The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago is the official organization of the Episcopal Church in Chicago and

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by t ...

, US. The diocese is headed by Bishop Paula Clark, who is the first woman and first African-American to lead the diocese. The diocese was previously served by

Jeffrey Lee Jeffrey Lee AM (born 1971) member of the Djok clan and the senior custodian of the 12,028 hectare Koongarra region in Australia's Northern Territory which is believed to contain a significant uranium deposit. The land owned by the clan is surrou ...

, who served as bishop until December 31, 2020. The

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metropo ...

of the diocese is St. James Cathedral, which is the oldest Episcopal congregation in the city of Chicago. The Diocese of Chicago covers 22 counties located in the northern third of the state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

, stretching from the shores of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

on the east, to the banks of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

on the west. Its northern boundary is the state of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

; the southernmost city is

Watseka, Illinois Watseka is a city in and the county seat of Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. It is located approximately west of the Illinois-Indiana state line on U.S. Route 24. The population of Watseka was 5,255 according to the 2010 census, whi ...

History

The diocese was founded in 1835 as the Episcopal Diocese of Illinois. Philander Chase, the retired bishop of

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, was the first bishop. He was succeeded in 1852 by

Henry John Whitehouse Henry John Whitehouse (August 19, 1803 – August 10, 1874) was the second Episcopal bishop of Illinois. Early life Whitehouse was born in New York City, the son of James Whitehouse (1767–1854) and Eliza Higgs Norman (1775–1835).Batterson, 1 ...

, a priest previously from New York. Edward McLaren, elected bishop in 1875, saw the Diocese of Illinois divided into three parts in 1877. The newly formed dioceses of Quincy and Springfield elected their own bishops, while McClaren's diocese was renamed the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.

Present day

The Diocese of Chicago ranks among the 12 largest Episcopal dioceses in the United States, with 137 congregations, of which 36 are missions. However, in parallel with declining national memberships, the diocese has seen a decline in membership: 47,171 baptized members in 1994, but only 42,667 in 1996. As of 2011 the diocese website said it had 40,000 members. The diocese is far more ethnically diverse than the Episcopal Church at large. There are four Hispanic congregations, one of which is located in the near western suburbs of Chicago. In addition, four congregations outside Chicago provide Spanish language services, and two others share their facilities with congregations of the

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. There is one Korean American congregation, and the diocese also serves eight African-American congregations. Minority outreach, like the kind found at the

Cathedral Shelter of Chicago The Cathedral Shelter of Chicago was founded in 1915. It began as a storefront mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, attached to the former Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, providing food and clothing to the poor and homeless. In 1920, th ...

continues to this day. The 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church,

Frank Griswold Frank Tracy Griswold III (born September 18, 1937) is a retired American bishop. He was the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Early life and education Griswold was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He was educated at St. Paul's Sc ...

, was bishop of Chicago when he was elected in 1997. Bishop

assumed office in 2008. On February 14, 2019, Lee announced his intention to retire in August 2020. Paula Clark was elected as the thirteenth bishop on December 12, 2020, to assume office in 2021. Clark experienced health issues in April 2021 which required postponement of her assuming office until her health improved. Clark's health subsequently improved and she was consecrated as Bishop on September 17, 2022.

Reunification

In 2008, a majority of laity and clergy in the neighboring

Episcopal Diocese of Quincy The Diocese of Quincy was a diocese of the Episcopal Church in western Illinois from 1877 to 2013. The cathedral seat (home of the diocese) was originally in Quincy, Illinois but was moved to St. Paul's Cathedral in Peoria in 1963. In order to ...

left to form 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 ...

in the more conservative

Anglican Church in North America The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba ...

. The remaining Episcopalians in Quincy reformed their diocese, electing John Buchanan, retired

Bishop of West Missouri The Diocese of West Missouri is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and a member of Province VII. It has jurisdiction over sixty counties in western Missouri running from the cities Fairfax in the north to Brans ...

as their provisional bishop. In 2012 Quincy officials approached Lee and the leadership of the Chicago diocese about the possibility of reunification with Chicago, since it was determined that a remnant diocese would be too small in membership and too geographically dispersed to be viable in the long term. In November 2012 the Chicago diocese's convention agreed that reunification with the Quincy diocese should be pursued. On June 8, 2013, both diocesan conventions voted unanimously to reunify. The reunification was ratified by a majority of bishops and the standing committees of the Episcopal Church, and on September 1, 2013, the Diocese of Quincy merged into the Diocese of Chicago as the Peoria Deanery.

Diocesan Bishops of Illinois and of Chicago

Other bishops of the diocese

List of deaneries

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

Deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or reside ...

* Chicago-North Deanery * Chicago-South Deanery * Chicago-West Deanery * Elgin Deanery * Evanston Deanery * Joliet Deanery * Kankakee Deanery * Oak Park Deanery * Peoria Deanery * Rockford Deanery * Waukegan Deanery

References

External links

Official website
*
Journal of the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Illinois
' 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 ...

. *
Journal of the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Chicago
' at the Online Books Page. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Bishops in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago

Bishops 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 ca ...