THE PRESENTATION of a Loving Cup to Mr. Nicholas N. de Lodygensky, the retiring Imperial Consul General of Russia took place, as arranged, in the Vestry Room of Trinity Chapel, 16 West 26th Street, New York, on Thursday, March the nineteenth at 4.45 P. M.
Among those present were The Bishop of New York, The Rev. Morgan Dix, D.D., The Rev. William H. Vibbert D.D., The Rev. William T. Manning D.D., The Rev. Arthur Lowndes D.D., The Rev. W. R. Huntington D.D., The Rev. F. M. Clendenin D.D., The Rev. Stuart Crockett D.D., The Rev. S. P. Simpson M.A., The Rev. Charles Le V. Brine, The Rev. Edmund Banks Smith, The Rev. J. S. Miller, The Rev. Edmund Booth Young, The Rev. W. C. Rodgers, The Rev. S. S. Mitchell, The Rev. C. E. Oswald, The Rev. John Campbell and Messrs J. H. Van Amringe, Edwin S. Gorham, Augustus L. Hyde and Henry St. John Hyde.
The Presentation was made by the Bishop of New York, who according to the Stenographer's report said:--
We have assembled here, gentlemen, in order to present to
our friend, the Consul General of Russia, the silver loving cup
which stands on the table before you. Most of you I fancy,--all
of you doubtless,--are personal friends of Mr. de Lodygensky,
and have learned as I did with very keen regret that he was about
to retire from his present position, and to be removed from the
residence in New York which has made it I hope in some sense
a home to him. He goes away from New York carrying away with
him a quite peculiar sentiment. No foreign consul so far as I
know, has come into quite the relations to the Church that he
has formed and fostered,--and it has been a great delight to
us, in connection with many interesting occasions to have him
present, and to have him testify to his sincere interest and
sympathy with the life of the Church in this land.
The problems with which we are dealing and the problems with
which the Church in Russia are dealing are of course as diverse
as the political, the social and the various domestic conditions
of life in that great land, and our own. It is not the attitude,
the gift, the endowment of many men to go below the surface in
that regard. The fine quality in the mental endowment of our
friend, as I have encountered it, has been that he has been able
to penetrate to those essential and substantial elements of identity
of interest, and of affection, and of historic veneration, which
bind us and the Church in Russia together; and so we ask him,
and I ask you, my dear friend, to take with you to your house
in Russia the Cup which stands on the table before you, at this
moment, and the inscription of which you will allow me to read:
By Some of His Friends of
The American Church
TO
Nicholas N. de Lodygensky
As a Mark of Personal Esteem
And in Appreciation of His Efforts
To Promote the Re-Union of Christendom
March 19, 1908.
We have also here a letter which I will ask Dr. Lowndes who has charge of it to read to you and besides that we have here some books, which you see before you, which we shall ask your acceptance as personal gifts from the Authors.
We try my dear friend to give a cheerful aspect to this occasion. The pathetic note in it is the inevitable and dreary failure of every such endeavour. It is impossible that such a man with your many and practical gifts can come into the horizon of our ecclesiastical or personal life without producing results which make your departure from that horizon profoundly depressing to us. I want you to know when you go back to your Russian home, that great empire, whose growth and progress and great political ideas we are all watching with intense interest and sympathy, you will carry with you the love and respect and the undiminished interest of a great multitude of people who are represented by the reverend clergy and others who are in this room.
We beg you, as the expression of that affection and respect
to accept this loving cup and the books that go with it, and
bear back to that native land the constant remembrance of our
undying love. (applause.)
MR. DE LODYGENSKY: My Lord Bishop very Reverend Doctors and Reverend.
Fathers:--- It is not captatio benevolentiae that I really must
begin by saying that I appeal to your generous tolerance. I have
never been educated and prepared for making addresses or speeches
and if I say some words now today, it will just be a plain expression
of my heart. If there are some grammatical or syntaxical errors,
you will pardon them of a stranger who has spent only six years
in this hospitable land, who has certainly made some progress
in his knowledge of the great Anglo-Saxon language, but not a
sufficient one. What I want to say, and I hope that you will
believe that it is my sincere feeling, is that this is today
one of the happiest days of my life. To be greeted in this way
by representatives of the Anglican Church in the United States
is a most important event in my personal life. If you will pardon
me for entering into some small details, they will explain to
you how I came to love this Ecclesia Anglicana. This question
has been put to me by many persons and there is absolutely no
merit of my own in it. My mother was a very religious person
and she had an English education. She was born in the year of
Napoleon 1812, the time when a part of Russian civilized society
was Voltairian, but she herself was of another turn of mind.
