REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TILE. A religious body which was originated for such members of the Protestant Episcopal Church as were opposed to the growth of saeramentarianism and sacerdotalism in that communion, and for any others who, like-minded with them, de sire to be associated with a Church evangelical in its teachings, liturgical in its worship, and episcopal in its government. It was organized in New York City. December 2, 1373, with eight clergymen and twenty laymen, all of whom had been or were at the time ministers and laymen in the Protestant Episcopal Church identified with the `evaneglical' or 'Low Church' party. One of them, George David Cummins, had been Assistant Bkhop of the Diocese of Kentucky until November 10, 1873, when by letter to the presiding Bishop he resigned his office and withdrew from the de nomination. Ile became tile Bishop of the new organization; the Rev. Charles Edward Cheney of Chicago was also elected bishop, and con secrated on a subsequent day. The following statement, condensed from the declaration of principles adopted at the organization, explains in the briefest form possible the doctrines held: I. The Reformed Episcopal Church 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 Apostles' Creed; in the divine institution of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper; and in the doc trines of grace substantially as they are set forth in the 39 articles of religion. IT. It recog nizes and adheres to episcopacy, not as of divine right, but as a very ancient and desirable form of Church polity. III. Retaining a liturgy, not imperative or repressive of freedom in prayer, it accepts the Book of Common Prayer as it was revised, proposed, and recommended for use by the General Convention of the Protestant Episco pal Church (1785) ; reserving the right to make alterations in it, provided that the substance of faith be kept entire. IV. It condemns and re
jects the following doctrines as contrary to the word of God: (1) That the Church of Christ ex ists only in one form of ecclesiastical polity. (2) That Christian ministers are `priests' in another sense than that in which all believers 'arc a royal priesthood.' (3) That the Lord's table is an altar on which an oblation of the body and blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father. (4) That the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is a presence in the elements of bread and wine. (5) That regeneration is inseparably connected with baptism.
At the sixteenth General Council, Baltimore, 1900, there were reported as belonging to the denomination in the United States and Canada: 7 bishops, SI presbyters, 13 deacons 94 parishes, 10 002 communicants, of whom 428 were added by confirmation, and 191 were otherwise received during the past three years, 876 Sunday school teachers, and 10,106 scholars; total offerings of three years preeeding, $172,418; value of church and parish buildings and rectories, $1,609,930. The Reformed Episcopal Church in England at the same (late had 1 bishop, 24 presbyters, I deacon, and 3 lay readers, 21 parishes, with 1500 communicants, 2580 Sunday school scholars, and 256 teachers. The denomination is in Philadelphia and Chicago, and has 11 parishes in Canada and British Columbia. It has a well equipped theological seminary in Philadelphia, with a faculty of 5 professors, and a prepara tory department; maintains 2 denominational papers, and supports a Woman's Foreign Mis sionary Society, with two effective stations in India. The trustees of its sustentation fund hold endowments of over $125,000.