Sign in
Charles Brent
Photo: Brown Bros., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons11

Charles Brent

American Episcopal bishop and Army chaplain

Charles Henry Brent (April 9, 1862 – March 27, 1929) was the Episcopal Church's first Missionary Bishop of the Philippine Islands (1902–1918); Chaplain General of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I (1917–1918); and Bishop of the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Western New York (1918–1929). The historian and Episcopal minister Frederick Ward Kates characterised him as a "gallant, daring, and consecrated soldier and servant of Christ" who was "one of modern Christendom's foremost leaders, prophets, and seers."2

From Wikipedia’s article on Charles Brent (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 9, 1862, died Mar 27, 1929.1

About

Brent's suggestion led to the founding of the International Opium Commission in 1909 and the subsequent First International Opium Conference in 1912, which adopted the International Opium Convention – "the world's first international drug control treaty".

From Wikipedia’s article on Charles Brent, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedTrinity College3

Charles Henry Brent was born on April 9, 1862, in Newcastle, Ontario. He was the third of ten children of the Reverend Henry Brent, who was the Anglican rector in Newcastle for forty-two years, and Sophia Francis Brent. By his own account, Brent's childhood in the rural village was happy and secure.

Education

Brent was educated in Ontario. He planned his education to prepare him for the ordained ministry. First, Brent attended the town's public schools until 1880. Second, Brent's college preparation was done in 1880–1881 at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario. Third, he attended Trinity College, Toronto, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in classical honors in 1884. Throughout his education, Brent was both "a gifted and apt scholar" and "a formidable athlete." After graduating from Trinity College, he returned to Port Hope where from 1884 to 1886 he both taught at Trinity College School and studied privately for ordination.

Ordination

From Brent's earliest memories he felt called to the ordained ministry. He once said, "I do not recall an instant of my life when I aspired to any vocation excepting that of the Ministry, but on one brief occasion when I faced the possibility of becoming a musician. As a boy at school the Ministry seemed to me the one vocation worth considering.... Were I again on the threshold of life I would choose as I have chosen."

Brent was ordained a deacon on March 21, 1886, in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1886. However, there were no openings for him in his diocese, so he looked for a position in the United States. In 1887, he was ordained to the priesthood on March 6, 1887. After that, he was called to his first ministerial position in Buffalo, New York.

Read more

1910 address at Howard University

In November 1910, Brent gave an address at Howard University, an historically black school in Washington, D.C. His prior assignments had prepared Brent for such an occasion. During his time with the Cowley fathers in Boston, Brent was assigned to "St. Augustine's Mission for Negroes." It was "an early schooling" for Brent "in the spiritual care of colored folk" as preparation for working with people of other races in the Philippines. This ministry also increased "his conviction that the Christian Gospel could overcome all the human divisions of race and culture."

After his assignment at St. Augustine's, Brent had ministered ten years (1891–1901) as assistant minister at St. Stephen's Mission, Boston. During his ten years at St. Stephen's, he came to believe in "the essential value of every man, of whatever race or color or creed." In the Philippines, this belief was deepened. He wrote that "it was among the pagan peoples that I learned that equality before God of all men, which I count to be the chief treasure I have honestly made my own in my life time."

Brent's belief in the "equality before God of all men" was reflected in his address at Howard University. He asserted that "God's intention for mankind is that it should be a wonderfully diversified family, a family at unity with itself." Within this diversity, Brent said that "all of us" are seeking "manhood." This, said Brent, is "the one thing that God gave us the capacity for, which will differentiate us from all the rest of creation, and from the very angels in heaven." God gave mankind the capacity, but "no man ever gained manhood, no woman ever gained womanhood, without fighting for it." Given the necessity of fighting for it, Brent challenged the students to "determine above all else to reach the highest goal; to reach the goal of manhood; and having gained manhood, you have gained the best thing that God or the world can bestow upon you."

Work for Episcopal Church colleges

By the end of the first World War, there were only five Episcopal colleges out of the "great many" which the Episcopal Church had established. Because of their "meager enrollments" and "financial difficulties," it seemed that they would probably soon close. Brent was "determined that this would not be." At this time, Brent had two priorities. One was church unity, which he pursued until his death. The other was doing what he could to overcome the separation in America "between secular education and the Christian religion" by trying to convince the Episcopal Church to give financial support to its five remaining colleges. As "titular Chancellor" of Hobart College. Brent led the effort which got off to "a good start" with the 1922 General Convention budgeting $10,000. for each of the five colleges. However, the 1925 General Convention reduced the appropriation to $6,000. for each college, and the 1928 General Convention appropriated nothing.

In 1929, just before Brent "sailed for that ecumenical journey in 1929 on which he died," he gave an interview explaining why he believed church colleges were so important. He described "a Church college" as one "in which there is no dodging of facts, no coloring of science, but also and even more one in which Christ's revelation about the meaning of the universe and about the nature and destiny of man is assumed in all the teaching, in the administration, in the life of the place." The faculty would "know and respect" the "central convictions" of Christianity and teach them. Brent said that he would like to keep up his effort but that he knew he "had not long to live."

From Wikipedia’s article on Charles Brent (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: military officer, bishop, presbyter, missionary.7

  • Date not recordedFounded St. Luke's Medical Center4
  • Date not recordedFounded American Legion5
  • Date not recordedBishop6

Work for Church unity

During his tenure as bishop of Western New York, working for church unity often took him away from his diocese as it had when he was in the Philippines. "The unity of Christendom," he declared, "is not a luxury, but a necessity, and the world will go limping until Christ's prayer that all may be one is answered." During his years as a missionary bishop in the Philippines, he had recognized that only a united Church could succeed in converting great nations. He had seen for himself "the waste of energy, money, personnel, and the confusion and weakness of competing Christian bodies."

From August 3–12, 1927, the First World Conference on Faith and Order met in Lausanne, Switzerland. Preparation for the Conference had taken seventeen years. Brent worked during that time as one of the organizers. The Conference was attended by 406 delegates from 108 Christian denominations. Brent was elected as presiding officer by a unanimous vote. He opened the Conference by reminding the delegates that neither "total agreement" nor "a federation" of the denominations was their purpose. Their purpose was, he stated, "to learn to fellowship with one another, to listen sympathetically, and to open themselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit." This Brent asserted would be "an important first step in a long pilgrimage to restore the true catholic church."

Poor health. The success of the conference was in large part the result of Brent's leadership. "His sense of humor, his diplomatic skill, and his patience kept the conference from breaking up on several occasions." For Brent, the conference was his "finest hour, but it was bittersweet." His health was poor and he died less than two years after the conference on March 27, 1929.

Semi-centennial commemoration. A four-day commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1927 first World Conference on Faith and Order was held in the summer of 1977 in Lausanne. Brent was often mentioned.

Critics. Brent also had his critics. "It seemed to many" that Brent's commitment to church unity resulted in his "minimizing fundamentals of Christian doctrine." His broad "definition of the Catholic Church" and "his latitudinarianism with regard to Holy Orders" were denounced."

In 1928, Brent represented the Episcopal Church at Cosmo Gordon Lang's enthronement as archbishop of Canterbury on December 4, 1928. He died in Europe without ever returning to his diocese.

From Wikipedia’s article on Charles Brent (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornApr 9, 1862, Newcastle8
  • DiedMar 27, 1929, Lausanne9

Back home

During his time in the Philippines, Brent was elected four times by dioceses in the United States. Beginning in 1908, he was called three times to be Bishop of Washington. He was also elected as bishop of New Jersey. Brent declined all these elections. After his 1908 election to be Bishop of Washington, Brent "sent a telegram to the chairman of the standing committee: "Must decline. I would have gone, but God bids me stay. John 3:30."

From Wikipedia’s article on Charles Brent (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11