This Week in Texas Methodist History  April 1

Bishop Joyce Delivers Missionary Speech In Episcopal Church in Marshall  1900

Although Methodism grew out of Anglicanism, there was considerable friction between the Episcopal Church and Methodists in Texas.   In 1853 the Methodist preacher at Bastrop, J. W. Whipple, invited the Episcopal Missionary Bishop George Washington Freeman to preach in his church.  Whipple and his colleague J. H. Addison attended the service and found it so lacking in spirituality that they kept the congregation after Freemen's departure so they could preacher "enthusiastic" sermons.  

The use of robes instead of plain clothing was major distinction between the two denominations.  Methodists derided Episcopalians as too ritualistic instead of "experimental".  We would use the work "experiential" instead of "experimental."

In 1900 Bishop Isaac Joyce of the MEC was in Marshall on a missionary tour.  Bishop Joyce had been MEC bishop of Japan, Korea, and China until 1898 and he toured afterwards telling stories about the work of the Asian missions.  Marshall was an appropriate setting since it was the location of Wiley College, founded by the MEC to serve African Americans.  It was named for Bishop Isaac Wiley of the MEC who had been a medical missionary to China from 1850 to 1854 and had died in China in 1884.  

The Episcopal Rector in Marshal, the Rev. T. W. Jones, invited Bishop Joyce to preach from his pulpit during Joyce's stay in Marshall.   The editor of the Advocate, a MECS organ, was astounded by the invitation.  He was also in Marshall at the time and decided to attend the service because "this was something new under the sun in Texas."   The report of the service was careful to note that Jones was robed and Joyce was in plain cloth.  

The "venerable" bishop (he was 66 at the time) spoke for an hour telling stories of missionary work in Asia then thanked Jones for the invitation and delivered a benediction.    The Advocate editor was most complimentary of the Episcopalian Rector for his courtesy and hoped such amity would spread.  He noted that Bishop Galloway (MECS) had been invited to address an Episcopal church in Brazil, and that Episcopalians in Virginia were known for their friendships with preachers from other denominations.  In  the end though, he couldn't resist.  He concluded his report "Not until Episcopalians abate some of their exclusiveness and arrogant airs can they hope that their pleas for 'church unity' will excite anything but ridicule. "