A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
EPISCOPAL CHURCH
The Episcopal Church was formally
organized in 1783 when representatives of the Church of England in
the United States of America met in Connecticut and organized the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. A year later
Samuel Seabury traveled to Scotland be ordained the first
Episcopal bishop by three Church of Scotland bishops. In 1785 the
church's first General Convention, consisting of a House of
Deputies, met in Philadelphia. The General Convention became a
bicameral body in 1789 when the House of Bishops was formed. The
first American Book of Common Prayer, modeled on the Church of
England prayer book, was adopted by General Convention in 1790.
The church's corporate organization, The Domestic and Foreign
Missionary Society, was founded in 1820.
Bishop William White of Pennsylvania was
the church's first presiding bishop. Until 1919 the presiding
bishop's office was held by the church's most senior bishop. The
first bishop to be elected presiding bishop was John Gardner
Murray, bishop of Maryland, who served from 1926 to 1931. In 1946
the General Convention designated the presiding bishop as the
chief pastor and primate of the church, and removed the
requirement that the presiding bishop also function as a diocesan
bishop. In 1994 the presiding bishop's term of office was reduced
from twelve years to nine years.
EPISCOPAL FACTS
Founded:
1783, as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States
Membership:
2.4 million baptized members
Organization:
100 domestic dioceses, 13 dioceses in Latin America, Caribbean
islands, Europe
Clergy:
bishops - 310, priests - 14,000, deacons - 1,700
Headquarters:
Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Ave., New York, NY 10017 (800)
334-7626
