WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.339 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. We have a pretty 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:06.480 literal stack of documents on the table today. 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:08.660 Yeah, it looks like we raided the back room of 00:00:08.660 --> 00:00:11.800 a very old library. It really does. I mean, I'll 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:13.640 be honest with you, it looks a little dusty at 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:16.079 first glance. But you know the rule of the deep 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:18.780 dive? The dustier the archive, the more interesting 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:20.760 the secrets usually are once you start reading. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:23.640 That is the rule. And we're looking at turn of 00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:27.780 century church records, lists of pamphlets, bibliographies 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:32.200 from the early 1900s. And specifically, the biography 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:35.399 of a man named Henry Riley Gummy Jr. Which on 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:37.659 the surface might seem like a niche figure to 00:00:37.659 --> 00:00:40.200 look at. It does. But as I was going through 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:43.119 this material, I realized we're actually looking 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:46.560 at a snapshot. of a very specific, very transitional 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:48.700 moment in American history. Definitely. We're 00:00:48.700 --> 00:00:50.439 looking at how the American church tried to figure 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:53.799 out its own identity after the revolution. And 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:55.280 we're looking at it through the eyes of a guy 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.979 who just, he just refused to pick a lane. That 00:00:57.979 --> 00:01:00.020 is probably the best way to describe Henry Gummy. 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:04.079 He is the ultimate and also figure. Usually... 00:01:03.659 --> 00:01:05.920 In history, you have the guys in the ivory tower 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:08.239 writing the books, right? The theorists. And 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:10.200 then you have the guys in the trenches doing 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.859 the actual work, the practitioners. Right, the 00:01:12.859 --> 00:01:15.819 boots on the ground. Exactly. But Gummy decided, 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:18.959 for some reason, to be both. Simultaneously. 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:23.079 So our mission today is to unpack the life of 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:26.659 this guy, the liturgist of Philadelphia. We need 00:01:26.659 --> 00:01:29.939 to figure out how one man manages to be a curate 00:01:29.939 --> 00:01:34.280 in the pink sands of Bermuda. Wow. Right. A curate 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:37.099 in Bermuda, a hardcore academic professor of 00:01:37.099 --> 00:01:40.019 canon law, an international diplomat to the Orthodox 00:01:40.019 --> 00:01:41.799 Church, and this is honestly my favorite part, 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:45.359 a collector of what is essentially 19th century 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:48.359 Twitter threads. That is a very creative way 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:50.540 to describe his pamphlet collection. But I'm 00:01:50.540 --> 00:01:52.659 not wrong, am I? No, you aren't wrong. It plays 00:01:52.659 --> 00:01:55.560 a huge role in his legacy. But we should probably 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:57.140 start with the foundation. Yeah, let's start 00:01:57.140 --> 00:01:59.239 at the beginning. This is a Philadelphia story 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:01.819 through and through. Absolutely. Born in Philadelphia 00:02:01.819 --> 00:02:05.019 on January 12th, 1870 and died in Philadelphia 00:02:05.019 --> 00:02:08.159 May 29th, 1941. Okay, so let's stop and think 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:11.219 about that time frame for a second. 1870. Right. 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:13.639 The Civil War has just ended. The country is 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:16.259 in the middle of reconstruction. Exactly. And 00:02:16.259 --> 00:02:18.919 Philadelphia is this booming industrial hub. 00:02:19.460 --> 00:02:22.849 It is a city of immense wealth. but also deep 00:02:22.849 --> 00:02:26.129 poverty and very old established institutions. 