The Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia 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 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 ...

(TEC). It encompasses all 55 counties of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

. The diocese has 66 congregations, including 38 parishes, 26 missions, and 2 other churches. The diocese is headquartered in Charleston and led by The Rt. Rev. Matthew Davis Cowden who was consecrated as bishop coadjutor in March, 2022 and became bishop diocesan in October, 2022.

History

1700s

Ministry of the Church of England and its successor, the Protestant Episcopal Church, developed slowly in what is now West Virginia. The 1784 disestablishment of the Church of England in the then-unified Virginia created severe challenges for Episcopalians. The first Episcopal Church in present-day West Virginia was established as a log structure in 1740 near Bunker Hill in Berkeley County. This chapel was founded by Colonel

Morgan Morgan Colonel Morgan Morgan (November 1, 1688 — November 17, 1766) was an American pioneer. He was thought to have founded the first permanent settlement in present-day West Virginia at Cool Spring Farm. Biography Early life Little direct evidence ...

and known by the names Christ Episcopal Church and Morgan Chapel. Services at Morgan Chapel were led by local lay readers and by occasional priests visiting from Christ Church in

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...

. Morgan Chapel is maintained as a historical site, but worship services are now held in nearby Zion Episcopal Church, Charles Town. Zion Church was the spiritual home of

Charles Washington Charles Washington (May 2, 1738 – September 16, 1799) was a Virginia planter and government official in several counties, who founded a town in the Shenandoah Valley which was named Charles Town in his honor shortly after his death and that o ...

, Col. Lewis Washington, and

John Yates Beall John Yates Beall (January 1, 1835 – February 24, 1865) was a Confederate privateer in the American Civil War who was arrested as a spy in New York and executed at Fort Columbus on Governors Island. Early life and education Beall was born in ...

. Westward expansion of white settlers in the late eighteenth century encouraged the founding of Episcopal Churches near the Ohio River. Unlike most Virginia churches, mountainous geography led many churches in West Virginia to be planted by congregations from Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Ohio. Mirroring Virginia politics, diocesan bishops based in Williamsburg and Richmond often overlooked Episcopalians living west of the Blue Ridge. Efforts of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge, a Pennsylvania-born missionary, were especially significant in establishing frontier churches in the Upper Ohio Valley. In 1793, he founded Olde St. John's Episcopal Church in Colliers. It remains the oldest continuously active Episcopalian congregation in West Virginia.

1800s

In the absence of episcopal visitations from the bishop of Virginia, Bishop William White of Pennsylvania consecrated St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

as the nineteenth century began. By 1851, Episcopalians in the northwestern mountain counties petitioned Bishop

William Meade William Meade (November 11, 1789March 14, 1862) was an American Episcopal bishop, the third Bishop of Virginia. Early life His father, Colonel Richard Kidder Meade (1746–1805), one of George Washington's aides during the War of Independence, ...

of Virginia to provide the mountain region its own bishop. Meade demurred even though he had previously founded St. John's Episcopal Church, Charleston, in 1837, and serviced these parishes both while affiliated with Christ Church, Winchester, and later as assistant bishop of Virginia. When

John Johns John Johns (July 10, 1796 – April 5, 1876) was the fourth Episcopal bishop of Virginia. He led his diocese into secession and during the American Civil War and later tried to heal it through the Reconstruction Era. Johns also served as Pres ...

became his assistant bishop, he likewise conducted periodic visitations into the western counties of Virginia. However, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, episcopal visitations ceased. In 1863, shortly before West Virginia's incorporation as a state, St. Matthew's Church, Wheeling, asked permission for another bishop to visit the parish, but like his predecessor, Bishop Johns demurred, asking instead for a safe-conduct to visit the area, which he did not obtain. After the Civil War, the six northwestern counties remained part of the Diocese of Virginia for more than a decade. By 1876, Virginia's diocesan council (a name analogous to diocesan conventions elsewhere) agreed to support the creation of a separate diocese for the state of West Virginia, which the national General Convention approved in 1877. At the organizational meeting led by Virginia bishop

Francis McNeece Whittle Francis McNeece Whittle (July 7, 1823 – June 20, 1902) was the fifth Episcopal bishop of Virginia. Early and family life Born at Millbank Plantation on the Meherrin River in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, Francis was the next-to-youngest of the ...

