Primitive Episcopal Church - General History

The USA Jurisdiction: 1997 to 2003

The founder of the Primitive Episcopal Church (PEC) was Bishop Steven S. Murrell of High Point, North Carolina, USA. He was originally consecrated on 28 May 1997 by Bishop Peter Morganstern of Wilmington, Delaware (Church of the East), assisted by Bishop Gerald Foster. The name of the jurisdiction was first called the Diocese of the Holy Spirit (DHS); at a convention of the Church in November of 2001 the name was changed to that of the Primitive Episcopal Church. (At this same convention, the format of a PEC version of the Book of Common Prayer was passed; this BCP was published in July of 2002.) Earlier, in the summer of 2000, Bishop Murrell was sub-conditione consecrated by Archbishop Stephen Charles Reber of the United Episcopal Church of North America (UECNA), assisted by Bishops Edward Harris Marshall and Charles Singman. An inter-communion agreement between the DHS and the UECNA was signed by +Murrell and +Reber at the same time.

The denomination was never very large. In 1998 the Rev'd Robert F. W. Lyons, an Old Catholic priest, joined the DHS and began St. Alban's Anglican Church Mission in Anderson, Indiana. By 2000, Bishop Murrell and his family had left North Carolina and had relocated to Galax, Virginia, where he was in charge of St. George's Anglican Church Mission. On 16 June 2001, the Rev'd John Hartman of Huron, Ohio, was ordained a presbyter for the Diocese of the Holy Spirit by +Murrell in St. Paul's United Episcopal Church, Coshocton, Ohio. Assisting Bishop Murrell was the rector of St. Paul's, the Rev'd Robert K. Hemphill and the Rev'd Robert Lyons. In February of 2002 the Rev'd Juan O. Cepero joined the Church and established a deanery of the PEC in Dorado, Puerto Rico.

On 6 October 2002 Fr. Lyons and St. Alban's Mission left the PECand came under the episcopal oversight of an nearby Old Catholic bishop. It was the main mission of the jurisdiction in terms of parishioners and Fr. Lyons was also the webmaster for the Church's website. The PEC formally ceased to exist on 17 May 2003 when +Murrell became a bishop in UECNA and Fr. Hartman became a priest in the same jurisdiction. Fr. Hartman passed away on 24 June 2005 at the age of 71 years.

The original Episcopal Succession of this church is as follows: George David Cummins, founder of the Reformed Episcopal Church in 1873, cons. (1876) William Rufus Nicholson who cons. (1879) Alfred Spencer Richardson who cons. (1888) James Martin who cons. (1897) Andrew Charles Albert McLaglen who cons. (1922) Herbert James Monzani Heard who cons. (1939) William Hall who cons. (1952) Charles Dennis Boltwood who cons. (1959) John Marion Stanley who cons. Peter Morganstern who cons. (1997) Steven S. Murrell.

The conditional Episcopal Succession of this church is as follows: Robert Kilgour, Primus of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, cons. (1784) Samuel Seabury who cons. (1792) Thomas John Claggett who cons. (1797) Edward Bass who cons. (1797) Abraham Jarvis who cons. (1811) John Henry Hobart who cons. (1827) Henry Ustick Onderdonk who cons. (1834) James Hervey Otey who cons. (1850) William Mercer Green who cons. (1875) William Forbes Adams who cons. (1909) John Gardner Murray who cons. (1928) Norman Spencer Binstead who cons. (1948) Isabelo de los Reyes, Jr. who cons. (1957) Francisco de Jesus Pagtakhan who cons. (1981) Forrest Ogden Miller who cons. (1996) Stephen Charles Reber, Sr. who cons. (2000) Steven S. Murrell.

The English Jurisdiction : 1830 to 1845

In the spring of 1827, the Rev'd George Montgomery West, A.M. (1790 to 1855) appeared before the Right Rev'd Dr. Philander Chase, PECUSA Bishop of Ohio, baring letters of his good character and requesting ordination into the ministry of the PECUSA. Mr. West, a former Methodist minister in Ulster, Ireland, made such an impression on Dr. Chase that the bishop ordained him in June of that year firstly a deacon and then a presbyter and appointing him his representative chaplain, sent him back to Britain to solicit funds for a college that was being built in Ohio. Mr. West for the three following years he was away did a more or less decent job of fund raising for this cause.

Unfortunately for Bishop Chase, before the Rev'd Mr. West departed on his mission, he laid hands on him and gave him a blessing, which in Mr. West's mind was constucted as an episcopal consecration! When Mr. West returned to Ohio in 1830 to report to the Convention of the Diocese of Ohio on his work in the British Isles, he let loose with a bitter denouncation of his patron for not publicly acknowledging this "consecration" and for not appointing him as his eventual successor as Bishop of Ohio! Afterwards Mr. West at first repaired to New York and at year's end to Liverpool, England.