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:28.629 And Gummy is born right into the fabric of that 00:02:28.629 --> 00:02:31.349 society. He is. Just look at his primary education. 00:02:31.409 --> 00:02:34.210 He goes to Germantown Academy and the Episcopal 00:02:34.210 --> 00:02:36.870 Academy. Which aren't just normal schools. No, 00:02:36.870 --> 00:02:38.949 these are pillars of the Philadelphia establishment. 00:02:39.330 --> 00:02:41.969 He is being groomed for a life of significance 00:02:41.969 --> 00:02:44.530 from day one. And he follows that classic path 00:02:44.530 --> 00:02:47.189 of a young man of promise in that era. He gets 00:02:47.189 --> 00:02:49.189 his bachelor of arts from the University of Pennsylvania 00:02:49.189 --> 00:02:52.780 in 1890. A very class - Ivy League star. Right. 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:55.860 But then things start to get specific. He heads 00:02:55.860 --> 00:02:58.479 to New York for the General Theological Seminary 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:02.180 in 1893. Which is a prestigious move. Very prestigious. 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:04.960 But notice what happens next. He doesn't stay 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:07.460 in New York. He comes right back to Philadelphia 00:03:07.460 --> 00:03:10.219 to finish his studies at the Philadelphia Divinity 00:03:10.219 --> 00:03:13.900 School, or PDS. It's like the city had a gravitational 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:16.680 pull on him. It really did. And he doesn't just 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:19.280 get the basic degree and leave to start working. 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:22.199 This is where we see the first real sign that 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:24.240 Henry Gummy is built differently. He plays a 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:27.159 long game. He really does. So he was ordained 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:31.979 a deacon in 1893 and then a priest in 1894 by 00:03:31.979 --> 00:03:35.000 Bishop O .Z. William Whitaker. I have to pause. 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:37.860 I'm sorry. O .Z. William Whitaker. It's a fantastic 00:03:37.860 --> 00:03:39.719 name. That is a name that belongs in a history 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:43.400 book or. Honestly, a fantasy novel. I know. But 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:45.599 the key here isn't just the ordination itself. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:48.599 It's what Gummy does after that. Right. Because 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:51.219 most priests get ordained, they go out to a parish, 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:53.000 they start working, and that's it. That's their 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:54.599 career. They're done with the heavy academics. 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:58.780 Right. But Gummy keeps studying. In 1905, he 00:03:58.780 --> 00:04:01.969 receives his Doctor of Divinity. His D .D. from 00:04:01.969 --> 00:04:04.310 the Philadelphia Divinity School. Okay, let's 00:04:04.310 --> 00:04:06.250 unpack this for you listening who might not know 00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:09.810 the hierarchy of theological degrees. Is it just 00:04:09.810 --> 00:04:12.030 like a master's degree? Or are we talking about 00:04:12.030 --> 00:04:14.969 something a lot heavier? Oh, much heavier. A 00:04:14.969 --> 00:04:18.449 doctor of divinity, especially in 1905, signals 00:04:18.449 --> 00:04:21.230 that you aren't just a practitioner. You are 00:04:21.230 --> 00:04:24.230 an authority. It means you've mastered the why 00:04:24.230 --> 00:04:26.810 and the how of the faith. You aren't just reading 00:04:26.810 --> 00:04:29.649 the manual. You are rewriting the engineering 00:04:29.649 --> 00:04:32.879 schematics. Wow. It suggests he really wanted 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:35.120 to understand the molecular structure of the 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:38.879 church, the history, the law, the deep theology. 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:41.379 Which perfectly explains why he eventually becomes 00:04:41.379 --> 00:04:43.560 a professor there. The source material says he 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:45.819 was a professor of liturgy and canon law. Right. 00:04:46.019 --> 00:04:48.519 And those are two very distinct, very rigorous 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:51.480 fields. Can we define canon law for a second? 