Dcn Leah Sandwell-Weiss

Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate the life and ministry of John Henry Hobart. Who is that, I wondered, as I really had never heard of him. After I read the short bio of him on the Forward Day by Day website I still wasn’t sure what made this man special. Sure, he was an early bishop of New York and rector of Trinity Church in New York City, greatly increased the number of priests and episcopal churches in his diocese, and was leader in a renewal of the Episcopal Church following the Revolutionary War. He even founded a college which eventually was named after him, Hobart College. Now that was an institution I had heard of, as my former rector graduated from there, as did his friend, our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.

Then last week I received an e-mail from the Public Affairs office of The Episcopal Church announcing that the Presiding Bishop is going to give the opening address at a panel discussion as part of the Bicentennial Celebration for Hobart College on September 25. The title of the panel, “The Quest for Inclusion: From Bishop John Henry Hobart to Today” was intriguing. What could an early 19th century bishop have thought about diversity?

Well, quite a lot for the time, according to the email: he “invited congregants from all classes, regions, and races; ordained the state’s first Black priest, … consecrate[d] the first chapel for a Native American congregation and found[ed] the first Black church in New York.” But while a bit ahead of his time in some ways, he was part of it in others. According to an article about Bishop Hobart quoted in the email, he had an aversion to the involvement of the church in secular politics, which led him to resist participating in the early abolition movement and “toward complicity in Native American removal policies.”

The live-streamed panel discussion will look at how “what it means and looks like to be an inclusive church, honoring each person as a beloved child of God” through Bishop Hobert’s life and theology. Sounds like a good way to honor an early leader of our church over 190 years after his death.

You can find out more about Bishop Hobart and the panel by clicking here.

Revive your church, Lord God of hosts, whenever it falls into complacency and sloth, by raising up devoted leaders like your servant John Henry Hobart; and grant that their faith and vigor of mind may awaken your people to your message and their mission; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

—Dcn Leah