Henry Ustick Onderdonk (March 16, 1789 – December 6, 1858) was the second Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania.

Early life

Onderdonk was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

.Batterson, 94 He studied at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, receiving his degree in 1805, and then traveled to Britain for further education, receiving his medical degree from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

. On returning to the United States, Onderdonk practiced medicine in New York before being ordained to the deaconate and priesthood by Bishop

John Henry Hobart John Henry Hobart (September 14, 1775 – September 12, 1830) was the third Episcopal bishop of New York (1816–1830). He vigorously promoted the extension of the Episcopal Church in upstate New York, as well as founded both the General Th ...

. In 1816, he went to western New York as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

and then returned east to become rector of St. Ann's Church in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, remaining there for seven years.

Bishop of Pennsylvania

Onderdonk was elected assistant bishop of Pennsylvania in 1827, serving initially as assistant to Bishop William White.Batterson, 95 He was the

21st 21 (twenty-one) is the natural number following 20 and preceding 22. The current century is the 21st century AD, under the Gregorian calendar. In mathematics 21 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 3 and 7, and a defici ...

bishop of the ECUSA, and was consecrated by bishops William White,

Alexander Viets Griswold Alexander Viets Griswold (April 22, 1766 – February 15, 1843) was the 5th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States from 1836 until 1843. He was also the Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, which included all of New Englan ...

, and James Kemp. However, bishop Kemp died of injuries received in a stage coach accident while returning from the consecration, so Onderdonk substituted in the

Episcopal Diocese of Maryland The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland forms part of Province 3 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Having been divided twice, it no longer includes all of Maryland and now consists of the central, northern, and western Maryland ...

until a successor was elected. In 1830, Onderdonk published ''Episcopacy Tested In Scripture'', first published in the ''Protestant Episcopalian'' and then as tract by the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, a defense of episcopacy based "on ''an appeal to the bible alone''." On Bishop White's death in 1836, Onderdonk succeeded him as bishop. Onderdonk was a strong advocate of the pre-Tractarian

High Church The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...

position, in company with his brother

Benjamin Treadwell Onderdonk Benjamin Treadwell Onderdonk (July 15, 1791, New York City – April 30, 1861, New York) was the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York from 1830–1861. Early years A member of a prominent Hempstead family, Onderdonk graduated from Colum ...

, who was also a bishop. When Rev.

Alexander Crummell Alexander Crummell (March 3, 1819 – September 10, 1898) was a pioneering African-American minister, academic and African nationalist. Ordained as an Episcopal priest in the United States, Crummell went to England in the late 1840s to raise money ...

petitioned to be allowed to move to Pennsylvania to establish another church (besides the peripatetic St. Thomas congregation) to serve Philadelphia's African-American community, Bishop Onderdonk reportedly replied, "I will receive you into this diocese on one condition: No negro priest can sit in my church convention and no negro church must ask for representation there." Crummell reportedly paused for a moment before declining.Du Bois, W.E.B ''The Souls of Black Folk,'' p. 139. In 1844, Onderdonk was suspended from the exercise of his episcopal office after rumors of

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

. The suspension was lifted in 1856, two years before his death. He is buried in the churchyard of Church of St. James the Less in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

Notes

References

* * ''The Episcopate in America'', by William Stevens Perry

External links

Documents by Onderdonk
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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onderdonk, Henry Ustick 1789 births 1858 deaths American people of Dutch descent Columbia College (New York) alumni Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 19th-century Anglican bishops in the United States Burials at the Church of St. James the Less Clergy from New York City Episcopal bishops of Pennsylvania Episcopal bishops of Delaware