00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:54.180 Because to a lay person, that sounds incredibly 00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:56.779 dry. It does? It sounds like reading the terms 00:04:56.779 --> 00:04:59.189 and conditions of a software update. It can be 00:04:59.189 --> 00:05:02.029 dry, sure, but think of Canna Law as the operating 00:05:02.029 --> 00:05:04.470 system of the church. Okay. It's the legal framework 00:05:04.470 --> 00:05:07.209 that governs literally everything, from how a 00:05:07.209 --> 00:05:09.649 bishop is elected to how property is managed 00:05:09.649 --> 00:05:12.430 to who can get married. It is the code that keeps 00:05:12.430 --> 00:05:14.970 the entire institution running. Got it. To teach 00:05:14.970 --> 00:05:17.129 that, you have to have a mind that loves order, 00:05:17.389 --> 00:05:19.529 precision and rules. So we have this image of 00:05:19.529 --> 00:05:23.470 Dr. Gummy, stern, academic, obsessed with rules, 00:05:23.870 --> 00:05:26.370 living in industrial Philadelphia. Right. And 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:29.680 then... We look at his resume for his first real 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.500 gig as a curate. And where does he go? The parishes 00:05:33.500 --> 00:05:36.139 of Padgett and Warwick. In Bermuda. In Bermuda. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:38.240 I'm just trying to square this circle. You have 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:43.060 a guy who loves the intense legal structure of 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:46.379 the church, and he takes a job in a place that's 00:05:46.379 --> 00:05:49.639 famous for, well, vacations. It does seem like 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:51.819 a massive disconnect, doesn't it? I just imagine 00:05:51.819 --> 00:05:54.000 him packing his heavy wool suits and his massive 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.199 theological books and heading off to the tropics. 00:05:56.379 --> 00:05:58.660 Wedding over canon law on the beach. Exactly. 00:05:59.180 --> 00:06:03.019 But we have to contextualize Bermuda in the 1890s. 00:06:03.139 --> 00:06:05.439 It wasn't just a resort destination back then. 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:08.579 It was a British colonial outpost. Ah, okay. 00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:10.779 So for a young American priest, it was actually 00:06:10.779 --> 00:06:13.519 a way to see the roots of the Anglican tradition 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:15.620 operating in a completely different context. 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:17.420 That makes sense. And being a curate, that's 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:19.160 basically the entry level, right? Exactly. The 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:21.540 word curate actually comes from the word cure, 00:06:21.959 --> 00:06:24.420 as in the cure of souls. It's the apprenticeship 00:06:24.420 --> 00:06:26.420 phase. You're doing the heavy lifting. You're 00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:28.699 visiting the sick. You're burying the dead. You're 00:06:28.699 --> 00:06:31.519 dealing with the messy day -to -day realities 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:34.379 of actual people's lives. So it grounds him. 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:37.240 He can't just stay in the library thinking about 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:39.699 canon law. He has to deal with humans. Precisely. 00:06:39.899 --> 00:06:41.980 And that is the tension that defines his entire 00:06:41.980 --> 00:06:44.449 life. because he comes back to the mainland and 00:06:44.449 --> 00:06:47.089 takes on these very significant rectorates. Right. 00:06:47.149 --> 00:06:49.209 He's at the Church of St. John the Baptist in 00:06:49.209 --> 00:06:53.610 Germantown from 1897 to 1906. Then Grace Church 00:06:53.610 --> 00:06:56.470 in Haddonfield, New Jersey from 1907 to 1910. 00:06:56.589 --> 00:06:59.589 And then the big one, St. James in Downingtown. 00:06:59.709 --> 00:07:03.910 St. James. He was there from 1913 to 1936. 23 00:07:03.910 --> 00:07:07.529 years. 23 years. That is a lifetime in parish 00:07:07.529 --> 00:07:09.230 ministry. I mean, just think about that timeline, 00:07:09.490 --> 00:07:12.149 1913 to 1936. Think about what the world looked 00:07:12.149 --> 00:07:14.829 like in those years. Yeah. He guided that single 00:07:14.829 --> 00:07:17.850 community through World War I, the Spanish Flu, 00:07:17.970 --> 00:07:21.050 the Roaring Twenties, the stock market crash, 00:07:21.050 --> 00:07:23.329 and the depths of the Great Depression. That's 00:07:23.329 --> 00:07:24.810 what really strikes me about this. If you're 00:07:24.810 --> 00:07:26.589 a professor in a university, you can kind of 00:07:26.589 --> 00:07:28.170 hide from those things. You can stay in your 00:07:28.170 --> 00:07:30.970 books. Right. But if you are the rector of a 00:07:30.970 --> 00:07:33.810 parish in a place like Downingtown, which was 00:07:33.810 --> 00:07:36.610 a major industrial hub, you are on the front 00:07:36.610 --> 00:07:38.829 lines. You're burying the soldiers, you're trying 00:07:38.829 --> 00:07:40.970 to feed the hungry during the Depression. And 00:07:40.970 --> 00:07:43.110 yet, and this is what I call the gummy paradox, 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:45.779 While he is doing that boots on the ground, exhausting 00:07:45.779 --> 00:07:49.560 work, he is simultaneously holding down professorships. 