Henry Robert Percival (April 30, 1854 - September 22, 1903) was a prominent American Episcopal priest and author. After studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the General Theological Seminary in New York, he was made a deacon on May 27, 1877, and ordained to the priesthood on June 10, 1878. Percival served briefly after ordination at Grace Church, Merchantville, New Jersey, and as curate from 1878 to 1880 at a chapel of Christ Church, Philadelphia. He was elected rector of the Church of the Evangelists, Philadelphia, in 1880, and pursued a plan of Anglo-Catholic enrichment of its services; he oversaw the building of a new church beginning in 1885 and the planting of S. Elisabeth's Church as a nearby mission under the care of the Congregation of the Companions of the Holy Saviour and William Ignatius Loyola McGarvey. (Since 1922, the Evangelists church building has housed the Fleisher Art Memorial.) Percival retired as rector in 1897, citing ill health, and was succeeded by the Reverend Charles W. Robinson.
He was the author of an appendix on "The Theological Value of Incense" in The Case for Incense, submitted to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury on May 8, 1899 .
Percival received an honorary doctorate of divinity degree from Nashotah House Theological Seminary in 1891. He died in Devon, Pennsylvania and is buried at St. Peter's Episcopal Churchyard in Philadelphia.
An ecumenical council, also called general council, is a meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote are convoked from the whole world (oikoumene) and which secures the approbation of the whole Church.
An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. The word "bishop" here is derived via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term *ebiscopus/*biscopus, from the Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος epískopos meaning "overseer". It is the structure used by many of the major Christian Churches and denominations, such as the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Anabaptist, Lutheran, and Anglican churches or denominations, and other churches founded independently from these lineages. Many Methodist denominations have a form of episcopal polity known as connexionalism.
The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by the Old Catholics, and others. Protestant opinions on it are varied.
A synod is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word synod comes from the Ancient Greek σύνοδος 'assembly, meeting'; the term is analogous with the Latin word concilium'council'. Originally, synods were meetings of bishops, and the word is still used in that sense in Catholicism, Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodoxy. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not. It is also sometimes used to refer to a church that is governed by a synod.
The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion.
Aurelius of Carthage was a Christian saint who died around 430. A friend of Augustine of Hippo, he was bishop of Carthage from about 391 until his death.
College of Bishops, also known as the Ordo of Bishops, is a term used in the Catholic Church to denote the collection of those bishops who are in communion with the Pope. Under Canon Law, a college is a collection of persons united together for a common object so as to form one body. The Bishop of Rome is the head of the college.
A dean, in an ecclesiastical context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and many Lutheran denominations. A dean's assistant is called a sub-dean.
The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) is an Anglican Church. It was founded in 1873 in New York City by George David Cummins, a former bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC), also known as the Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province), is a body of Christians in the continuing Anglican movement, which is separate from the Anglican Communion. This denomination is separate from the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia and the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.
The September 14–16, 1977 Congress of St. Louis was an international gathering of nearly 2,000 Anglicans in St. Louis, Missouri, united in their rejection of theological changes introduced by the Anglican Church of Canada and by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in its General Convention of 1976. Anglicans who attended this congress felt that these changes amounted to foundational alterations in the American and Canadian provinces of the Anglican Communion and meant that they had "departed from Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." Theological liberalism, financial support for political action groups, participation in the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), revisions to the Book of Common Prayer, and the ordination of women priests were not the only reasons for the split, but they were seen by these churches as evidence of the mainline church's departure from Anglican orthodoxy. The idea for a congress originated with the Reverend Canon Albert J. duBois in 1973 in preparation for the Louisville General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Canon duBois and the group called "Anglicans United" toured parishes in advance of the Congress to garner support. This congress was sponsored by the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen, an organization founded in 1973 as a coordinating agent for laypeople and clergy concerned about the breakdown of faith and order within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.
John Henry Hobart Brown was the first bishop of the Diocese of Fond du Lac in the Episcopal Church.
The historic or historical episcopate comprises all episcopates, that is, it is the collective body of all the bishops of a group who are in valid apostolic succession. This succession is transmitted from each bishop to their successors by the rite of Holy Orders. It is sometimes subject of episcopal genealogy.
James Lloyd Breck was a priest, educator, and missionary of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
Anglican–Roman Catholic dialogue is the historical communication between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, through their ecumenical relations. These were notably shaped subsequent to the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).
Jorge Ferreira da Costa OrtigaCGIH is a Portuguese prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop-Primate of Braga from 1999 to 2021.
Theodore Myers Riley was a prominent American Anglo-Catholic priest, author, and seminary professor born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A Civil War deserter from the Union Army, he was made a deacon on June 28, 1863, in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. He was ordained to the priesthood, also in the Diocese of New York, by Bishop Horatio Potter in 1866. He was a graduate of the General Theological Seminary.
Robert Ritchie was a prominent American Anglo-Catholic priest, author, and leader. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Philomathean Society (1862); he was next graduated from the General Theological Seminary (1867) in New York. He was made deacon on June 30, 1867, and ordained to the priesthood in 1869. Ritchie served as curate at both the Church of the Messiah and the Church of the Advent in Boston.
William Edward Scudamore (1813-1881) was a prominent Church of England priest, historian, liturgist, chaplain, and devotional author. His popular devotional manual Steps to the Altar reached its sixty-seventh edition in 1887, and was used extensively in North America and on the Indian subcontinent in addition to in Great Britain.
Loren Nichols Gavitt was a notable American Anglo-Catholic liturgist in the Episcopal Church during the twentieth century. His devotional manual St. Augustine's Prayer Book has been in print continuously since 1947.