 |
| The original building, St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Newark, by Kyra N. Pruszinski (used with permission) |
The Rev. William T. Webbe was one of the longest serving White rectors of St. Philip’s Church, Newark, the first Black Episcopal Church in New Jersey, which he served from 1873 to 1883.[1] However, he is better known for his editorial work in church publishing. For several years he served as the chief editor of The Standard, an Episcopal Church-oriented periodical first published in 1879 and printed in New York, which according to its own advertising was “designed to furnish information on topics of interest connected with the Church of GOD” and “open to the discussion of such subjects as are calculated to increase the efficiency and to promote the well-being and growth of the Church, with a respectful tolerance of opinions on religious subjects, which are allowed in this Church.”[2] Though it was still in print in 1885,[3] it seems unlikely that it ran much longer than that, though precise records are elusive. It is also exceedingly difficult to find archival material from the periodical, but in spite of its brief run and lack of historical footprint it appears to have made a very significant impression on the community of Black Episcopalians.
In his seminal treatment of the History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church from 1922,[4] the Rev. Dr. George F. Bragg describes Webbe’s influence at the paper. He writes:
There was a certain sentiment maturing in the North as well as in the South against the ordination of Negroes to the ministry. In the North there was a certain priest by name Rev. W. T. Webbe, who in his paper The Standard, argued earnestly and vigorously against the ordination of Negroes. In the South, there were not a few who maintained that such should not be permitted to go further than the diaconate. Out of this atmosphere a kind of sentiment gradually obtained in favor of the “dependent state,” attaching colored congregations to white parishes, or placing them entirely under the supervision and direction of the Bishop without the status of parishes.[5]
The publication of The Standard began near then end of Webbe’s tenure as the rector of St. Philip’s but continued afterward, including the period during which the church was served by its first Black rectors, starting with the Rev. Joshua B. Massiah, Webbe’s immediate successor.
From Bragg’s description of Webbe’s work at The Standard we can tell several things. Firstly, it is clear that Webbe presided over the congregation at St. Philip’s, Newark while holding racist views of Black people. Secondly, it appears that, in Bragg’s estimation, he was an influential voice in the Episcopal Church, and especially in the North, regarding the ordination of Black priests, and the organization and oversight of Black congregations. Thirdly, this influence helped produce an overall approach on the part of White Episcopal authorities throughout the Church that kept both ordained Black Episcopalians and Black congregations in contrived subordinate, dependent states. Bragg went on to state that “thus… it has long since become a normal habit” that “most of our colored clergy, through long years of submission and dependence, almost unconsciously, are nailed down to such a system.”
Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Research Historian
Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey
[1] See “St. Philip’s Episcopal Church” at http://newarkreligion.com/episcopal/stphilips.php. St. Philip's was part of the Diocese of New Jersey until 1874 when it became part of the Diocese of Newark.
[2] William G. Farrington, The Church Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1881 (New York: Pott, Young & Co., 1880), 132.
[3] See listings in William G. Farrington, The Church Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1885 (New York: Pott & Co., 1884), 97.
[4] George F. Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church (Baltimore: Church Advocate Press, 1922).
[5] Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church, 247.
