William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877) is considered by many historians of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America to have been its most significant leader of the nineteenth century. During the course of his ministry Muhlenberg expressed an understanding of the Christian faith which he called 'Evangelical Catholicism', the many expressions of which provided the basis for reforms and innovations affecting every aspect of the Church's life. Although many studies have been made of the many aspects of Muhlenberg's evangelical Catholicism they have overlooked a valuable resource in the background and development of this ideal. This research traces the origins of Muhlenberg's evangelical Catholicism to this primary source by examining the various expressions of Muhlenberg's ideal in the areas of Christian ethics, Church History, Christian Worship, Church Unity and Biblical Studies. The result of this study has been the discovery of the origins of Muhlenberg's ideal in the canonically prescribed theological curriculum known as the 'Course of Ecclesiastical Studies of 1804', or more commonly, the 'Bishops' List'. The method involved in tracing the background and development of evangelical Catholicism has been to examine Muhlenberg's innovations and reforms in the light of the works he read in preparation for ordination as well as to consider the influence upon him of contemporary movements in nineteenth, century Anglicanism. This research shows that evangelical Catholicism is expressed by Muhlenberg as a synthesis of the authors included within the highly eclectic, comprehensive, and often contradictory, 'Bishops' List', thus identifying the primary sources of Muhlenberg's concept of evangelical Catholicism and establishing a valuable means for the examination of the ideas which influenced William Augustus Muhlenberg and have had an enduring effect upon the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

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English Cathedrals have an established and valued place in their respective locations. Their central role is to provide “the seat of the bishop and a centre of worship and mission”. The contention is that whilst there may be clarity about mission in terms of worship, education and interpretation of the building, there is less clarity about where the energy should be focused in terms of a wider missional role. Recent reports have sought to measure the social and economic impact a cathedral has in terms of its local environs and its reach in terms of social and spiritual capital. The cultural context suggests a rapidly changing religious landscape where the movement, in a consumer society, is away from obligation and traditional forms of religiosity towards a more open understanding of spirituality with freedom to explore, to sample and to choose what to consume. This research approaches mission from a spiritual perspective. It creates also an outer/inner approach from which to establish its empirical work. As such it is concerned with the construction of theory; it follows an inductive approach, though is openly disposed to an inductive-deductive interaction where appropriate. It provides an in-depth methodology based on a case study scenario utilising the qualitative techniques of focus groups and semi-structured interviews through which to collect the data. There are four data-sets each presenting an outer/inner perspective. Of unique interest was the appearance of a sizeable Occupy camp, occupying the site outside the case study cathedral for fourteen weeks raising fundamental questions about economic and social inequality at a time when austerity measures were beginning to take effect. This critical incident drew the cathedral into a more public engagement with the big questions that impact upon our daily lives. A key finding from the empirical work in the case study is that alongside its ecclesial focus the perceived core priority must be its mission to the city through its invitation and welcome but also through its outreach. I use social capital theory to engage with aspects of ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’. Beyond the functionalist approaches, cultural and symbolic capital enables a more reflexive understanding of institution and cathedral habitus. This moves the analysis from the horizontal to the vertical axis by which ‘linkages’ are made with mechanisms of power and issues of justice and care. This facilitates further dialogue with global flows and their impact on daily life which integrates with the critical incident that was Occupy. Further analytical methods were incorporated to engage with these macro themes. The theological investigation emanates from within three spiritualities, ‘ecclesial’, ‘mystical’ and ‘prophetic’. It seeks to focus on the spirituality of the community, the community’s engagement with the consumer-led ‘spiritual turn’ and its bridging/linking role in the wider community. As a theological device I use a typology taken from the reading of the psalms to convey orientation, disorientation and new orientation. It coheres in particular with themes of disenchantment and the search for deeper meaning. This thesis contributes to the field of knowledge and the corpus of literature by proposing a model of cathedral mission that draws upon its spiritual and social capital to engage within the liminal spaces of emergent spiritualities, and the contested spaces of disorientation and disenchantment recasting fresh theological moorings to engage meaningfully with issues of justice and care. The outcome is reflective, dynamic and strategic, “creating new understandings of existing issues” and interacting with “disparate concepts in new ways”.

How can the Anglican Communion resolve its problems of internal ecumenism to overcome the threat of rupture that faces it at the beginning of the twenty-first century? Anglican identity is not monolithic but pluriform within the particularity of its tradition. The Anglican way of being Christian is one that is discursive rather than definitive, aware of its roots but open to new expression of itself – and aware of the conditionality of any expression of Church in this passing world. However, from time to time, there are tensions within the tradition between those who hold differing views. In 1867, facing the challenge of maintaining Anglican unity, Archbishop Longley summoned a meeting of Anglican bishops who sought collective understanding in a discursive, dialogic fashion and which evolved into a Lambeth Conference Tradition. The bishops sought the common mind of the Church on problematic questions, always aware of the mutability of their conclusions and often willing to change their view according to changed circumstances. In this way they sought to maintain Anglican unity and the principle of comprehension whereby the tradition sought to be inclusive of diversity. The Sixth Conference in 1920 sought to address the wider question of Christian unity by employing the same methodology. The Appeal to All Christian People was intended to draw the churches into engagement with one another to overcome their differences and achieve a degree of ecclesial unity. Reconciliation of Christians with each other was set at the heart of ecumenical discourse and bore fruit in important ways. This thesis proposes that the same methodology can and should be deployed to address the disputes that exist within the Anglican Communion at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The Lambeth Conference Tradition is an essential element in Anglican heritage that Anglicans may only ignore at their peril.

In this ethnography, writing as both practitioner and researcher, I represent and analyse the opinions and reflections of Anglican chaplains in English and Welsh prisons in order to locate their self - perception of role and identity. The Anglican chaplain has been a statutory appointment in every prison since 1779 and was a central figure in penal practice throughout the first half of the 19th century. Several chaplains wrote at length about their ministry and its significance; this conscious utterance in the public domain dwindled sharply from the 1860s onwards. My research presents current chaplains’ perspectives on their role and identity, configured by a social context which is perceived to be secular and in which other world faiths have a strong presence. Four main areas of focus emerge from the data: working with prisoners, working with staff, the apparently contradictory, ritual nature of secular and religious engagement, and issues of gendered interaction. These data are contextualised by respondents’ perceptions of prisons as parishes, the construction of Anglican chaplains’ identity by events within and outwith prisons and churches, and perceived relations with the Church of England and the Church in Wales. Having recognised other models of prison ministry, the thesis ends by identifying modes of potential, structured cooperation between church and chaplaincy. The epistemological con text derives from Goffman’s theory of total institutions but recognises subsequent reinterpretations of his work. The methodological reference points are Turner’s theory of liminality, Bell’s theory of ritual - like activities and Foucault’s heterotopia of deviance. The thesis offers a perspective on a traditional public form of ministry, that of the chaplains themselves, unexplored and not analysed for over a century. It is submitted as a further development in the growing discourse around practical theology and religious ministry in prisons.

Sanborn C. Brown, W.P. Allis. / "June 9, 1958." / Includes bibliographies. / Army Signal Corps Contract DA36-039-sc-64637. Dept. of the Army Task 3-99-06-108 and Project 3-99-00-100.

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