John H. Hobart - High Churchmanship

High Churchmanship

Bishop Hobart was an advocate of the High Church movement within the Episcopal Church. It pre-dates the Anglo-Catholic Movement deriving from the Oxford Movement in the late nineteenth century. The High Church movement, like the Anglo-Catholic tradition, stressed continuity with the pre-Protestant Reformation church, but strongly opposed certain Roman Catholic doctrines. The movement emphasized the Apostolic Succession and Anglican Covenantal Theology. In contrast to the later Anglo-Catholic movement, Hobart's High Churchmanship did not have a significant liturgical character.

He emphasized the significance of baptism and apostolic succession, and how the apostolic succession affected Episcopal ecumenical relationships and ministry with "non-apostolic" churches. Bishop Hobart was influential in the founding of General Seminary and served as its first dean. The seminary became a center for the High Church Movement and later for the Oxford Movement in America. Through General Seminary, Hobart influenced two future bishops: Benjamin Onderdonk and Jackson Kemper.