History

There were certain rites of passage marked by colonial churches—birth, initiation, marriage, and death for the great majority of its white population and to lesser and varying extents for non-adherents and African Americans as well. We will look at the first one this week – baptism.

The current 1979 prayer defines baptism – “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church.” That part has not changed over time.

Today baptism can run the gamut from children to adults,  but in the colonial period, infant baptism was the norm, generally 1-3 months after birth. The difference with today is that recorded baptisms were close to actual recorded births, and since there were no bishops the priest baptized. Those baptized were close to recorded births since all were considered to part of the Anglican Church

The fullest and most remarkable of baptismal registers is that of Albemarle Parish (Sussex) during the ministry of William Willie. Parson Willie baptized 4,958 persons between 1740 and 1775, 4,112 whites and 846 blacks, averaging 138 baptisms annually. In the 1760s the annual average reached 166 baptisms. These figures represent 99 percent of white and 48 percent of black births recorded in the period.

There were two baptism services in the 1662 prayer, one for public and private. A significant number in the upper classes were baptized in the home and there is evidence they made an occasion for it. In diaries and journals, the word “christened” is used in conjunction with baptism.

This was not the prevalent practice based on the number of baptisms recorded on Sundays, accounting for 80% or more. The 1662 prayer book also carried a warning concerning private baptismal services.

Virginians observed both in home and church settings the Prayer Book requirement for godparents—two godfathers and a godmother for a male infant and two godmothers and a godfather for a female — to serve as "sureties" by acknowledging on behalf of the infant the articles of faith and promising to lead a godly life. Today we only require “one or more baptized persons” to act in that capacity.

The emphaisis on the service then was on original sin—Adam’s fall— was removed and the baptized person was received as a member of Christ’s Church: "forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin, and that our Saviour Christ sayth, none can enter into the Kingdom, of God except he be regenerate, and born anew of water and of the holy Ghost.”

The scripture language provided more examples of the use of water than today as a powerful but ambiguous symbol. As ocean, river, flood, or waves it represented an environment hostile to human activity, an unstable, ever changing, ever threatening, and often life-destroying force. The 1662 prayer book mentioned the example of Noah’s Ark and the flood. But it was also the element essential to life and the agent of cleansing and purifying. The liturgy of the prayerbook at the time called in remembrance of Moses’ part¬ing of the Red Sea water in the exodus from Egypt, and the baptism of Jesus by John, all associating water with God’s providence.

While both services are about “incorporating the Child into the body of Christ or the reception into the Church community, there is less emphasis on the original sin aspect and more about the role of community today. In the service as a community we “do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ. Thus, the idea of private baptisms has fallen out of favor. The direction of the minister then was to exhort the godfathers and godmothers to keep the child in the right direction.

Some similar ideas still remain in both services. In today’s service the baptized renounces “Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God” which is similar to that of 1662. In the actual baptism there is the “forgiveness of sin” and raising “ them to the new life of grace."

There is a section in the colonial service then where the baptismal covenant (Apostle’s Creed) was renewed. However, only those who support the infant said the creed and not the congregation as with today’s service.

Today’s service is more on continuing requirements of parishioners– “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ”, seek and serve Christ in all persons” and “strive for justice and peace among all people."

The requirement for parents were more specific then – call upon the child to hear sermons and the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. The last part of the service hinted that once these are known then the child is ready for initiation or what we call confirmation.

Today it is more general language – “Will you be responsible for seeing that the child you present is brought up in the Christian faith and life… Will you by your prayers and witness help this child to grow into the full stature of Christ”

Thus while the intent of the service was the same – forgiveness of sin and incorporation into the church, the emphais in the colonial period was the former. As the service started “Dearly beloved, all men are conceived and born in sin."

The series will explore words used in the Episcopal Church  that are arcane, unusual or have changed over time. This week’s word-parishioner.

