George David Cummins | |
|---|---|
 Bishop G. D. Cummins | |
| Born | (1822-12-11)December 11, 1822 Delaware, United States |
| Died | June 26, 1876(1876-06-26) (aged 53) Lutherville, Maryland, United States |
| Alma mater | Dickinson College |
| Occupation | Religious leader |
| Organization | Reformed Episcopal Church (after c. 1873) |
| Known for | Founder of theReformed Episcopal Church |
| Spouse | Alexandrine "Ella" Balch Cummins |
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George David Cummins (December 11, 1822 – June 26, 1876) was an AmericanAnglican bishop and founder of theReformed Episcopal Church.
He was born inDelaware on December 11, 1822. Cummins graduated fromDickinson College, located inCarlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1841,[1] and entered theMethodist ministry.
In 1845, he took orders in theProtestant Episcopal Church. After serving asrector of Episcopal parishes inVirginia,Washington, andChicago, Cummins was appointedAssistant Bishop of Kentucky in 1866.[2]
A staunchEvangelical ofReformed doctrine, Cummins opposed the influences ofRitualism and theAnglo-CatholicOxford Movement.[3] In 1873, he was criticized for receivingcommunion with ministers outside of the Protestant Episcopal Church and resigned his position. He then founded theReformed Episcopal Church, of which he was the first presiding bishop, inNew York City and where he founded theFirst Reformed Episcopal Church.[2] A tremendous reference that gets no visibility or discussion and that details the Bishop's life, attitudes, beliefs, and career are given by his wife, Alexandrine, in the Memoirs.[4]
Cummins' Evangelical theological persuasions led him to separate from the Episcopal Church, which had, in his mind, been poisoned by the ritualism of the Anglo-Catholic party. Before he left the Episcopal Church, Cummins as bishop engaged in a highly provocative Church service in which he presided alongside a Presbyterian clergyman, Dr. John Hall, over Holy Communion at Hall's Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.[5]
Cummins believed that if the pure Evangelical principles of the Reformation were to survive the sacramental and ecclesial theological complications and gaudy ornamentation of the Anglo-Catholic movement, Evangelicals of all denominations must unite. He sought "Evangelical Catholicity" based on the ideas of the "Muhlenberg Memorial," authored by the prestigious Evangelical Episcopalian,William Augustus Muhlenberg. "Strength to the Protestant cause," declared Muhlenberg, "is one of the objects of this movement [i.e., the Muhlenberg Memorial]." Those, "who are true to the Reformation standards" needed to present "a united phalanx against Rome," Muhlenberg explained.[6] Cummins embodied this charge. And when he could no longer in good conscience serve the Diocese of Kentucky due to Ritualistic advances, he left the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Cummins left the Episcopal Church due to conflict with Anglo-Catholic theology, one facet of which is the insistence on Apostolical Succession for valid ordinations. Cummins felt that such a high view of Episcopacy injured the objectives of the new Re-formed Episcopal Church, which, now formed, sought to provide a unified Evangelical haven for all Reformational Christians in the spirit of "Evangelical catholicity". Ironically, Cummins, who preached against a high view of Apostolic Succession, was unwilling to part with it. When he left the Episcopal Church, and before he was deposed, he rushed to consecrate another bishop, the somewhat controversialCharles E. Cheney ofChrist Church, Chicago, as the second bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church.[7] Thereafter, the Reformed Episcopal Church's orders retained as episcopacy as "ancient and desirable," although other forms of church governments were not unchurched or belittled.
Cummins died inLutherville, Maryland, on June 26, 1876.[8]
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| Preceded by New creation | Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church 1873–1876 | Succeeded by |
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