At the same time that I learned the prayers in Russian from her,
I learned them in English, and I read the gospel in the old Slavic
and English, at the same time. When a boy at school in Moscow,
every Sunday I went to my church at eight o'clock, and at eleven,
to the English chapel; and when I learned the catechism and the
history of the Church through the professor of Theology, he positively
pointed to this special peculiar feature, that the Anglican Communion
is not Protestant, and he even referred to the tradition that
St. Paul himself had been on the shores of Britain, as well as
some of the other eastern Fathers. So this is the explanation
of the riddle that I was always aspiring to come nearer and study
this Church and have closer relations with it. I had no such
opportunity until I came here, except, as I say, when I went
to the services in an Anglican Church.
Your Lordship made the allusion that although there are such great differences between the two Churches and States and so forth there are points of similitude.
This is precisely the important motif of all my feelings and
personal relations. Both of our Churches are Catholic. They are
Apostolic. They have their Apostolic Orders, and they are independent.
Without being anti-Roman, they are non-Roman. So this is the
situation that gives the opportunity for mutual attraction and
mutual interest. I consider as a great blessing the opportunity
of spending six years in America before leaving on the eve of
my career and of my life; I regret that I did not come earlier,
and had not more years to spend here. All these beautiful gifts
make me absolutely confused and confounded. The books certainly
will be of great help.
I want to say, if it is not calling too much upon your patience,
that in paying these great compliments to my activity here, you
throw a cloud of incense. But out of all this cloud of incense
there is only one point where I may say I really did something,
and that was in 1903, when with most fervent prayers, I requested
the Right Rev. The Bishop of Fond du Lac to go to Russia. This
was my motion and it was seconded by our friend here present
the Rev. E. B. Smith. This was really a very important event,
although it came on the eve of the late unfortunate war; nevertheless
it produced a great impression. In the history of the relations
of the two Churches, this was the second American Bishop who
went over. The first was Bishop Young of Florida, I think, once
a curate of Dr. Dix. This was 40 years ago. Afterwards came the
visit of Bishop Creighton of England and quite recently the Bishop
of London, after having been here and received your gift, went
to Russia. These personal visits are precisely the best way of
coming closer together.
I remember that, in vain, I tried even to recommend to you Right Rev. Bishop to visit Russia when you went to Egypt, but I think you could not go because it was at the time of disorders.
The Bishop of Delaware was just in the same situation; he promised that he would go, but he could not. Now that all these bad times, that the war and disorders are over, I think it would be very important that some practical, close relations should be established. You have on both sides institutions; you have here--I beg pardon if the name is not correct; it is either the Committee or the Commission of Foreign Relations of your General Convention; what is the proper title?
BISHOP POTTER: We have the Joint Commission on Ecclesiastical Relations and one on Christian Unity.
MR. de LODYGENSKY: The result of the visit was the appointing by the Holy Governing Synod of Russia, of a special Commission for the study of relations with the Anglican Communion under the presidency of one of our most enlightened Archbishops, the most Rev. Sergius of Finland, who knows English. These are two permanent institutions, but I want to refer to two special ones which present further opportunities. In June, if I am not in error, there will be a Pan-Anglican Congress.
BISHOP POTTER: July,
MR. de LODYGENSKY: July, where representatives of the Ecclesia Anglicana from the whole globe will gather. The Lambeth Conference will also take place some days before or after?
BISHOP POTTER: I am speaking of the Lambeth Conference.
MR. de LODYGENSKY: But there is also the Pan-Anglican Congress.
BISHOP POTTER: Yes.
MR. de LODYGENSKY: On the other side, Russia is on the eve of a local council. If it is not abusing your patience too much, I want to point out what an important event in the inner life of the Russian Church it is. The last local council was in 1667, called by the Tzar Alexis the father of Peter the Great. It was for the revision of books. There were representatives of the four Patriarchates. The local council which will be convoked now, is called to pass on internal matters but there is hope that the representatives of the patriarchates will also be invited and be present.This would seem to be an occasion for the Anglican Communion, as well in England as in the United States, to take some interest in this event of internal evolution in the Russian Church.
BISHOP POTTER: When does that sit?
MR. de LODYGENSKY: It is not yet decided. It is the Emperor himself who took the initiative, because as you know in our Church, the councils are convoked by the Emperors. It was so in Byzantium and it was so in Russia, and it will be just the same thing now. The date is not yet fixed, but it is hoped that it will be perhaps in the fall of this year.
