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 Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

counties of Allegany, Anne Arundel,

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Calvert, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford,

Howard Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

, and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, as well as the independent city of

History

The Diocese of Maryland is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church and traces its roots to 1608 when Captain John Smith oversaw the first Christian worship in the upper

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

. In 1692, a law passed by the province's general assembly established the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

and the colony, which was divided into ten counties, was divided into 30 parishes (See

List of the original 30 Anglican parishes in the Province of Maryland In 1692, the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, became the State church, established church of the Province of Maryland through an Act of the General Assembly. Ten counties had been established in the colony, and those counties we ...

). Sometimes the parish church was centrally located; other times multiple churches or chapels served distant population centers within the parish. In 1780, a meeting in

Chestertown, Maryland Chestertown is a town in Kent County, Maryland, United States. The population was 5,252 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Kent County. History Founded in 1706, Chestertown rose in stature when it was named one of the English col ...

, in Kent County at Washington College of

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

and

laity In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layperson ...

led to the formation of the Diocese of Maryland. By 1783, at the end of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, the developing diocese had 47 parishes and about 38 clergy (See

List of post 1692 Anglican parishes in the Province of Maryland The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, became the established church of the Province of Maryland through an Act of the General Assembly in 1692. Ten counties had been established in the colony at the time, and those counties wer ...

). In 1789, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America was founded. The diocese's first bishop, Thomas John Claggett (1743-1816), was the first American bishop of the Episcopal Church consecrated in the country, in 1792 at Trinity Church facing historic

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

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 ...

. Among notable historical events in the diocese is the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

Episcopal congregations in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

, St. James' Church, at Lafayette Square, in west

. Another first among Maryland's bishops was the election of

John Gardner Murray John Gardner Murray (August 31, 1857 – October 3, 1929) was the sixteenth presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church. He was the first person elected to the position rather than succeeding to it automatically ...

as Presiding Bishop. He was the first elected primate of the Episcopal Church; for his predecessors, the senior member of the House of Bishops, automatically assumed the position. The diocese has been divided twice. First in 1868, the

Eastern Shore Eastern Shore may refer to: * Eastern Shore (Nova Scotia), a region * Eastern Shore (electoral district), a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia * Eastern Shore of Maryland, a region * Eastern Shore of Virginia, a region * Eastern Shore (Al ...

counties of Maryland became the Diocese of Easton, causing the Diocese of Maryland to no longer have all of Maryland. Then in 1895, the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and adjacent (and increasingly suburban) Montgomery and Prince George's, along with southern Maryland's

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

and St. Mary's counties became the Diocese of Washington. On March 29, 2008, Eugene Taylor Sutton was elected as the 14th bishop of the diocese; the first African-American to serve in that capacity was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

June 28, 2008. In 2014,

Heather Cook Heather Elizabeth Cook (born September 21, 1956) is a deposed bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. She was a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Maryland until her resignation from the position in 2015. In September 2015, she plead ...

was the first woman elected to become a bishop in the diocese and she was consecrated as suffragan to Sutton. However, she was placed on administrative leave at the end of 2014 after involvement in a traffic fatality in north Baltimore. Cook was charged with drunk driving, texting while driving, and leaving the scene of the crime, in addition to vehicular manslaughter. On January 22, 2015, the standing committee of the diocese requested that Cook resign her position. This was followed by the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, placing formal restrictions on Cook preventing her from presenting herself as an ordained minister of the Episcopal Church. On May 1, 2015, Jefferts Schori announced that both she and the Diocese of Maryland had accepted Cook's resignation as a bishop and as an employee of the diocese. Moreover, both parties reached an accord where Cook received a "Sentence of Disposition" which stripped Cook of her ordained status. The Diocese of Maryland currently has 117 congregations (12 are missions, 10 are parishes and the rest are separate congregations), and membership of more than 44,200. The bishop's

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair (furniture), ...

is at the Cathedral of the Incarnation on University Parkway, between North Charles Street and St. Paul Street in north

, near the neighborhoods of Roland Park,

Guilford Guildford is a town in Surrey, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Guildford, the Diocese of Guildford and the Parliamentary constituency of Guildford. Guildford, Guilford, or Gildford may also refer to: Places Australia * Guildfor ...

and

Charles Village Charles Village is a neighborhood located in the north-central area of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is a diverse, eclectic, international, largely middle-class area with many single-family homes that is in proximity to many of Baltimore's cultural ...

Bishops

Cathedral of the Incarnation (Baltimore, Maryland) 05

*1. Thomas John Claggett (1792-1816) *2. James Kemp (1816-1827) *3.

William Murray Stone William Murray Stone, D.D. (June 1, 1779–February 26, 1838) was an American Episcopal clergyman from Maryland. He was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland at Baltimore from 1830 until his death. Early life William was born in Somers ...

(1830-1838) *4.

William Rollinson Whittingham William Rollinson Whittingham (December 2, 1805 – October 17, 1879) was the fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland. Early life and career Whittingham was born in New York City, the son of Richard Whittingham and Mary Ann Rollinson Whittingham ...

(1840-1879) *5.

William Pinkney William Pinkney (March 17, 1764February 25, 1822) was an American statesman and diplomat, and was appointed the seventh U.S. Attorney General by President James Madison. Biography William Pinkney was born in 1764 in Annapolis in the Province ...

(1879-1883) *6. William Paret (1885-1911) *7.

(1911-1929) *8.

Edward Trail Helfenstein Edward Trail Helfenstein (April 7, 1865 – December 22, 1947) was the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, serving in that capacity from 1929 till 1943. Early life and education Helfenstein was born on April 7, 1865, in St. Louis ...

(1929-1943) *9.

Noble Cilley Powell Noble Cilley Powell (October 27, 1891 – November 28, 1968), was a prominent leader in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, who served as the ninth Bishop of Maryland. Early life and education Powell was born on October 27, 189 ...

(1943-1963) *10.

Harry Lee Doll Harry Lee Doll (July 31, 1903 - August 27, 1984), was bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Maryland during the turmoil concerning civil rights for minorities and women in the 1960s. Early and Family Life A native of Martinsburg, West Virginia, Dol ...

(1963-1971) *11. David Keller Leighton, Sr. (1972-1985) *12.

A. Theodore Eastman Albert Theodore "Ted" Eastman (November 20, 1928 – April 26, 2018) was an American prelate who served as the twelfth Bishop of Maryland from 1986 to 1994. Early life and education Eastman was born on November 20, 1928, in San Mateo, California ...

(1986-1994) *13. Robert W. Ihloff (1995-2007) *14. Eugene Taylor Sutton (2008–present)

Notes

External links

* *
Journal of the Annual Convention, Diocese of Maryland
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Maryland

Diocese of Maryland Religious organizations established in 1780 Anglican dioceses established in the 18th century 1780 establishments in Maryland Province 3 of the Episcopal Church (United States)