We know the parishioners of St. Peter’s today – those people who attend the church. Granted it’s a subset of all that choose to join a church, one of many. In the Colonial Church, all were required be a part of one church – Anglican. No formal establishment of Baptists, Presbyterias and they paid the same annual parish levies. (These dissenters had to rely on voluntary contributions to their own churches.) Thus everyone in your parish  was a member – men, women, indentured servants and yes, slaves.  

Earlier research emphasized how colonials were unchurched despite laws to the contrary. Although there are few surviving parish registers, recent research has shown that annual baptisms nearly approximated annual white births. Actual attendance, however is a problem since Va. parishes kept no membership roles. Attendance was mandantory and it differed over the 170 years of colonials from one or two times a month. If you violated the law you could be fined five shillings or 50 pounds of tobacco paid to the churchwardens. In 1750, that would amount to $31 (2006).

Virtually every county recorded non-attendees with most of the prosecutions in the older Tidewater area. Dissenters, however, were excluded from attendance requirements.

Twice yearly at May and November county court sessions, grand jurors, in response to information provided by the sheriff, churchwardens, vestrymen, justices, other officers of the court, or from their own personal knowledge, presented individuals suspected of violating the laws prescribing the conduct expected of Virginians

Parshioners entering colonial churches found them divided by class, sex. They had assigned areas  to sit with men and women divided.   Pews were just being introduced in England in the 18th paid for by the wealthy but in Virginia they were a standard furnishing erected at public expense. The wealthy were assigned the best pews toward the front.  Benches were usually reserved in the back for servants, slaves and other lower classes. Galleries originated by the wealthy parishinioners who were not satisfed even when they commanded the best pews.

Church buildings were simple in the colonial era – usually only one room in a rectangular design. They were wooden at first and then brick became more popular, particularly in the 18th century. They expanded as colonial planters donated land for the cause.  Some churches in the northern Virginia area late in the 18th century were two story.  

Essential to Anglican worship were the pulpit and communion table.  Pulpits stood two or three "decks" high located on the north or south walls. The communion table often made of black walnut or white oak and with a low wooden railing was situated along the interior east wall. (Churches were built in an east/west direction) . Unlike in today’s church, communion was only held three or four times a year as a reaction against the Catholic past. A part of the Church’s 1606 canon was a requirement for the 10 commandments to posted along the east end. In Virginia churchdes, wall tablets were situated there with the 10 commandments, Apostles’ Creed and the Lord Prayer.

One item that Colonial Churches did not have was an organ – only about 5 or 6 did.  So singing was generally done unaccompanied usually led or announced by the clerk. The latter was a lay official whom we call the officiant today. Congregations sang hymns but also the Psalms according to metrical settings. 

Lancelot Andrewes’ life (1555-1626) encompassed the reigns of Elizabeth (1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625). He was closely associated with both of them. We celebrate his day on his death Sept 26, 1626.

Andrewes was the foremost theologian of his day and one of the most pious. He will be forever linked to the creation of the King James Bible being on the committee that created the book. He served not only as the leader of the First Westminster Company of Translators, which translated Genesis – 2 Kings, but also as general editor of the whole project. His contemporaries include everyone from Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain John Smith who ventured to Virginia and scientist Galileo.

A concise description of him can be found in God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, noting his intellectual abilities as well as a man close to the ordinary Englishman. “This was the man who was acknowledged as the greatest preacher of the age, who tended in great detail to the school-children in his care, who, endlessly busy as he was, would nevertheless wait in the transepts of Old St Paul’s for any Londoner in need of solace or advice, who was the most brilliant man in the English Church, destined for all but the highest office. There were few Englishmen more powerful. Everybody reported on his serenity, the sense of grace that hovered around him. But alone every day he acknowledged little but his wickedness and his weakness. The man was a library, the repository of sixteen centuries of Christian culture, he could speak fifteen modern languages and six ancient, but the heart and bulk of his existence was his sense of himself as a worm. Against an all-knowing, all-powerful and irresistible God, all he saw was an ignorant, weak and irresolute self”

A man of intense piety who spent five hours every morning in prayer, Andrewes kept in that chapel a book of private devotions which, when published after his death, became a classic Anglican guide to prayer.

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