Feast Of The Consecration Of Samuel Seabury

Samuel Seabury was the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. During the colonial period and after the end of the Revolutionary War, the church in the United States had no bishops. Candidates for the priesthood had to travel to England to be ordained before the war, an arduous journey. After the war, the situation was the same, and the requirement that all candidates for ordination swear an oath of loyalty to the British crown became an impediment to sending American candidates to England for ordination. The church in the United States needed a bishop.

Samuel Seabury was chosen to be the first bishop, but, again, because of the oath of loyalty, he went to Scotland, rather than to England, to be consecrated bishop by two bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, which was no longer the established church, and therefore did not include the loyalty oath to the British crown in the ceremony.

James Kiefer at the Lectionary has more information on Seabury.

READINGS:

Psalm 133 or 33:1-5,20-21
Acts 20:28-32
Matthew 9:35-38

PRAYER

We give you thanks, O Lord our God, for your goodness in bestowing upon this Church the gift of the episcopate, which we celebrate in this remembrance of the consecration of Samuel Seabury; and we pray that, joined together in unity with our bishops, and nourished by your holy Sacraments, we may proclaim the Gospel of redemption with apostolic zeal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.