 Orthodox Churches. Even the Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Tuttle, in his individual protest to the President of the Holy Synod, seems to have moved unadvisedly as judging the act of Archbishop Tikhon intrusive and tending to dis- turb ecclesiastical relations when, in fact, no inter-com- munion really existed at the time or had ever existed. The act of Archbishop Tikhon in ordaining Dr. Irvine has fearlessly and clearly opened up all questions of dif- ference between the Anglican and Holy Orthodox Churches and boldly brings the chief and leading issues straight before the Bishops of the Lambeth Conference and of the Holy Orthodox Russian Church. Have the Church of England and her daughter churches, including the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, a valid, lawful and unbroken succes- sion of ministers from the time of the Apostles, and do they explicitly hold and teach the Catholic view of Sacra- ments and true intention of making Catholic Priests ? The Roman Catholic Church denies, without condition, the truth of any such claims made by the Anglican Church, but has been irrefutably and successfully an- swered in the noted '‘Response of the Archbishops of England to the Apostolic Letter of Pope Leo XIII on Anglican Ordinations,’’ dated February, A. D. 1897, and addressed to the whole body of Bishops of the Catholic Church. Yet it has not been followed up by any united organic action of the entire Anglican Church tending toward effectual inter-communion, and so long as the Anglican Bishops have not collectively and officially 6 pressed her claims for recognition as ‘'part of the His- torical Catholic Church/’ they cannot actively fault the Holy Eastern Church for not having full knowledge of her Catholic position; and until a conciliar and formal judgment and decision shall be given upon the facts at issue the Anglican and Holy Orthodox Churches will remain estranged and separated. The opportunity for mutual investigation and explana- tion of all differences between the Anglican and Holy Orthodox Churches is greater to-day than ever, and he must appear blind who will not see the real bond of union now existing between the Churches made reasonably clear by the opportune and friendly letter of Dr. Irvine to Arch- bishop Tikhon on “the Anglican Church’s Historical Claims,” etc., in which he says : “I would not do the Anglican Church a wrong. I would not any more than I would cut off this hand which holds the pen by which I communicate my thoughts to your Grace in black and white, withhold one truth or hide away one merit of which she glories. On the contrary, I trust my very frankness may be the cause of stirring up a spirit of interest on the part of the Holy Orthodox Church so that the Anglican claims may be fairly and quickly weighed and that the Saviour’s prayer so far as the Anglican Church and the Holy Orthodox at least are concerned, may be fulfilled — ‘that they all may be one.’ ” God grant it, in His way and time. Daniel I. Odell. Rectory, Church of the Annunciation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eastertide, 1906. TO THE READER. The calm consideration of the points raised in my letter to His Grace Archbishop Tikhon and the acknowl- edgment of the fairness with which they have been pre- sented, together with the call for the letter itself from those dwelling in far distant lands as well from those near by have been the primary reasons for its repub- lication. However, there are other reasons. ‘‘Church Unity” is a necessity. It is a duty. But how can we have it ? The different Protestant bodies can easily unite, for neither has, much less deems necessary, an Historic Epis- copate. They can form a confederation at any moment and work in more or less harmony on some general prin- ciples. The Historical Churches in their present divided state find the task very difficult, and for these causes : 1. The Roman Patriarchate’s monstrous claims. Su- premacy, infallibility and other unscriptural and unhis- torical doctrines are absolute barriers in the way. Her idea of unity is that of submission to her supremacy full and complete and an acceptance of all her additions to the Faith. 2. The individuals or Church which should accept such claims would deny the Faith, Order and Practices of the Apostolic Church down to the end of the eighth century, and besides would, in accepting the Papal pyramid of 8 errors founded on presumption and perversions, encour- age her in her pride and pretenses. At present no part of the Historical Church of Jesus Christ could unite with Rome and be true to the Saviour’s teaching or that of His holy Apostles and the Fathers of the Early Church. The difference between the Holy Eastern Church’s method of unity and that of the Roman is that which lies between the meaning of the words "^"^Co-ordination” and ^"^’wt-ordination.” The Holy Eastern Church desires union on an honor- able, historical basis, namely: that each National Church should maintain her own national Customs, Ritual and Liturgy, but at the same time confederate with the four Ancient Eastern Patriarchates and the different National Churches which are in union with them. She neither de- sires nor suggests any superiority over other Historical Churches. She asks alone Dogmatic Unity and Ecclesias- tical Co-ordination, The Roman Church, on the other hand, demands “sub- ordination.” She recognizes no equal. She claims, notwith- standing undoubted, overwhelming apostolical and his- torical evidence to the contrary, to be the whole Catholic Church. She indeed has been the mother of schism from the first. She to-day is an ecclesiastical maniac which, though but a sister Patriarchate to the four great and Ancient Patriarchates of the East, Jerusalem, Antioch^ Alexandria and Constantinople, three of which antedate her in existence, is subject to the hallucination that she is their mother. She hides away the truth with the shrewdness of those who have a disordered brain, viz., '