00:07:49.699 --> 00:07:51.819 It's unbelievable. He's teaching liturgy at the 00:07:51.819 --> 00:07:54.680 University of the South in Tennessee in 1911 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:58.100 and 1912. And he's teaching at PDS. He is the 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:01.519 original multitasker. But it's more than multitasking. 00:08:01.660 --> 00:08:04.339 It's integration. What do you mean? Being a scholar 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:06.759 made him a better priest because he could explain 00:08:06.759 --> 00:08:09.860 the deep why behind the rituals to his congregation. 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:12.459 And being a priest made him a better scholar 00:08:12.459 --> 00:08:14.699 because he He knew that these high -minded theories 00:08:14.699 --> 00:08:16.819 actually had to work for real people sitting 00:08:16.819 --> 00:08:19.560 in the pews. That's a great point. Speaking of 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:21.639 high -minded theories, we really need to talk 00:08:21.639 --> 00:08:23.540 about his obsession. And I don't use that word 00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:26.439 lightly. This man had a very specific niche. 00:08:26.620 --> 00:08:29.579 He certainly did. Liturgy. Yeah. And specifically, 00:08:29.779 --> 00:08:32.120 the Eucharist. He wrote two major books on it. 00:08:32.419 --> 00:08:34.639 There's The Prayer of Consecration in the American 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:37.600 Liturgy in 1902. and then the consecration of 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:40.340 the Eucharist in 1908. And the subtitle of that 00:08:40.340 --> 00:08:43.039 1908 book is crucial. It gives away the whole 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:45.320 game. Let me read it because it is an absolute 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:48.240 mouthful. Go for it. Okay, here it is. A study 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:50.360 of the prayer of consecration in the communion 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:53.240 office from the point of view of the alterations 00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:56.799 and amendments established therein by the revisers 00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:00.840 of 1789. Catchy title. Rolls right off the tongue. 00:09:00.990 --> 00:09:03.070 Not exactly something you'd see on a bestseller 00:09:03.070 --> 00:09:06.009 list today. No, it's not exactly a beach read. 00:09:06.389 --> 00:09:09.070 But why does this matter? Why is he so laser 00:09:09.070 --> 00:09:12.149 focused on the revisers of 1789? Yeah, why that 00:09:12.149 --> 00:09:14.610 specific year? This is where we get to a core 00:09:14.610 --> 00:09:17.570 takeaway. To understand gummy, you have to understand 00:09:17.570 --> 00:09:21.149 1789. The United States had just become a country. 00:09:21.230 --> 00:09:23.950 Right. And the Episcopal Church here had a major 00:09:23.950 --> 00:09:27.210 problem. They were Anglican, which meant their 00:09:27.210 --> 00:09:29.570 roots were in the Church of England. But they 00:09:29.570 --> 00:09:31.669 couldn't exactly pray for the king anymore. Right, 00:09:31.850 --> 00:09:33.870 that would be incredibly awkward. God say the 00:09:33.870 --> 00:09:36.830 king does not fly in Philadelphia in 1789. Very 00:09:36.830 --> 00:09:38.809 awkward. So they had to rewrite the prayer book. 00:09:39.100 --> 00:09:42.100 But they didn't just change the names. They saw 00:09:42.100 --> 00:09:44.940 an opportunity to change the theology itself. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.139 Oh, interesting. The revisers of 1789, the founders 00:09:48.139 --> 00:09:50.879 of the American Church, looked back to older 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.320 Scottish and Eastern Orthodox models for their 00:09:53.320 --> 00:09:55.879 prayer book. And they inserted something called 00:09:55.879 --> 00:09:59.080 the epiclesis. The epiclesis. Define that for 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:01.879 us. It comes from the Greek word for invocation. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:05.299 It is the invocation of the Holy Spirit. In the 00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:07.779 English prayer book of that time, the priest 00:10:07.779 --> 00:10:10.519 basically just repeated the words of Jesus. This 00:10:10.519 --> 00:10:13.100 is my body. And that was the moment of consecration. 