The success of the colonists in the above war took these and other churches from the jurisdiction of the Church of England. To meet the new situation measures were immediately taken by the ordained clergy of the colonies, who had accepted the results of the Revolutionary War for the restoration of the government and worship of that church. The church in the United States was without a head, that is to say without a Bishop. Those who constituted it could not continue without such. All English Bishops were so sworn to the Crown of England that they were unable to act in an independent state such as this. No priest could be elevated to the office of Bishop in England without subscribing to the following article, i. e. That the King's Majesty under God is the only Supreme Governor of this realm and of all other of His Highness's dominions and countries as well as in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal. In the American church no ordination or confirmations could take place. In 1780 a conference of the clergy and laity assembled at the call of the Rev. Dr. William Smith, president of Washington College. The purpose was to unite the separated parts into a body corporate. A second conference was called in 1783. There were present at this eighteen clergymen.
When the Revolutionary War closed there were in Connecticut forty Episcopal congregations, fourteen clergymen and forty thousand members, ten of the fourteen met at Woodbury in Litchfield County, and chose two men either of whom they thought would be suitable for the office of Bishop, namely, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Leaming, and Samuel Seabury. Dr. Seabury accepted, went to England and laid before the Bishop his credentials submitting to him the fact which in the judgment of the Connecticut people made the appointment of an American Bishop an immediate necessity. In case of failure in England he was to go to Scotland and endeavor to secure consecration of the non-juring Bishops. To these Bishops Seabury was finally compelled to resort for consecration. In a private chapel of a modest house in Aberdine he was consecrated by Robert Kilgour, Arthur Petrie and John Skinner. He came home to America the first Bishop of the church here.
In May, 1784, at a meeting held in New Brunswick, N. Y., by the managers of the society for the relief of the widows and orphans of clergymen the general condition of the church came up for discussion, the result of which was a call for a conference of churchmen from all the States to be held in October. It met. There were present delegates from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut. A call was issued summoning the churches in the several States to send delegates to a constitutional convention. This was held in Philadelphia on St. Michael's Day in 1785, with the following result: A constitution for the church. Having made it they proceeded to consider the Episcopate; they drew up an address to the Archbishop and Bishops of England. Upon the receipt of the answer they met in October, 1786, for its consideration. In reply they informed the English Bishops that the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds were retained and that in fact the English prayer book was kept intact. They then called the roll of States present to ascertain if any had chosen men for Bishops. New York delegates presented the name of Dr. Provoost. Pennsylvania presented the name of White. Maryland had already chosen Dr. Smith. White and Provoost went to England and were consecrated in Lambeth Chapel, February 4, 1786. On their return to this country they were met by the Bishop of Connecticut and with him consulted on terms of union. The result of their deliberation was the adoption of resolutions which it was thought would harmonize both sides. In these resolutions they recognized the validity of Seabury's consecration and that together with Provoost and White they had all the power which belongs to the Episcopal office limited only by such canons or laws as the entire church of the United States might fix. They then adjourned to meet again in Connecticut in convention of the whole church. When the constitution was altered, the Bishops became a separate house, the other house was to be composed of representatives, lay and clerical (not Bishops). They also revised the English prayer book to make it harmonize with the government of these States. These things being satisfactorily adjusted the organization of the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States of North America became an established fact.
The Protestant Episcopal churches of this section, with those of other sections of New York State, first came under the superintendence of Bishop Samuel Provoost, Rector of Trinity Parish in the city of New York; at which time, St. Andrews Parish, Walden, then in Ulster County and St. George's, Newburgh, were the only ones surviving the ravages of the Revolutionary period. These churches with St. David's had been organized under an act of incorporation granted by King George the Third, dated July 23, 1770, at which time the Rev. John Sayre was in charge of missionary work at Newburgh and parts adjacent.
There do not appear to have been any Episcopal duties performed in either Ulster or Orange Counties until 1700, from the time of the superintendency of Bishop Provoost when Rev. George H. Spierin became the minister and schoolmaster of St. George's Glebe School and Church in Newburgh and the rector of St. Andrews, Walden. There is no record of any visitations of the parishes by Provoost.
In 1804 when Rev. Frederick Van Horn was rector of St. Andrew's, it and St. George's were members of the Diocesan convention. Bishop Moore was then in charge of the diocese. During his Episcopate St. James' Church, Goshen, was received into union with the convention, 1808, and Christ's Church, Warwick, 1804. Although there are no records of any Episcopal visitations in this section of the State there probably were such. February, 1816, Bishop Moore died, and was succeeded by Bishop John Henry Hobart, who became the third Bishop of New York. Trinity Church, from which the bishops were selected down to the time of Bishop Horatio Potter, furnished not only the Bishops but the financial means for the maintenance of church work throughout the whole country. The Episcopal Church in the United States, when Dr. Hobart assumed Episcopal jurisdiction, was apparently dying. He revived hope in the hearts of its adherents. With him the church began to live and grow. He established a Churchman's magazine in New York, provided for a learned clergy by establishing a college at Geneva, did much for the endowment of the college in New York and was also the real founder of the Theological Seminary there. It was while he was bishop that the Rev. John Brown became rector of St. George's Parish, Newburgh (1816) and St. Thomas', New Windsor, 1818.
The original diocese of New York is now divided into five. The names of successful Bishops of New York from Hobart's time to this are Right Rev. Treadwell Onderdonk, who was consecrated in 1830; Bishop Wainwright, Bishop Horatio Potter, Bishop Henry C. Potter and Bishop Greer. In 1838 the diocese of western New York was created. Grace Church, Middletown, was organized under Onderdonk's Episcopate. During which also the Rev. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright was consecrated to perform the Episcopal duties in the diocese provisionally. Bishop Wainwright died on the feast of St. Matthew, Thursday, September 21st, 1854, in the sixty-third year of his age. Dr. Horatio Potter became Bishop, November 22, 1854, and served provisionally until the death of Bishop Onderdonk in 1861, and wholly from that time until the twelfth day of September, 1883, when he withdrew, having faithfully served the church as Bishop of New York for twenty-nine years. His Episcopate was the most successful and satisfactory from the beginning; Hobart's was brilliant, but his was masterful and complete. He was a great man, master of himself and others. He ruled with ease and equity the variant elements that composed the ministry and membership of the church. With clear perception of character he indulged idiosyncrasies in men whom he saw were sincere and earnest. A perfect gentleman, a true Christian, a sound churchman, unobtrusive and inoffensive. He handed the administration of the church to his successor affluent and strong, socially, spiritually, intellectually and financially. He was succeeded by his nephew, the Right Rev. Henry C. Potter. When he resigned his diocese there were in Orange County the following flourishing parishes: St. George's, Newburgh; St. Pauls, Newburgh; St. John's, Canterbury; St. James', Goshen; Grace Church, Middletown; St. Andrew's Walden; St. John's, Arden; St. George's Mission, Newburgh; Grace Church, Monroe. Under the present administration of his successor the growth of the church in this county has been continuous since 1904, being greatly aided by the Right Rev. David Hummel Greer, D.D., L.L.D., Bishop coadjutor. Orange County is united for missionary work with Sullivan County and Ulster County under the Rev. W. R. Thomas, D.D., Rector of Highland Falls, Arch-Deacon.
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.
Grace Church, Monroe. Minister in charge, J. H. McGinnis, D.D. Number of communicants in 1905, fifty-six. Income, 1905, between five and six hundred dollars.
St. Paul's Church, Chester. Rector, J. H. McGinnis, D.D. Income, 1905, $901.39. Number of communicants in 1899, thirty-three.