BISHOP POTTER: I will move at the Lambeth Conference that we unite in sending a commission.
MR. de LODYGENSKY: That is the point. And at last I want to mention a modest organization which also can be of great help, that is the newly instituted Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union, with the mother organization in England and a branch here in America. The Committees of this Union may set at work and elaborate a programme of practical studies.
That is all I have to say about the Russian Church. But at last I would beg permission, although a stranger and a foreigner, to tell you the feeling and opinion I have in regard to the Anglican Communion at large. If I were an Anglican, I should be just as happy as I am in being an Easterner. (Applause). I should consider that I belonged to a Church which has the entire Evangelical Truth, which has the Apostolic Orders, which has obtained and conserved its independence. It is an autocephalous Church. I think that in these attempts or tendencies towards the reunion of Christendom, The Anglican Communion, the Ecclesia Anglicana has a great mission. It is the only independent Church of the Western Patriarchate. The Western Patriarchate, history not only teaches us, but even the present shows us, is unfortunately in a State of disintegration. In the 16th and 17th centuries, you find these great Protestant movements. At the same time the English Church separated. Then came the Jansenists, and the Dutch Church, the only remnants of Catholicism now. The Gallican Church was crushed and now we see the results. What do you see in France? What do you see in Italy? In Spain? I think that the Anglican Communion, if it takes in its hands, the banner of the revival of true Catholicity in the West, will find followers and will help those who want to remain Catholics without being subjects of one See. This is perhaps entering into a province which is none of mine, but this is the result of my studies here and of my personal relations.
Once more, I beg to express my most deep and heartfelt thanks for you, my Lord Bishop, and for all of our good friends and my friends who have, in their great kindness, honoured me by their friendship during all of this time, and now present me with such a beautiful gift and such interesting books, which I will take home as a remembrance of the best times and the hour of my life here in your city. (Great applause). This is quite a little thing in comparison with these beauties. (presenting to Bishop Potter the Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church compiled and translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood.) I beg your permission.
BISHOP POTTER: I am very much obliged to you. Thank you.
Dr. Lowndes then read the address which had been illuminated on vellum and bound in Russian leather:--
To the Honourable Nicholas N. de Lodygensky, Imperial Consul General of Russia at New York &c. &c. &c.
We the undersigned as members of the American Church beg to express our sincere regret at hearing that you are about to return to your native country. You have done so much, during your residence here, to foster a friendly feeling between the American Church and the Orthodox Russian Church and to promote in every way in your power a sense of comradeship and union that your influence will be greatly missed.
We trust that you will accept what we now have the pleasure in offering you as a token of our esteem, and that when you return to your Fatherland you will not cease your kind efforts to promote the cause of the re-Union of Christendom as wisely as you have done in the land of your sojourn.
New York,
19 March 1908.
The donors and signers to this address number seven Bishops, sixty-three priests, and fourteen of the Laity:--
H. C. Potter D. D., LL. D, D. C. L., Bishop of New York.
James H. Darlington D.D., Bishop of Harrisburg.
Robert Codman D.D., Bishop of Maine.
C. C. Grafton D. D., Bishop of Fond du Lac
Wm. M. Brown D.D., Bishop of Arkansas.
C. P. Anderson D.D., Bishop of Chicago.
Edward Melville Parker D.D., Bishop Coadjutor of New Hampshire.
Morgan Dix D.D., D.C.L.,
Rector of Trinity Church. New York.
Arthur Lowndes D.D., LL.D.,
Author of "Vindication of Anglican Orders."
F. M. Clendenin D.D.,
Rector of St. Peter's Church. Westchester. New York,
G. Woolsey Hodge
Rector of the Church of the Ascension. Philadelphia.
W. R. Huntington D.D., D.C.L.,
Rector of Grace Church. New York.
Ernest M. Stires D.D.,
Rector of St. Thomas's Church. New York.
William T. Manning D.D.,
Rector's Assistant. Trinity Church. New York.
William H. Vibbert D.D.,
Vicar of Trinity Chapel. New York.
Arthur Ritchie D.D.,
Rector of St. Ignatius' Church. New York.
Caibraith B. Perry D.D.,
Rector of St. Luke's Church. Cambridge, N. Y.
Thomas B. Fulcher
Canon of All Saints Cathedral. Albany. N. Y.
Edw. Wallace Neil Sc. D.,
Rector of the Church of St. Edward the Martyr. New York.
H. M. Denslow D.D.,
Professor of Pastoral Theology. General Theological Seminary
New York.
Francis J. Hall D.D.,
Professor of Dogmatic Theology. Western Theological Seminary
Chicago.
