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The oath of royal supremacy proved too difficult a problem, however, and Samuel Seabury came to Scotland and was consecrated in Aberdeen on November 14th 1784, the first Anglican bishop to serve outside the British Isles. It was the beginning of the world-wide Anglican Communion of Churches.

The 39 Articles of Religion were accepted at the Synod of Laurencekirk in 1804 (but it was not until 1864 that a priest ordained by a Scottish bishop could hold office in England).

Under the leadership of Bishop Dr. Leon Checkemian, the Free Protestant Episcopal Church was under the pastoral care of the Archbishop of Dublin starting in 1890. Archbishop Plunket, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, accepted metropolitan authority.

He received Checkemian into the Church of Ireland and on 4 November 1890 granted him a General License in his own diocese of Dublin.

Another license, issued from Dublin on 25 May 1891, gives a much fuller picture of Archbishop Plunket’s scheme. He was clearly satisfied with Checkemian’s adherence to the Reformed doctrines, "You have duly signified to us in writing your hearty assent to the Doctrine of the Church of Ireland and of the other churches of the Anglican communion and your intention to teach nothing contrary to the same and have moreover stated that whatever public services you may be called upon to hold will be ordered so far as circumstances will permit after the model of the Books of Common Prayer used by the churches of the said communion." The Church was fully integrated in 1980 as an extra-provincial diocese under the metropolitical authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward White Benson.

In 1889 he is reported to have been preaching in the Presbyterian Churches of Belfast, notably Berry Street Church and St. Enoch’s Church, Belfast and it was noted that "He enjoys the confidence of and is warmly recommended by the most eminent men in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland."

In 1890 he was still preaching and lecturing in Belfast as Stewart noted, "He can now speak English fairly well and he hopes to become a naturalized English subject before he goes back to the East." It was at this time that he was taken up by Archbishop Plunket, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, as Stewart notes that Checkemian was still in Belfast on 5 September 1890 and had visited the Archbishop.

+Plunket's view of  Checkemian:

 "He is not undertaking this duty for the purpose of winning our adherents to the Anglican Communion, or to any branch of that body. He is merely responding to a call from some among his own people, who, in obedience to their own religious convictions, and in the exercise of their own religious liberty, have spontaneously sought for his ministry. As to what may become necessary in the way of future Church organisation, he does not seem – so far as I can judge – to have formed as yet any definite resolve. His present desire is simply to preach the Gospel, leaving the result in God’s hand, and awaiting the indication of his will.

Meanwhile, however, should any designation of his present position be called for, he would, I believe, prefer that he and those who have sought his ministry, should be regarded as ‘ARMENIAN OLD CATHOLICS’ – in other words, as a body of reformers who (in common with those bearing the same title in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal) repudiate the dangerous innovations and intrusive claims of the Church of Rome, but who, nevertheless, hold fast to what they consider old, and true, and scriptural, in the teaching and practice of the early Church of Christ.

As regards the Native Armenian Church, the attitude of Dr. Checkemian is somewhat different, and may, I think be described as follows:

Admitting, as he does, that the charge of monophysite heresy brought against that church has been unduly magnified, he yet deplores the many erroneous doctrines and superstitious usages, such as the veneration of ‘ikons’, the invocation of saints, and the cultus of the Blessed Virgin – which unfortunately prevail within it at the present time.

On the other hand, he remembers that the Armenian Church has never so yielded to Papal usurpation, or so committed itself to any irrevocable formulation of error as to preclude a return to primitive purity and truth. He recognises, moreover, the indubitable claims which, but for the present degenerate conditions, it would have, as a National Church, on the allegiance of the people of the land.

While, therefore, he cannot but sympathize with those among its members who are compelled to seek elsewhere for the spiritual food which the Armenian Church, as at present circumstanced, so lamentably fails to supply, he would most gladly welcome, and as far as possible encourage, any movement tending to internal reform whereby the many and diverse religious bodies throughout Armenia, which now stand aloof from that Church and from one another, might yet be presented with a safe and permanent basis of reunion within its ancient fold."

May we always strive to walk in the light with a joyous heart because of the Grace given us in Christ.

‡ Horst-Karl, TIFPEC

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