July 17: William White, Bishop, 1836

The Collect of the Day

William White

O Lord, who in a time of turmoil and confusion raised up your servant William White to lead your church into ways of stability and peace; Hear our prayer, and give us wise and faithful leaders, that, through their ministry, your people may be blessed and your will be done; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

William White

O Lord, who in a time of turmoil and confusion didst raise up thy servant William White to lead thy church into ways of stability and peace; Hear our prayer, and give us wise and faithful leaders, that, through their ministry, thy people may be blessed and thy will be done; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jeremiah 1:4–10
Psalm 84:7–12
Mark 4:30–34

William White was born in Philadelphia on March 24th, 1747, and was educated at the college of that city, graduating in 1765. In 1770 he went to England, where he was ordained as a deacon on December 23rd, and as a priest on April 25th, 1772.

Upon his return home, he became assistant minister of Christ and St. Peter’s from 1772–1779, and rector from that year until his death on July 17th, 1836. He also served as chaplain of the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1789, and then of the United States Senate until 1800. Chosen unanimously as first Bishop of Pennsylvania in 1786, he went to England again, with Samuel Provoost, Bishop-elect of New York; and the two men were consecrated in Lambeth Chapel on Septuagesima Sunday, February 4th, 1787, by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of Bath and Wells and of Peterborough.

Bishop White was the chief architect of the Constitution of the American Episcopal Church and the overseer of its life during the first generation of its history. He was the Presiding Bishop at its organizing General Convention in 1789, and again from 1795 until his death in Philadelphia on July 17th, 1836.

He was a theologian of significant ability, and among his protégés, in whose formation he had a large hand, were many leaders of a new generation such as John Henry Hobart, Jackson Kemper, and William Augustus Muhlenberg. White’s gifts of statesmanship and reconciling moderation steered the American Church through the first decades of its independent life.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Psalm

⁷Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; *hearken, O God of Jacob.

⁸Behold our defender, O God; *and look upon the face of your Anointed.

⁹For one day in your courts is better than a thousand in my own room, *and to stand at the threshold of the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

¹⁰For the Lord God is both sun and shield; *he will give grace and glory;

¹¹No good thing will the Lord withhold *from those who walk with integrity.

¹²O Lord of hosts, *happy are they who put their trust in you!

Gospel

⁴Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ⁵“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” ⁶Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” ⁷But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, ⁸Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” ⁹Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”