Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the USA . It consists of 194 parishes with a total of 77,000 members.
The Massachusetts colony was founded by Puritans who rejected essential aspects of the Church of England such as bishops and the Book of Common Prayer . The first Anglican congregation in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was King's Chapel in Boston , founded in 1688, 58 years after the city. However, after the American Revolution , King's Chapel became the first Unitarian parish in North America , so the oldest remaining parish in the diocese is now St. Paul's in Newburyport , founded in 1711.
The diocese was organized in 1784, five years before the Episcopal Church itself was founded. However, the first bishop was not ordained until 1795.
Today it is one of the largest dioceses in the Church in terms of membership. Geographically, it includes the part of Massachusetts that is east of Worcester County .
The diocese was the first in the Anglican Communion to elect a woman to the office of bishop: Barbara Harris became auxiliary bishop of the diocese in 1989 .
The incumbent diocesan bishop is the Right Reverend M. Thomas Shaw . He was ordained bishop coadjutor in 1994, succeeding David Elliot Johnson when he died in January 1995.
The diocese traditionally tended towards the Low Church tradition; however, there are a few Anglo-Catholic parishes, the most famous of which is the Church of the Advent in Boston. The best known Low Church congregation is the Trinity Church on Copley Square in Boston.
- The bishopric is Boston .
- The Episcopal Divinity School is located in this diocese. Many members of the diocesan clergy are EDS graduates.
Bishops
- Edward Bass (1797-1803)
- Samuel Parker (1804-1804)
- Alexander Viets Griswold , (1811–1843) (5th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church)
- Manton Eastburn , ( Coadjutor , 1842; Diocesan Bishop , 1843–1872)
- Benjamin Henry Paddock , (1873-1891)
- Phillips Brooks (1891-1893)
- William Lawrence (1893-1927)
- Charles Lewis Slattery , (Coadjutor, 1922; Diocesan Bishop, 1927-1930)
- Henry Knox Sherrill , (1930–1947) (20th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church)
- Norman Burdett Nash , (Coadjutor, 1947; Diocesan Bishop, 1947-1956)
- Anson Phelps Stokes , Jr., (coadjutor, 1954; diocesan bishop, 1956-1970)
- John Melville Burgess ( suffragan bishop, 1962–1969; coadjutor, 1969; diocesan bishop, 1970–1975)
- John Bowen Coburn (1976-1986)
- David Elliot Johnson (coadjutor, 1985; diocesan bishop, 1986–1995)
- M. Thomas Shaw , SSJE, (Coadjutor, 1994; Diocesan Bishop, 1995–2014)
- Alan M. Gates (2014-present)
Diocesan offices are located at 138 Tremont Street, next to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul .