Henry Harrison Oberly (June 19, 1841 - March 19, 1914) was a prominent Episcopal priest and author. He was born in
Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river tha ...
and baptized at the First Presbyterian Church; he was a student of
James DeKoven
James DeKoven (September 19, 1831 – March 19, 1879) was a priest, an educator and a leader of Anglican Ritualism in the Episcopal Church.
Life
DeKoven was born in Middletown, Connecticut and educated at Columbia College. In 1851 he was admit ...
at
Racine College
Racine College was an Episcopal preparatory school and college in Racine, Wisconsin, that operated between 1852 and 1933. Located south of the city along Lake Michigan, the campus has been maintained and is today known as the DeKoven Center ...
, where he was confirmed in the Episcopal Church. After studies at
Trinity College, Hartford
Trinity College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded as Washington College in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut.
Coed ...
(B.A. 1865, M.A. 1868), and the
Berkeley Divinity School
Berkeley Divinity School, founded in 1854, is a seminary of The Episcopal Church in New Haven, Connecticut. Along with Andover Newton Theological School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Berkeley is one of the three "Partners on the Quad," ...
, he was ordained to the diaconate in 1867 and to the priesthood in 1869.
Oberly was curate of
Trinity Church (Manhattan)
Trinity Church is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. ...
(1868-69) and the first rector of the Church of the Holy Cross,
Warrensburg, New York
Warrensburg is a town in Warren County, New York, United States. It is centrally located in the county, west of Lake George. It is part of the Glens Falls metropolitan area. The town population was 4,255 at the 2000 census. While the county is ...
from 1869 to 1873. He achieved national prominence during his long tenure (1879-1914) as rector of the former Christ Church,
(burned January 16, 1988), where he introduced ritualistic practices then uncommon in the Episcopal Church: a "full choral Mass" in 1879, a processional cross (1884), candles on the altar (1885), red cassocks for acolytes (1888), and the wearing of a cope during
Evensong
Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became ...
(1904).
He was a member of
Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon (), commonly known as Psi U, is a North American fraternity,''Psi Upsilon Tablet'' founded at Union College on November 24, 1833. The fraternity reports 50 chapters at colleges and universities throughout North America, some of which ...
, the
Catholic Clerical Union, the
American Church Union
American Church Union (ACU) is the name of several distinct Anglican organizations in the American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Continuum. The groups have had an Anglo-Catholic orientation. It is named in imitation of the English Church Union ...
, the
Anglican and Eastern Churches Association
The Anglican and Eastern Churches Association is a religious organisation founded as the Eastern Church Association in 1864 by John Mason Neale and others and of which Athelstan Riley was a leading member. The purpose for which it was founded is t ...
, and many other organizations.
Bibliography
*''Church Music: An Address in St. Agnes Chapel, New York, before the Faculty and Students of the General Theological Seminary (1893)
The Fortieth Anniversary of the Foundation of the Parish of Christ Church, of Elizabeth, N.J., 1893: A Sermon Preached by the Very Rev. Eugene Augustus Hoffman, D.D. on Easter Day, April 2nd; and a Sermon Preached by the Rev. Henry H. Oberly, M.A. on Low Sunday, April 9th(1893) from
Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...
*
Systematic Catechizing: Directions and Suggestions for Catechists and Teachers' (1896)
*''Lessons on the Prayer Book Catechism for the Use of Children'' (1898)
*
The Testimony of the Prayer Book to the Continuity of the Church' (1901)
References
* "Rev. Dr. Henry Harrison Oberly," in ''The New York Times'', March 20, 1914, p. 11.
* "Rev. Dr. Henry H. Oberly," in ''Hartford Courant'', March 22, 1914, p. 9.
* "Long Rector in Elizabeth, N.J." in ''Boston Evening Transcript'', March 20, 1914, p. 12.
* "Episcopal Rector Died Yesterday" in Bridgewater ''Courier-News'', March 20, 1914, p. 7.
External links
* Ralph G. Whedon, Jr.
Possess Our Souls in Patience: Christ Church in the Catholic Revival of the Nineteenth Century, Making One Hundred Years of the Use of Eucharistic Vestments in This Parish Church(Elizabeth, New Jersey: Christ Episcopal Church, 1963).
Henry Harrison Oberly, Clergyman(1911)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberly, Henry Harrison
1841 births
1914 deaths
19th-century American Episcopal priests
American Anglo-Catholics
People from Easton, Pennsylvania
20th-century American Episcopal priests
Anglo-Catholic clergy
Anglo-Catholic writers
Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni