| James DeKoven (March 22nd) was the Episcopal Church’s leading advocate of the “High Church”/Anglo-Catholic movement in the latter half of the 19th century. He was born in Middletown, CT in 1831 and ordained a priest in 1855. He was then appointed professor of Church History at Nashotah House, an Episcopal seminary in rural Wisconsin that was a center of Anglo-Catholicism. “The House” emphasized the sacramental life of the Church, and promoted expressions of devotion to the Real Presence of Christ in the bread and wine of the Eucharist (such as bowing to the altar and at the name of Jesus).
In 1859, DeKoven became Warden of the Episcopal Church’s Racine College (Wisconsin), where he built up a strong emphasis on the College’s common worship. He came to national attention at the 1871 General Convention, a time when the controversies over “ritualism” in the Episcopal Church were much inflamed. Opposing the Low Church party’s efforts to dictate uniformity of practice in worship, DeKoven asserted that candles on the altar, incense, and genuflection were permissible because they symbolized a teaching the Episcopal Church upheld: “the real, spiritual presence of Christ” in the Eucharist. He cited a ruling in the Church of England that “the spiritual presence of the Body and Blood of our Lord in the Holy Communion is objective and real.” He reminded the Convention that the Orthodox and the Lutherans also upheld this doctrine. His arguments were compelling and won the day. That acceptance was begrudgingly given, however. Due to his High Church thought, DeKoven was twice denied the national Church’s consent to his election as a bishop—of Wisconsin in 1874 and Illinois in 1875. He died at Racine College in 1879 and is entombed in the College’s Chapel. |
