Holy Man of the Week:
William White, Bishop of Pennsylvania
17 July, 1836
Before the War of Independence, there were no bishops in America (partly because the British government was reluctant to give the colonies the kind of independence from the Church of England that this would have implied). After Independence, the second Bishop to be consecrated (after Samuel Seabury of Connecticut) was William White, Rector of Christ's and Saint Peter's Episcopal Churches in Philadelphia, who was named Bishop of Pennsylvania.
As a clergyman in Philadelphia, White had shown an unusual sensitivity for the poor, the unfortunate, and those who were in trouble. He was president of the Philadelphia Dispensary, which supplied medical aid to the poor; of the Pennsylvania Institute for the Deaf and Dumb; and of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.
He was concerned about religious education and was instrumental in the founding of the first Episcopal Sunday school in America. He consecrated two African-Americans as priests: Absalom Jones and William Levington. As the first Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, he was also largely responsible for our church's Constitution, which includes lay people in its decision-making bodies - a system which continues today.
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and Saturday, August 24th.