00:10:13.220 --> 00:10:16.100 It was very Western, very legalistic. The priest 00:10:16.100 --> 00:10:18.480 says the words and it happens. The priest has 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:21.259 the power. Exactly. But the American Revisers 00:10:21.259 --> 00:10:24.000 added a specific prayer asking the Holy Spirit 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.480 to come down and bless the elements. So it shifts 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:29.200 the power. It entirely shifts the focus. From 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:31.600 the priest saying the magic words to the Holy 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:34.600 Spirit doing the actual work, it is a huge theological 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:37.759 shift. It aligns the American Church more with 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:39.919 the Eastern Orthodox tradition than the English 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:41.740 tradition. And Gummy was obsessed with this. 00:10:41.940 --> 00:10:44.840 He was obsessed because he wanted to prove that 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:47.259 the American Church wasn't just some watered 00:10:47.259 --> 00:10:49.580 down rebellious version. of the Church of England. 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:52.679 He wanted to prove it had this special ancient 00:10:52.679 --> 00:10:56.139 DNA. He was validating the American identity 00:10:56.139 --> 00:10:59.259 through this one specific prayer. That explains 00:10:59.259 --> 00:11:02.179 why he was digging so deep. He wasn't just studying 00:11:02.179 --> 00:11:04.799 a prayer. He was studying the Declaration of 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:07.279 Independence of the American soul, theologically 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:09.820 speaking. That is beautifully put, yes. He was 00:11:09.820 --> 00:11:11.559 showing that the American church had gone back 00:11:11.559 --> 00:11:13.419 to the sources, back to the early church. And 00:11:13.419 --> 00:11:15.419 he didn't just write about it. He collected the 00:11:15.419 --> 00:11:18.250 receipts. Oh, he certainly did. This is the part 00:11:18.250 --> 00:11:20.830 that blew my mind in the notes. The substantial 00:11:20.830 --> 00:11:23.190 collection at the Yarnell Library of Theology 00:11:23.190 --> 00:11:25.710 of St. Clem's Church at the University of Pennsylvania. 00:11:26.309 --> 00:11:29.809 62 bound volumes of pamphlets. Pamphlets, not 00:11:29.809 --> 00:11:32.590 books. Yeah. Pamphlets. We really have to understand 00:11:32.590 --> 00:11:35.269 what a pamphlet was in the 19th century. Today, 00:11:35.509 --> 00:11:38.009 if you have a hot take on politics or religion, 00:11:38.389 --> 00:11:40.889 you post a thread on social media, right? Yeah, 00:11:40.970 --> 00:11:43.110 you fire off a tweet. And it's ephemeral. It's 00:11:43.110 --> 00:11:46.190 gone in a day. In 1890, you printed a pamphlet. 00:11:46.250 --> 00:11:48.769 They were cheap, they were polemical, they were 00:11:48.769 --> 00:11:51.149 angry, and they were everywhere. And usually 00:11:51.149 --> 00:11:53.370 people read them and then literally use them 00:11:53.370 --> 00:11:56.129 to start fires in their fireplaces. But not Henry. 00:11:56.370 --> 00:11:59.049 No, not Henry. He saw that these pamphlets contained 00:11:59.049 --> 00:12:01.629 the real arguments. Books are polished, books 00:12:01.629 --> 00:12:04.330 are polite, pamphlets are raw. They show the 00:12:04.330 --> 00:12:07.590 actual fight. Yeah. By collecting them and crucially 00:12:07.590 --> 00:12:10.490 binding them into hardcover volumes, he was saying, 00:12:10.870 --> 00:12:13.629 this argument matters. This history is worth 00:12:13.629 --> 00:12:16.960 saving. It's exactly like someone today printing 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.120 out thousands of tweets about a major political 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:23.159 event and binding them into a book so that 100 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:25.580 years from now, historians can see what people 00:12:25.580 --> 00:12:27.700 were actually saying to each other, not just 00:12:27.700 --> 00:12:29.799 what the official record says. That is exactly 00:12:29.799 --> 00:12:32.259 what he did. He curated the raw conversation 00:12:32.259 --> 00:12:36.000 of his era and 62 volumes. That is a massive 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.539 physical footprint that takes serious dedication. 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:40.659 Which leads us to the other side of his personality. 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:43.159 Because he wasn't just a lonely scholar hoarding 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:46.120 paper in a dark room. Not at all. He was, to 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:48.879 use a modern term, a massive joiner. Oh, the 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:51.360 list of societies he belonged to is exhausting 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:54.740 just to read. The man absolutely loved a committee. