The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut (also known as The Episcopal Church in Connecticut) is a

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 ...

of the

Episcopal Church in the United States of America The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop o ...

, encompassing the entire state of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

. It is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church and one of seven

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

dioceses that make up Province 1.

Overview

Anglican services have been conducted in Connecticut since 1702. The diocese was established on 22 June 1785 following 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 ...

, and is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church. The inaugural diocesan bishop was the Rt. Rev.

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 ...

, 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 ...

bishop with a see outside the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

; he also served as Presiding Bishop of the Church. Later bishops included the Rt. Rev. Walter H. Gray, who was also the first chair of the

Civil Rights Commission The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (CCR) is a bipartisan, independent commission of the United States federal government, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 during the Eisenhower administration, that is charged with the responsibility for ...

in Connecticut and played a leading role in two meetings of the

Lambeth Conference The Lambeth Conference is a decennial assembly of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place at Lambeth in 1867. As the Anglican Communion is an international association ...

. The Most Rev.

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbish ...

, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, preached at the consecration of the 15th Bishop of Connecticut, the Rt. Rev. Ian Douglas, in 2010. Douglas was assisted by the Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens as suffragan, the first woman to be elected bishop in Connecticut. The Rt. Rev.

Jeffrey Mello The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey William Mello is an American Episcopal clergyman who has served as 16th Bishop of Connecticut since 2022.cathedra A ''cathedra'' is the raised throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop's throne. With time, the related term ''cathedral'' became synonymous with the "seat", or principal ...

is situated at Christ Church Cathedral in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

, and the diocesan offices are located in Meriden. As of 2021 the diocese had a membership of approximately 40,000, down from 68,000 in 2003.

List of bishops

Churches

The diocese is divided into six geographical areas known as regions. As of 2022, the there were approximately 190 places of worship in the diocese.Episcopal Church in Connecticut, "Our Parishes"
Retrieved 13 December 2022.

Northwest region

North central region

Northeast region

Southwest region

South central region

Southeast region

References

External links

Official Web site of the Episcopal Church in ConnecticutChrist Church Cathedral, Hartford, ConnecticutOfficial Web site of the Episcopal Church
*
Journal of the Annual Convention, Diocese of Connecticut
' at the

Online Books Page The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several fe ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connecticut Episcopal Church in Connecticut

Province 1 of the Episcopal Church (United States) Religious organizations established in 1784