Peter W. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469626970
- eISBN:
- 9781469628134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626970.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Within the Episcopal Church—unlike some other denominations—there was considerable room for argument on matters of social and economic issues as well as those of “churchmanship.” During this era, ...
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Within the Episcopal Church—unlike some other denominations—there was considerable room for argument on matters of social and economic issues as well as those of “churchmanship.” During this era, many Episcopalians, both clergy and laity, remained attached to the laissez-faire economics that had dominated American thought during much of the nineteenth century. Others, however, grew highly critical of this economic system in the American social and political context. Many Episcopal parishes became pioneers in the institutional church movement, devising a whole new mixture of physical plant and programming that could provide a wide variety of services to poorer parishioners. Although many of their ideas and practices were shared with other denominations and secular agencies, Episcopalian “Social Gospellers” often differed from their counterparts in their association with the thought and experience of the Church of England, with which American Anglicans maintained a lively relationship during this era.Less
Within the Episcopal Church—unlike some other denominations—there was considerable room for argument on matters of social and economic issues as well as those of “churchmanship.” During this era, many Episcopalians, both clergy and laity, remained attached to the laissez-faire economics that had dominated American thought during much of the nineteenth century. Others, however, grew highly critical of this economic system in the American social and political context. Many Episcopal parishes became pioneers in the institutional church movement, devising a whole new mixture of physical plant and programming that could provide a wide variety of services to poorer parishioners. Although many of their ideas and practices were shared with other denominations and secular agencies, Episcopalian “Social Gospellers” often differed from their counterparts in their association with the thought and experience of the Church of England, with which American Anglicans maintained a lively relationship during this era.