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:56.740 Let's run through the categories, because it 00:12:56.740 --> 00:12:58.440 paints such a vivid picture of a Renaissance 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:03.000 man. First, you have the aesthetic, musical stuff. 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:06.700 The Henry Bradshaw Society, the Ecclesiological 00:13:06.700 --> 00:13:10.059 Society, the Plainsong, and Medieval Music Society. 00:13:10.169 --> 00:13:13.409 This tells us he loved beauty. He loved the chant, 00:13:13.529 --> 00:13:16.409 the incense, the deep history of the art of worship. 00:13:16.429 --> 00:13:18.909 Right. He wasn't a Puritan. He wanted church 00:13:18.909 --> 00:13:21.190 to be a full sensory experience. Then you have 00:13:21.190 --> 00:13:23.789 the historical stuff, the Genealogical Society 00:13:23.789 --> 00:13:26.169 of Pennsylvania, the Historical Society of the 00:13:26.169 --> 00:13:28.570 Episcopal Church, the American Society of Church 00:13:28.570 --> 00:13:30.690 History, the Historical Society of Montgomery 00:13:30.690 --> 00:13:33.710 County. He obviously cared deeply about lineage. 00:13:33.789 --> 00:13:35.830 He wanted to know exactly where he fit in the 00:13:35.830 --> 00:13:38.389 timeline. He deeply respected the past and he 00:13:38.389 --> 00:13:40.580 wanted to preserve it. But then. Then we hit 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:42.360 the curve ball. Here we go. The Pennsylvania 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:44.419 Society for the Prevention of Social Diseases. 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:46.419 I knew you were gonna stop on that one. Well, 00:13:46.419 --> 00:13:48.820 it stands out. It sounds very medical and frankly, 00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:51.639 a little gritty for a high church liturgist who 00:13:51.639 --> 00:13:54.500 loves medieval music and old books. It is very 00:13:54.500 --> 00:13:57.139 gritty. But this is the progressive era. Social 00:13:57.139 --> 00:13:59.840 diseases was the polite euphemism for venereal 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:02.659 diseases. Right. But broadly speaking, it was 00:14:02.659 --> 00:14:05.960 about public health and moral hygiene in the 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:08.980 city. So he wasn't just up in the clouds debating 00:14:08.980 --> 00:14:11.500 the epiclesis. He was worried about actual public 00:14:11.500 --> 00:14:14.000 health in Philadelphia. Exactly. And look at 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:15.860 another one on the list. He was also a member 00:14:15.860 --> 00:14:18.159 of the Christian Social Union. Who was that? 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:21.000 This was the era of the social gospel, the idea 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:22.820 that you had to improve the physical conditions 00:14:22.820 --> 00:14:25.480 of the poor, not just save their souls. Oh, I 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:27.879 see. Gummi's membership here proves he wasn't 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:30.779 some elitist snob ignoring the suffering of the 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:33.440 city. He was engaged with the ugly, difficult 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:36.320 parts of urban life. He understood that you can't 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:38.799 preach high theology to people if they are sick 00:14:38.799 --> 00:14:41.019 and dying of preventable diseases. That adds 00:14:41.019 --> 00:14:43.139 such a great layer to him. And then there's one 00:14:43.139 --> 00:14:45.990 more layer, the diplomat. The notes mention he 00:14:45.990 --> 00:14:48.490 was a prominent figure in American Anglican -Orthodox 00:14:48.490 --> 00:14:51.470 relations. And this ties right back to his obsession 00:14:51.470 --> 00:14:55.250 with the 1789 prayer book. Remember how I said 00:14:55.250 --> 00:14:58.419 the American prayer leaned toward the east? toward 00:14:58.419 --> 00:15:01.059 the Holy Spirit. Right, the epiclesis. Gummy 00:15:01.059 --> 00:15:04.220 used that theological detail as a bridge. He 00:15:04.220 --> 00:15:06.240 actively reached out to the Russian and Greek 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.700 Orthodox churches. Wow. At a time when most Americans 00:15:09.700 --> 00:15:12.620 were incredibly isolationist, he was saying, 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:16.580 hey, we actually have common ground. Our theology 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:19.379 connects us. He was trying to build a global 00:15:19.379 --> 00:15:22.080 alliance of churches. That is fascinating. He's 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:23.720 finding friends in places where other people 00:15:23.720 --> 00:15:25.519 weren't even looking. He was a bridge builder 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:28.240 at his core. He built bridges. between the past 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:30.559 