Bishop William White

Today, the Episcopal Church remembers William White, who was Bishop of Pennsylvania. He was a remarkable man of prayer who helped shape the Episcopal Church.

You might be surprised to learn that before the American Revolution, there were no Anglican (Church of England) bishops in the Colonies. After the American Revolution, it became extremely important to have American bishops. Samuel Seabury was the first American to be consecrated bishop in 1784, and in 1787 William White and Samuel Provoost, having been elected to the bishoprics of Pennsylvania and New York respectively, sailed to England and were consecrated bishops on February 14 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and the Bishop of Peterborough.

William White was born in Philadelphia in 1747. In 1770, he went to England to be ordained deacon and priest, and then returned in 1772 becoming an assistant at Christ Church and subsequently the rector of Saint Peter’s in Philadelphia. White served as Chaplain of the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1789, and then as Chaplain of the Senate.

White was largely responsible for the Constitution of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and he envisioned a system of church government that closely resembled that of the new nation. Bishop White wrote:

The power of electing a superior order of ministers ought to be in the clergy and laity together, they being both interested in the choice. In England, the bishops are appointed by the civil authority, which was a usurpation of the crown at the Norman conquest, but since confirmed by acts of parliament. The primitive churches were generally supplied by popular elections; even in the city of Rome, the privilege of electing the bishop continued with the people to the tenth or eleventh century, and near those times there are resolves of councils, that none should be promoted to ecclesiastical dignities, but by election of the clergy and people. It cannot be denied that this right vested in numerous bodies, occasioned great disorders; which it is expected will be avoided, when the people shall exercise the right by representation.

Let us next take a view of the grounds on which the authority of episcopacy is asserted. The advocates for this form maintain, that there having been an episcopal power originally lodged by Jesus Christ with his apostles, and by them generally exercised in person, but sometimes by delegation (as in the instances of Timothy and Titus) the same was conveyed by them before their decease to one pastor in each church, which generally comprehended all the Christians in a city and a convenient surrounding district. Thus were created the apostolic successors, who on account of their settled residence are called bishops by restraint; whereas the apostles themselves were bishops at large, exercising episcopal power over all the churches, except in the case of St James, who from the beginning was bishop of Jerusalem. From this time the word “episcopos,” used in the New Testament indiscriminately with the word “presbyteros” (particularly in the 20th chapter of the Acts where the same persons are called "episcopoi" and "presbyteroi"), became appropriated to the superior order of ministers. That the apostles were thus succeeded by an order of ministers superior to pastors in general, Episcopalians think they prove by the testimonies of the ancient fathers, and from the improbability that so great an innovation (as some conceive it) could have found general and peaceable possession in the 2d or 3d century, when episcopacy is on both sides acknowledged to have been prevalent. The argument is here concisely stated, but (as is believed) impartially.

White was Presiding Bishop of Episcopal Church at its first General Convention in 1789, and again from 1795 until his death on July 17, 1836.

Please remember in your prayers all of the bishops who are gathering at Lambeth during this time.