Charles Chapman Grafton

Charles Chapman Grafton
2nd Bishop of Fond du Lac
Province	The Episcopal Church
Diocese	Fond du Lac
Installed	1888
Term ended	1912
Predecessor	John Henry Hobart Brown
Successor	Reginald Heber Weller
Orders
Consecration	April 25, 1888
Personal details
Born	April 12, 1830 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	August 30, 1912 (age 82) Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Buried	St. Paul's Cathedral

The Right Reverend Charles Chapman Grafton (April 12, 1830 – August 30, 1912) was the second Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Early Life and training

Born on April 12, 1830, in Boston, Massachusetts, he became an ardent supporter of the Oxford Movement, an affiliation of High Church Anglicans that led to Anglo-Catholicism in The Episcopal Church.

In 1853 he graduated from Harvard University with a degree in law, but he found himself drawn toward the ordained ministry. Grafton studied theology under Bishop William Whittingham of Maryland, and was ordained deacon on Dec. 23, 1855.

Priesthood

Grafton began his ordained ministry as assistant at Reisterstown, Maryland; and on May 30, 1858, he was ordained priest. He served as curate at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Baltimore, and chaplain of the deaconesses of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

At the close of the Civil War Grafton went to Britain, and with Richard Meux Benson and Simeon Wilberforce O'Neill he co-founded the Society of St. John the Evangelist, also known as the Cowley Fathers or the SSJE.

Grafton returned to the United States, and in 1872 became fourth Rector of the Church of the Advent in Boston. A jurisdictional dispute concerning Grafton's overseas religious superior led to his withdrawal from the SSJE. Grafton also helped establish the American Congregation of Saint Benedict (now known as The Benedictine Order of St John the Beloved); and in 1888 he was a founder of the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity, along with Mother Ruth Margaret.

Episcopate

Grafton was consecrated bishop on December 15, 1888 at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin by William E. McLaren of Chicago, Alexander Burgess of Quincy, and George F. Seymour of Springfield. During his tenure as bishop, Grafton spearheaded a great expansion the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, much of it driven by contributing much of his own personal wealth and soliciting contributions from many of his wealthy friends back east. He also left behind a legacy of printed works, sermons and essays.

In 1900 Grafton was chief consecrator of Reginald Heber Weller as bishop coadjutor of Fond Du Lac. The liturgy of the consecration was controversial. The Russian Orthodox bishop of Alaska, Saint Tikhon was present as well as Rt. Rev. Antoni Kozlowski of the Polish National Catholic Church. Grafton was photographed with these other bishops wearing copes and miters (which was not widely accepted in the Episcopal Church at that time). The photo became known as the "Fond du Lac Circus".

Veneration

Grafton's grave in the Cathedral of Saint Paul the Apostle in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Grafton is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on August 30.

Bibliography

• C. C. Grafton, The Works of the Rt Rev Charles C. Grafton, ed. B. T. Rogers (8 vols., 1914)

See also

• List of Succession of Bishops for the Episcopal Church, USA

Sources

• A Sketch-book of the American Episcopate, by Hermon Griswold Batterson (Philadelphia: J.P. Lippencott Company, 1891)
• The Episcopate in America, by William Stevens Perry (New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1895)
• The Catholic Movement in the American Episcopal Church (2nd Ed) by George DeMille (Philadelphia: Church Historical Society, 1950)
• A History of the Episcopal Church by Robert Prichard (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Pub., 1999)
• E. C. Miller, 'Bishop Grafton of Fond du Lac and the Orthodox Church', in Sobornost; 4:1 (1982), p. 38-48

External links

• Documents by and about Grafton from Project Canterbury
• Fond Du Lac Circus from the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac
• Bishop Grafton Institute
• Charles Chapman Grafton, Second Bishop of Fond du Lac from The Living Church, by Richard Mammana