and the present, between the wealthy academics 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:32.639 and the poor and the city, and between the West 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:35.360 and the East. So if we zoom out, we have this 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:38.759 incredible map of a life. He's local, with Downingtown 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:41.440 in Philadelphia. He's international, with Bermuda 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:44.059 and the Orthodox Relations. He's ancient. with 00:15:44.059 --> 00:15:46.679 the plain song and liturgy. And he's modern with 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:49.159 the social reform and public health. He integrated 00:15:49.159 --> 00:15:50.980 it all. That really is the key word for Henry 00:15:50.980 --> 00:15:54.960 Gummey. Integration. He completely refused to 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:57.279 compartmentalize his life. He didn't leave his 00:15:57.279 --> 00:15:58.899 brain at the door of the church and he didn't 00:15:58.899 --> 00:16:01.220 leave his faith at the door of the library. And 00:16:01.220 --> 00:16:03.179 he also managed to have a personal life through 00:16:03.179 --> 00:16:05.960 all of this. We shouldn't forget he married Margaret 00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:10.759 Upjohn on June 30th, 1897. A full life. A very 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:13.759 complete life. He died in 1941. just before the 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.120 U .S. entered World War II, and he's buried at 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:18.659 St. Luke's Church in Germantown. Returning right 00:16:18.659 --> 00:16:20.860 to the soil where he started. It's a very circular 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:23.539 journey. So when we look at this file, this dusty 00:16:23.539 --> 00:16:26.379 archive we opened at the beginning, what is the 00:16:26.379 --> 00:16:29.259 big takeaway? Why does Henry Gummy matter to 00:16:29.259 --> 00:16:31.980 someone listening to us today who isn't a priest 00:16:31.980 --> 00:16:34.399 and isn't a canon lawyer? I think Gummy represents 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:36.919 the deep importance of curating your world. We 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:39.820 live in an age of infinite information. We are 00:16:39.820 --> 00:16:41.940 constantly drowning in content. Yeah, that's 00:16:41.940 --> 00:16:45.250 for sure. Begummi didn't just consume, he selected. 00:16:45.690 --> 00:16:47.610 He selected the pamphlets that mattered, and 00:16:47.610 --> 00:16:50.690 he saved them. He selected the theological points 00:16:50.690 --> 00:16:52.990 that defined American identity and highlighted 00:16:52.990 --> 00:16:55.610 them. He connected the dots. He built bridges 00:16:55.610 --> 00:16:57.950 between ideas that didn't seem to fit together 00:16:57.950 --> 00:17:00.509 at all, like social hygiene and medieval chant. 00:17:00.629 --> 00:17:03.090 He was a synthesizer. He was. And I think we 00:17:03.090 --> 00:17:06.089 need synthesizers today more than ever. We need 00:17:06.089 --> 00:17:08.970 people who can look at the absolute chaos of 00:17:08.970 --> 00:17:11.529 the modern world, find the connecting threads, 00:17:11.829 --> 00:17:14.049 and bind them together into something that actually 00:17:14.049 --> 00:17:16.660 makes sense. That brings us to our final thought 00:17:16.660 --> 00:17:19.339 for you, the listener. We talked about Gummi's 00:17:19.339 --> 00:17:22.640 62 volumes of pamphlets, his physical legacy 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:25.059 of the things he thought were worth saving. It 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:27.759 really puts our own digital footprint in perspective. 00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:30.240 It really does. So here's the question for you. 00:17:30.859 --> 00:17:33.180 If someone were to look at your life 100 years 00:17:33.180 --> 00:17:35.619 from now, what is the collection you are leaving 00:17:35.619 --> 00:17:38.140 behind? That's a great question. What is this 00:17:38.140 --> 00:17:42.079 specific slice of knowledge or culture or community 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:45.559 that you care about enough to bind into 62 volumes 00:17:45.559 --> 00:17:48.099 for the future? Are you just scrolling or are 00:17:48.099 --> 00:17:50.380 you curating something that will actually last? 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.599 That is a heavy question to end on, but a very 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:56.059 necessary one. Something to chew on as you go 00:17:56.059 --> 00:17:58.420 about your day. Thanks for joining us on this 00:17:58.420 --> 00:18:01.720 deep dive into the life of the liturgist of Philadelphia. 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:03.700 We'll see you next time. See you then.