Muhlenberg, Machen, and the Reformed Episcopal Church

In 1856, William Augustus Muhlenberg (1797-1877) presented a Memorial (a formal petition) to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. In it, he called for a loosening of what he saw as the Episcopal Church’s exclusiveness regarding denominational authority. Essentially, he suggested that the Episcopal Church should adopt a more apostolic approach to episcopacy, where the bishop could serve as a unifying figure for all evangelical Christians, not just those in the Episcopal or Anglican tradition. By doing so, the episcopacy could become a source of unity among different Protestant groups, promoting greater cooperation and fellowship.

The goal was the reunion of Evangelical Protestants.

At nearly the same time, In 1870, when the Catholic Church officially defined the doctrine of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council, a group of dissenting Catholics—who rejected the doctrine—formed the Old Catholic Church. This movement sought to preserve traditional Catholic theology and liturgy while distancing itself from what they viewed as the overreach of papal authority. (As an aside, the Dutch Old Catholics would participate in a number of consecrations that would eventually spread throughout the Anglican communion to further fortify these line against the bogus claims of Apostolic Curae from Pope Leo XIII)

It was in this cultural moment of crisis and change in the Roman Church that the Protestant vision for a unified Christendom was imagined in the hearts of men like Muhlenberg and George David Cummings (a retired Bishop of the Episcopal Church). in 1873, Cummings would lead the movement to establish the Reformed Episcopal Church along Muhlenberg’s memorial. Bishop Peter Robinson writes it this way, “…the ecumenical focus of Muhlenberg, which was shared by Bishop Cummins, was a major impulse behind the creation of the REC, and it did bring in some folks of Methodist and Presbyterian backgrounds…”

The REC and Machen

J. Gresham Machen has many connections to Anglicans and was respected enough by the Reformed Episcopal Church to be the commencement speaker for the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church in 1932. Machen helped lead many from the PCUSA into the Presbyterian Church of America (Later forced by the courts to rename itself the Orthodox Presbyterian Church). During this process, Machen found aid from various men in the REC/Anglican World.

The Reformed Episcopal Church of the Atonement in Germantown offered its auditorium to Machen’s group, and a telegram of greeting was read to the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America (OPC) from the Rt. Rev. Robert Westly Peach, presiding bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church.

Machen’s vision for the OPC and Westminster itself began as the League of Evangelical Students, with headquarters at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Philadelphia (which is noted in the Christianity today, July 1935, Vol. 6 No. 2).

Reading the “Presbyterian Guardian” archives from the OPC we can find numerous articles from Reformed Episcopal Bishops and professors from the Reformed Episcopal Seminary who were invited to speak at events like Commencement at Westminster. The Rev. Fred C. Kuehner (Reformed Episcopal) led the prayers for Westminister Seminary’s Commencement in 1945.

Another notable figure of this time period was Gordon H. Clark (a prominent figure in presuppositionalism) who taught at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary during the Great Depression under Reformed Episcopal (Anglican) Bishop Rudolph and his son Robert Knight Rudolph (below pictured with Cornelius Van Til).