(who chose to remain with the larger diocese), 14 clergy and 16 lay delegates agreed to extend an invitation to Rev. J.H. Eccleston of Newark, New Jersey to become their new bishop, but his existing congregation pointed out to him the missionary nature of the new diocese and questioned its ability to financially support a bishop and other diocesan officers, and he refused the call. The following year, the clerical and lay delegates met again and finally decided to call Rev. George William Peterkin, who accepted the call and was consecrated by bishops of Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky at the new diocese's largest church, St. Matthew's Church in Wheeling on May 30, 1878. Although the churches in Wheeling and Charleston had also offered to build rectories for the new bishop, Rt. Rev. Peterkin chose to accept the offer from the Parkersburg congregation. He thus made the town diocesan headquarters and ultimately succeeded in raising the funds and building the Church of the Good Shepherd in Parkersburg in 1891.

1900s

In 1899, Peterkin found visitations increasingly difficult and asked for a bishop coadjutor, the diocesan convention elected Rev.

William Loyall Gravatt William Loyall Gravatt (December 15, 1859 - February 14, 1942) became the second Bishop of West Virginia in the Episcopal Church in the United States, after serving as coadjutor to Bishop George William Peterkin. Early and family life Born in Port ...

of Zion Episcopal Church in

Charles Town, West Virginia Charles Town is a city in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, and is also the county seat. The population was 5,259 at the 2010 census. It is named for its founder Charles Washington, youngest brother of President George Washington. ...

. Upon Rt. Rev. Peterkin's death in 1916, Rt. Rev. Gravatt moved the diocesan headquarters to Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital, where they are again today, although moved to Wheeling under the episcopate of his successor, Robert E.L. Strider.

Diocesan Office and Retreat Centers

The diocese is headquartered on Virginia Street in Charleston, a few blocks from the

West Virginia State Capitol The West Virginia State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of West Virginia, and houses the West Virginia Legislature and the office of the Governor of West Virginia. Located in Charleston, West Virginia, the building was ded ...

, in a house known as Diocesan Center. It was donated by Helen Ruffner Ritz in 1964 in memory of her late husband, the lawyer and jurist Harold A. Ritz. The diocese also has two spiritual retreat centers. Since 1944, Peterkin Camp and Conference Center on the South Branch of the Potomac River near Romney has been used for Christian Education retreats and summer camps. In the early 1950s, the diocese acquired Sandcrest Farms near

Oglebay Park Oglebay Park is a self-supporting public municipal park, the only one of its kind, located on the outskirts of Wheeling, West Virginia, on . In 1926, Earl W. Oglebay (of Oglebay, Norton, and Company) deeded his estate, Waddington Farms, to the ...

in Wheeling as a bequest from philanthropists Harry and Helen Turner Sands. Originally envisioned as an Episcopalian retirement home, Sandcrest Conference and Retreat Center now operates as a nonprofit, spiritual retreat center with the mission "…to provide a place in which to nourish the soul, mind, and body through the spirit of Jesus Christ."

Roll of Bishops

# George William Peterkin (1878-1916) #*William Loyall Gravatt, bishop coadjutor (1899-1916) #

(1916-1939) #*Robert E.L. Strider Sr., bishop coadjutor (1923-1939) # Robert E.L. Strider Sr. (1939-1955) #*Wilburn C. Campbell, bishop coadjutor (1950-1955) # Wilburn C. Campbell (1955-1976) #*Robert P. Atkinson, bishop coadjutor (1973-1976) # Robert P. Atkinson (1976-1988) # John H. Smith (1989-1999)
* Charles Vaché, assisting bishop (1999-2001) # W. Michie Klusmeyer (2001- 2022)
* Mark Van Koevering assistant bishop (2016-2018)
* Matthew Davis Cowden, bishop coadjutor (2022) # Matthew Davis Cowden (2022 -)

References

External links

Official Web site of the Diocese of West Virginia
*
Journal of the Annual Convention, Diocese of West Virginia
' {{DEFAULTSORT:West Virginia Diocese of West Virginia Religious organizations established in 1877 Anglican dioceses established in the 19th century

1877 establishments in West Virginia Province 3 of the Episcopal Church (United States)