The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is one of the
nine original .
History
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
was founded by
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
s who did not accept such aspects of 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 Brit ...
as
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...
s and the
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
. The first
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 t ...
parish in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as th ...
was
King's Chapel
King's Chapel is an American independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed i ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, founded in 1688, 58 years after the city. After 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 Revoluti ...
, King's Chapel became the first
Unitarian congregation in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
. The oldest remaining parishes in the
diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...
are
Christ Church in
Quincy, founded in 1704, St. Paul's in
Newburyport
Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mo ...
, founded as Queen Anne's Chapel in 1711,
St. Michael's Church in Marblehead, founded in 1714, Christ Church in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
(
Old North Church
Old North Church (officially, Christ Church in the City of Boston), at 193 Salem Street, in the North End, Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. This phrase is related ...
), founded in 1723, and
St. Andrew's Church in
South Scituate (now
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
), founded in 1727.
The diocese was organized in 1784, five years before the
Episcopal Church itself. The first bishop (for New England and New York) was
Samuel Seabury
Samuel Seabury (November 30, 1729February 25, 1796) was the first American Episcopal bishop, the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. He was a leading Loyalist ...
who was consecrated by the bishops of the
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland.
A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...
in 1784.
Today, it is one of the largest dioceses in the ECUSA in terms of membership. It encompasses the eastern part of Massachusetts, specifically, the nine counties east and southeast of
Worcester County.
The diocese was the first in the
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...
to consecrate a woman as a bishop.
Barbara Harris became bishop
suffragan
A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations.
In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...
of the diocese in 1989. It became the first diocese in the Episcopal Church to install an
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
as diocesan bishop when
John Melville Burgess was consecrated as the 12th bishop in 1970.
The current diocesan bishop is
Alan M. Gates. He was consecrated bishop in 2014 and succeeded M. Thomas Shaw upon the latter's retirement in September 2014. The current
bishop suffragan is
Gayle E. Harris, consecrated in January 2003.
Historically, the diocese has been considered
Low Church; however, there are a number of
Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches.
The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglica ...
parishes, the most notable of which is the
Church of the Advent in Boston. Its best-known Low Church parish is
Trinity Church in Boston's
Copley Square
Copley Square , named for painter John Singleton Copley, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to i ...
. However, Trinity and most other parishes in the diocese have become 'higher' in the last 25 years with the introduction of Mass vestments such as the chasuble. Earlier distinctions between Low and High Church have largely disappeared across every diocese.
* The
see city is
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
*
Episcopal Divinity School was located in the diocese from its formation in 1974 until moving to
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 ...
in 2017. Many of the diocese's
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 ...
are
alumni of EDS.
*
List of Bishops in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
The diocesan offices are located at 138 Tremont Street, adjacent to the
Cathedral Church of St. Paul.
The diocese had 87,000 members in 2013 and had fallen to 82,450 by 2014.
Episcopal Church membership report
/ref>
Diocesan Bishops
# Edward Bass
Edward Bass (November 23, 1726 in Dorchester, Massachusetts – September 10, 1803 in Newburyport, Massachusetts) was the first American Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts and second bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island.
Biogra ...
(1797-1803)
# Samuel Parker (1804)
# Alexander Viets Griswold (1811-1843)
# Manton Eastburn
Manton Eastburn (1801 in Leeds, England – 1872) was an Episcopal bishop who served as the fourth Bishop of Massachusetts from 1843 till 1872.
Biography
After graduation from Columbia University, he studied at the General Theological Seminar ...
(1843-1872)
# Benjamin Henry Paddock (1873-1891)
# Phillips Brooks (1891-1893)
# William Lawrence (1893-1927)
# Charles Lewis Slattery
Charles Lewis Slattery (December 9, 1867 – March 12, 1930) was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and a prominent writer in the early 20th century.
Slattery was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the Reverend George Sidney Lef ...
(1927-1930)
# Henry Knox Sherrill
Henry Knox Sherrill (November 6, 1890 – May 11, 1980) was an Episcopal bishop. He was the 20th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church from 1947 to 1958, having previously served as Bishop of Massachusetts (1930-1947).
Biography
Henry Knox ...
(1930-1947)
# Norman Burdett Nash (1947-1956)
# Anson Phelps Stokes (1956-1970)
# John Burgess (1970-1975)
# John Bowen Coburn
John Bowen Coburn (September 27, 1914 – August 8, 2009) was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts from 1976 to 1986.
Early life and education
Coburn was born on September 27, 1914, in Danbury, Connecticut, the son of the Reverend ...
(1976-1986)
# David Johnson (1986-1995)
# M. Thomas Shaw (1995-2014)
# Alan McIntosh Gates (2014–present)
Suffragan Bishops
# Samuel G. Babcock (1913-1938)
# Raymond A. Heron (1938-1954)
# Frederic C. Lawrence (1956-1968)
# John M. Burgess (1962-1969)
# Morris F. Arnold (1972-1982)
# Barbara C. Harris (1989-2003)
# Roy F. Cederholm Jr. (2001-2011)
# Gayle E. Harris (2003–present)
References
External links
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
- official website
*
Journal of the Annual Convention, Diocese of Massachusetts
'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massachusetts
Diocese of Massachusetts
Anglican dioceses established in the 18th century
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
Province 1 of the Episcopal Church (United States)
Religious organizations established in 1784