The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, established in 1859, is 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 associa ...

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 ...

with jurisdiction over eastern

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

. It is in Province 7 and its

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

, Grace Cathedral, is in

Topeka Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Uni ...

, as are the diocesan offices.

Current bishop

The Right Reverend Cathleen Chittenden Bascom is the 10th bishop of Kansas. She was elected in 2018 and ordained and consecrated bishop on March 2, 2019.

Bishops serving areas including the Kansas Territory

Jackson Kemper Jackson Kemper (December 24, 1789 – May 24, 1870) in 1835 became the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Especially known for his work with Native American peoples, he also founded parishes in wha ...

, (1789–1870), Missionary, Missouri-Kansas (1837–1859)

Henry Washington Lee Henry Washington Lee (July 29, 1815 – September 26, 1874) was a 19th-century bishop in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He served as the first Bishop of Iowa from 1854–1874. He also served as Provisional Bisho ...

, Missionary, Iowa - Kansas (1860–1864)

History of the Territorial Area

The first Episcopal services in the Kansas Territory were conducted in 1837 by Bishop Jackson Kemper. In 1859 Bishop Kemper agreed to a convention, at which seven clergy and 11 laymen voted to form the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas. At that time the diocese was contiguous with the boundaries of the Kansas Territory. Bishop Henry Washington Lee of Iowa, served as provisional bishop of Kansas from 1860 to 1864. During this time the state of Kansas was established by Congress, and the boundaries of the diocese shrunk to conform to those of the state, by action of General Convention in 1862. During the territorial era, the diocese formed the

College of the Sisters of Bethany The College of the Sisters of Bethany is a defunct school located in Topeka, Kansas, United States. The school was chartered by the Kansas Territory on February 2, 1861 (although Kansas was officially admitted to the Union four days earlier) an ...

, an Episcopal girls school that closed in 1928.

List of bishops

The bishops of Kansas have been:Diocese of Kansas history
# Thomas H. Vail (1864–1889) # Elisha Smith Thomas (1889–1895) # Frank Millspaugh, (1895–1916) # James Wise, (1916–1939) # Goodrich R. Fenner (1939-1959) #

Edward Clark Turner Edward Clark Turner (March 26, 1915June 21, 1997) was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas between 1959 and 1981. Early life and education Turner was born on March 26, 1915, in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Edward Turner and Eva Helen Clark. H ...

(1959–1981) # Richard F. Grein (1981–1988) # William E. Smalley (1989–2003) # Dean E. Wolfe (2004–2017) # Cathleen Chittenden Bascom (2019–Present)

History of the Diocese

In 1864, 26 delegates from 10 organized parishes gathered at diocesan convention and elected the diocese’s first bishop, Thomas Hubbard Vail. Bishop Vail established a hospital in Topeka, Christ Hospital (the successor to that institution, Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center, still bears his name). At the end of his episcopacy, the diocese had expanded to 138 congregations, more than 3,000 communicants and 31 clergy, plus three schools and the hospital. The Missionary District of Salina was created from the Diocese in 1901. Its territory extends over the western 60 percent of the state and now is known as the Diocese of Western Kansas. In June 1879, Grace Church of Topeka was designated the Cathedral of the diocese. In 1910 the foundation for the current Cathedral building was laid. By 1912, the walls had been erected but funds were depleted and further construction was halted. Fund raising efforts and leadership from Bishop Frank Millspaugh and the Rev. J. P. DeBevers Kaye, money was raised for completion of the Cathedral, with exception of the towers, in 1917.

Churches

* St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Emporia

References

External links

Episcopal Diocese of Kansas website

Grace Cathedral websiteOfficial Web site of the Episcopal Church
*
Journal of the Annual Convention, Diocese of Kansas
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kansas

Episcopal Church in Kansas Religious organizations established in 1859 Anglican dioceses established in the 19th century 1859 establishments in Kansas Territory Province 7 of the Episcopal Church (United States)