James DeKoven
Encyclopedia
James DeKoven was a priest, an educator and a leader of the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...

 in the Episcopal Church
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...

. DeKoven was born in Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...

 and educated at Columbia College. In 1851 he was admitted to 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....

 and was ordained as a deacon in 1854 in Middletown. He accepted a teaching position at Nashotah House
Nashotah House
Nashotah House is an Anglo-Catholic seminary of the Episcopal Church located in Nashotah, Wisconsin, approximately 30 miles from Milwaukee, in the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee. The seminary opened its doors in 1842 and received its official charter in 1847...

 in Wisconsin and became rector of the nearby St. John Chrysostom parish in Delafield
St. John Chrysostom Church (Delafield, Wisconsin)
St. John Chrysostom Church, also known as the Episcopal Church of St. John Chrysostom and the Little Red Church on the Hill, is an historic wooden Episcopal church building located at 1111 Genesee Street in Delafield, Waukesha County, Wisconsin...

. It was there that he was ordained as a priest by Bishop Jackson Kemper
Jackson Kemper
Bishop Jackson Kemper was the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.Baptized David Jackson Kemper by Dr...

. In 1859 he became the warden of Racine College
Racine College
Racine College was an Episcopal college in Racine, Wisconsin, founded in 1852. The collegiate department closed in 1887, but the college continued to be used as a grammar school and a military school until it closed in 1933....

 and continued to be at the center of that school for the rest of his life.

He led the cause for ritualism at the National Conventions in 1871 and 1874. DeKoven was several times nominated and even elected as a bishop, but was never ordained to the episcopate. He was nominated or elected as bishop of Massachusetts (1873), Wisconsin (1874), Fond Du Lac (1875), and Illinois (1875). In the Illinois election he was elected by the clergy and the laity, but the standing committee refused to accept his election. The reason given by the standing committee was his ‘doctrine on the Holy Eucharist.’ An open letter written in the Milwaukee paper on January 14, 1874 was at least partly responsible for his Eucharistic doctrine being questioned. The signers of this letter included three teachers from Nashotah House
Nashotah House
Nashotah House is an Anglo-Catholic seminary of the Episcopal Church located in Nashotah, Wisconsin, approximately 30 miles from Milwaukee, in the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee. The seminary opened its doors in 1842 and received its official charter in 1847...

. He also addressed the Church Congress ( a series of national meetings to cast a vision for the Episcopal Church) in 1876.

After suffering a fall on the ice he died on St. Joseph’s Day (March 19) in 1879. DeKoven is buried on the grounds of Racine College
Racine College
Racine College was an Episcopal college in Racine, Wisconsin, founded in 1852. The collegiate department closed in 1887, but the college continued to be used as a grammar school and a military school until it closed in 1933....

, now the DeKoven Center, in Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...

. His feast day is March 22.

Sources

  • Sermons Preached on Various Occasions by James De Koven (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1888)
  • The Story of a College by James De Koven (Manuscript, dated Middletown, Connecticut, 1862)
  • The Catholic Movement in the American Episcopal Church by George E. DeMille (Philadelphia: Church Historical Society, 1941)
  • Lesser Feasts and Fasts (New York: Church Publishing, 1979)
  • The Life of Reverend James De Koven D.D.: Sometime Warden of Racine College by William Cox Pope (New York: James Pott & Company, 1899)
  • A History of the Episcopal Church by Robert W. Prichard (Harrisburg: Morehouse Pub., 1999)

External links

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