Clarence M. Dunham,
Rector of St. Jude's Church. Brooklyn.
George N. Mead M.A.,
Curate of Corpus Christi Church. New York.
Joseph Hooper, M.A.,
Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Durham. Connecticut.
S. P. Simpson
Curate of St. Clement's Church. New York.
Bruce V. Reddish
Rector of the Church of St. John the Divine. Hasbrouck Heights,
N. J.
Campbell Gray
Priest in charge of St. Barnabas Church. Deland. Fla.
Charles leV. Brine
Rector of Christ Church. Portsmouth. N.H.
Maurice W. Britton
Vicar of the Church of the Holy Cross. New York.
Edmund B. Smith
Chaplain, St. Cornelius's Chapel. Governor's Island. New York.
James A. Mc Cleary
Rector of the Church of the Mediator. Edgewater. New Jersey.
Clarence Buel
Priest of the Diocese of Maryland.
Augustus Prime
Rector of St. Margaret's Church. Brighton. Boston. Mass.
George Williamson Smith D.D., LL.D.,
Emeritus Professor, Trinity College. Hartford Conn.
Joseph A. Poster
Curate of St. Peter's Church. Westchester. N. Y.
Edmund Booth Young
Rector of St. Luke's Church. Chelsea. Mass.
J. S. B. Hodges D.D.,
Rector emeritus of St. Paul's Church. Baltimore. Md.
D. I. Odell
Rector of the Church of the Annunciation. Philadelphia.
J. S. Miller
Rector of the House of Prayer. Newark.
Warner E. L. Ward
Rector of St. Paul's Church. Brooklyn.
William Harman van Allen D. D.,
Rector of the Church of the Advent. Boston.
G. E. Magill
Rector of the Church of the Holy Innocents. Hoboken. N. J.
Philip A. H. Brown
Vicar of St. John's Chapel. New York.
George McClellan Fiske D. D.,
Rector of St. Stephen's Church. Providence, R. I.
George S. Pratt
Rector of All Souls Church. New York.
Octavius Applegate
Rector of St. John's Church. Kingston. N. Y.
Clarence Wyatt Bispham
Rector of St. Philip's Church. Philadelphia.
Sturges Allen
Superior of the Order of the Holy Cross. West Park. N. Y.
Charles Mercer Hall M.A.,
Rector of the Church of the Holy Cross. Kingston. N. Y.
Archibald Campbell Knowles
Rector of St. Alban's Church. Olney. Philadelphia.
Ralph L. Brydges
Rector of St. Nark's Church. Islip. N. Y.
Thomas D. Windiate
Rector of St. Paul's Church. Fayetteville. Arkansas.
G. C. Houghton D.D.,
Rector of the Church of the Transfiguration. New York.
J. H. Watson M.A.,
The City Mission. New York.
John Campbell
Rector of the Church of the Mediator. New York.
Milo H. Gates
Rector of the Church of the Intercession. New York.
Charles Everett Oswald
Curate of Trinity Chapel. New York.
J. Baptiste Blanchet D.D.,
Rector of All Saints Church. Mariner's Harbour. Staten Island.
J. Harris Knowles
Curate of St. Chrysostom's Chapel. New York.
J. Clarence Jones
Rector of St. Mary's Church. Brooklyn.
Henry Barker M.A.
Rector of All Saint's Church. Rosendale. N. Y.
Frederick W. Cornell
Chaplain, Randall's Island. New York.
Samuel Mitchell
Curate of St. Chrysostom Chapel. New York.
Henry Riley Cummey Jr., D.D.,
Rector of Grace Church. Haddonfield. N. J.
Stuart Crockett D.D.,
Rector of Holyrood Church. New York.
William Cunningham Rodgers M.A.
Curate of St. Agnes Chapel. New York.
J. B. Wasson D.D.,
Chaplain to Strangers. New York.
J. C. Lord M.A.
Rector of All Saints Church. Navesink. N. J.
George William Douglas D.D.,
Canon of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. New York.
Theodore M. Riley D.D.,
Rector of Christ Church. Hudson N. Y. and Hon. Canon of the Cathedral
of All Saints. Milwaukee.
J. H. Van Amringe.
Edwin S. Gorham.
H. H. Cammann.
George F. Crane.
Ambrose S. Murray Jr.
Kennard Buxton.
Nicholas F. Palmer
Augustus L. Hyde.
Frederic C. Morehouse.
Charles Lanier.
Seth Low.
Elbridge T. Gerry.
William Jay.
Henry St John Hyde.
