Apostle to the Wilderness

Book excerpt: This book describes the life and work of John Medley, the first member of the Oxford Movement to be consecrated bishop. As an experiment, W. E. Gladstone, future Prime Minister of England and keen churchman, arranged in 1844 to have a member of this controversial group appointed to the Episcopal bench. Because those associated with this movement were suspected of Roman Catholic theological leanings and perhaps even disloyalty to the English Establishment, such a move was politically and ecclesiastically dangerous in England. So Medley was sent to the colonies. Intended to establish High Churchmanship and the British Empire in the soil of the new world, Medley became convinced, over this forty-seven-year episcopate, that the American model of the church was more practical than the British. He eventually forged an identity for his diocese that was, in many ways, to be the pattern for the modern worldwide Anglican Church. Barry Craig is an Assistant Professor in the department of philosophy at St. Thomas University.