Henry John Whitehouse
Encyclopedia
Henry John Whitehouse was the second Episcopal
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

 bishop of Illinois.

Early life

Whitehouse was born in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, the son of John Whitehouse and Eliza Norman. He graduated from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1821, and from the General Theological Seminary
General Theological Seminary
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church is a seminary of the Episcopal Church in the United States and is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York....

 in 1824. Whitehouse was ordained deacon in 1824, and was ordained priest in 1827. After his ordination as priest, he became rector of Christ Church
Christ Episcopal Church (Reading, Pennsylvania)
Christ Episcopal Church, founded in 1762, is the oldest English-speaking congregation in Reading, Pennsylvania.Christ Church was organized under the ministry of the Rev. Robert Davis, who commenced missionary services in Reading in the spring of 1823. The present building was built between...

 in Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

. Two years later, he moved to become rector of St. Luke's Church in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, during which time he married his wife, Harriet Bruen. He remained there for fifteen years before moving to New York in 1844 to become rector of St. Thomas Church.

Bishop of Illinois

Whitehouse was elected coadjutor Bishop
Coadjutor bishop
A coadjutor bishop is a bishop in the Roman Catholic or Anglican churches who is designated to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese, almost as co-bishop of the diocese...

 of Illinois in 1851. He was the 55th bishop in the ECUSA, and was consecrated by Bishops Thomas Church Brownell
Thomas Church Brownell
Thomas Church Brownell was founder of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church from 1852 until his death....

, Alfred Lee
Alfred Lee (bishop)
Alfred Lee was an American Episcopal bishop. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard in 1827, and after three years practicing law in New London, Connecticut, he studied for the ministry, graduating from the General Theological Seminary, New York, in 1837...

, and Manton Eastburn
Manton Eastburn
Manton Eastburn was an Episcopal bishop. After graduation from Columbia University, he studied at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in the United States before ordination as deacon and priest by Bishop John Henry Hobart of the Diocese of New York...

. Upon the death of Bishop Philander Chase
Philander Chase
Philander Chase was an Episcopal Church bishop, educator, and pioneer of the United States western frontier in Ohio and Illinois.-Life:...

, Whitehouse became bishop, but refused to take up his seat for nine years, until his salary demands were met. The diocesan convention in 1860 charged him with dereliction of duty and generally condemned him. During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Whitehouse displayed decidedly pro-Southern sympathies, further alienating his Illinois flock.

Whitehouse identified with high church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...

 Anglicanism, and in 1868 he wrote of the real presence
Real Presence
Real Presence is a term used in various Christian traditions to express belief that in the Eucharist, Jesus Christ is really present in what was previously just bread and wine, and not merely present in symbol, a figure of speech , or by his power .Not all Christian traditions accept this dogma...

 of Christ in the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

. Several of his clergy, led by Charles Edward Cheney
Charles Edward Cheney
Charles Edward Cheney was born in Canandaigua, New York. He was an American bishop and second bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church. A graduate of Hobart College in Geneva, New York, he studied at Virginia Theological Seminary before ordination to the diaconate and priesthood by William...

, denounced the Anglo-Catholic idea, accusing Whitehouse of "unprotestantizing this Protestant Episcopal Church, corrupting her doctrine, debasing her worship, and over-turning her long-established rites, ceremonies, and usages." Whitehouse had his revenge when, on hearing of Cheney's unauthorized omissions of certain liturgical phrases, he attempted to have Cheney deposed, and by 1871, he was successful in having Cheney suspended from the ministry. Cheney later became one of the original clergymen of the Reformed Episcopal Church
Reformed Episcopal Church
The Reformed Episcopal Church is an Anglican church in the United States and Canada and a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America...

.

While in England in 1867, Whitehouse delivered the opening sermon before the first Pan-Anglican conference
Lambeth Conferences
The Lambeth Conferences are decennial assemblies of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place in 1867....

 at Lambeth Palace
Lambeth Palace
Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. It is located in Lambeth, on the south bank of the River Thames a short distance upstream of the Palace of Westminster on the opposite shore. It was acquired by the archbishopric around 1200...

, by invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was among the first American bishops to advocate for a cathedral system in the Episcopal Church.

Whitehouse died in 1874 and was buried in his family vault in Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Brooklyn, Kings County , New York. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.-History:...

, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York.

Family

His great-grandson was Ambassador Charles S. Whitehouse
Charles S. Whitehouse
Charles Sheldon Whitehouse was an American career Foreign Service Officer. He was U.S. Ambassador to Laos and Thailand in the 1970s.-Early life:...

. His great-great-grandson, Sheldon Whitehouse
Sheldon Whitehouse
Sheldon Whitehouse is the junior U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party...

, is a Senator from Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

.
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