As of November 2019 there were 65 parishes, one aided parish, and four newer worshipping communities in the diocese, with 76 priests and 28 deacons.[2]
In 1861, Elliott and Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana issued a letter calling for a break with the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, which they noted came not from doctrinal differences but "political changes." The group that met in response to this letter formed the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Confederate States of America, with Elliott as its first and only Presiding Bishop. The Confederate church was reunited with the remainder of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States in 1865. Stephen Elliot died unexpectedly on December 21, 1866.
The following year, John W. Beckwith, then rector of Trinity Church, New Orleans. was elected as the second Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia. He was consecrated as Bishop on April 2, 1868, in St. John's Church, Savannah. Beckwith served as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia for 23 years during the difficult period of reconstruction. There were 31 churches in the diocese at the time of his consecration. At his death, there were 53 churches and five missions.[4] In 1887-1888, Beckwith spent five months abroad preaching in Anglican Churches in Italy, France, England, Egypt and Palestine. He died November 23, 1890.
Finding a successor for Beckwith proved difficult as the diocese was twice turned down by those elected to the office. First Thomas Gailor who served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South turned down the job after his election in May 1891. Then Ethelbert Talbot, Missionary Bishop of Wyoming and Idaho declined in July of that year. Both men cited their commitments to their present positions. Finally, on November 11, 1891, Cleland Kinchloch Nelson, rector of Church of the Nativity in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was elected. He accepted the position and was consecrated as the third Bishop of Georgia on February 24, 1892, at St. Luke's Church, Atlanta.[3]
As Bishop, Nelson challenged the Diocese of Georgia to grow and from 1893–1906, the diocese went from 88 missions to 108 missions with the 6,292 communicants of 1893 swelling to 9,229 by 1906.[3] During that same time period, sixty-two church buildings were built. The Diocese of Atlanta (northwestern Georgia) was set apart from the Diocese of Georgia in 1907 with Nelson serving as its first Bishop. At the time of the separation, the reduced Diocese of Georgia had 4,439 communicants.[3]
In 1907 Anna Alexander of the Diocese of Georgia became the first (and only ever) African-American deaconess in the Episcopal Church.[5]
In February 1908 the Diocese of Georgia met in convention in Augusta and elected Frederick Focke Reese, rector of Christ Church, Nashville, Tennessee. as the fourth Bishop of Georgia. That spring, poor health caused the newly elected bishop to take an extended leave of absence, resuming ecclesiastical duties April 1, 1909. During his tenure as Bishop, the missionary work of the diocese concerned the creation of new missions for blacks. By 1913, there were two predominantly black parishes in the diocese, St. Athanasius Church, Brunswick and St. Stephen's, Savannah, as well as thirteen predominantly black missions.[3] Reese served until his retirement in 1934.
The election of a successor to Reese took two conventions to be decided. On August 30, 1934, a special convention was held at Grace Church, Waycross and failed in twelve ballots to elect a new bishop. A second session met January 15, 1935, at St. Paul's, Augusta and took nine more ballots to elect Middleton S. Barnwell, then Missionary Bishop of Idaho, to become the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia. At the time of his election, there were 16 parishes, 21 organized missions, 13 unorganized missions, five mission stations and one parochial mission. The still segregated church records noted 5,391 white and 1,029 black communicants. During his tenure as bishop, which lasted until 1954 the diocese grew to 8,156 total communicants with two more churches becoming parishes and four additional missions created.[3]
During the diocesan convention of 1954 seventeen persons were nominated to succeed Barnwell. Even with the large field of candidates, Albert Rhett Stuart, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans, was elected on the second ballot and was consecrated as the sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia in St. Paul's Church, Augusta, on October 20, 1954. In 1957, a newly acquired Diocesan House on East Bay Street in Savannah was dedicated as the diocesan headquarters. At that time, there were 9,976 communicants in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.[3]
Paul Reeves was consecrated as the seventh Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia on September 30, 1969. He was succeeded by Harry W. Shipps who was consecrated on January 6, 1984. During Shipps' tenure as diocesan bishop, the diocese made headlines in 1990 when a former Assemblies of God minister, Stan White, lead his independent congregation to join the Episcopal Church en masse and as Christ the King Church, Valdosta, became a congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.[6][7]
The ninth Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia, Henry I. Louttit Jr., was rector of Christ Church, Valdosta at the time of his election. He was consecrated as bishop on January 21, 1995. Louttit had long been interested in liturgical renewal and was involved in the creation of the Book of Common Prayer 1979. Under Louttit's leadership, the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia has taken renewed interest in starting new congregations. He authorized the formation of the missions of St. Stephen's, Leesburg; Church of the Holy Comforter, Martinez; King of Peace, Kingsland; St. Luke's, Rincon, and the Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek. Louttit's father, Henry I. Louttit Sr., was the last bishop of the Diocese of South Florida before it was divided into three new dioceses.
The tenth Bishop of Georgia was elected September 12, 2009, in Dublin, Georgia and consecrated on January 23, 2010, at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center.[8]Scott Benhase was graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary. He served at parishes in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia before he was called to be rector of St. Alban's, Washington, D.C. (Diocese of Washington) in 2006, where he was serving at the time of his election. Benhase's major initiative is the Campaign for Congregational Development, a capital campaign raising funds to enhance capacity in congregational growth and development, clergy and lay leader development, and leadership formation of youth and young adults.[9]
Today the Diocese of Georgia now covers the southeastern 32,994 square miles (85,450km2) of the State of Georgia, running from the Chattahoochee River west of Americus to the Savannah River north of Augusta. Savannah is the see city. In February 2007, the Diocese of Georgia reported 18,651 communicants with an average Sunday attendance of 7,127 in its 71 churches.[11]
Theologically, the Georgia Diocese runs the spectrum from moderate liberalism to traditionalist conservatism. Generally, congregations are typically more conservative than their neighbors in the Atlanta diocese, but in most places, especially in small towns, they are often the most liberal religious alternatives available in their communities, which are usually dominated by Southern-style fundamentalist traditions like the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church in America. The first significant episode of Anglican realignment activity in the diocese occurred when the rector and most of the congregation of Christ Church in Savannah left the Episcopal Church in 2007 to form Christ Church Anglican. More recently, in August 2012, the parish of St. John's Episcopal Church, in Moultrie, led by rector William McQueen, decided to leave the Episcopal Church to become St. Mark's Anglican Church of the Anglican Church in North America.[12]
However, the diocese reorganized Christ Church with a basically new congregation in the early 2010s, and the town of Moultrie had another Episcopal parish for residents of Colquitt County to attend, minimizing the trauma of those two defections.
Bishops
The following is a list of the Bishops of the Diocese of Georgia:[13]
1. Stephen Elliott 1841-1866 (deceased) was also presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America.
The Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe is a jurisdiction of the United States-based Episcopal Church created in 1859 by an action of its general convention. The convocation includes all Episcopal congregations in continental Europe. Along with dioceses in New York, New Jersey, Haiti, Cuba, and the Virgin Islands it belongs to Province II of the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, with jurisdiction over middle and north Georgia. It is in Province IV of the Episcopal Church and its cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Philip, is in Atlanta, as are the diocesan offices.
The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America that covers roughly Middle Tennessee. A single diocese spanned the entire state until 1982, when the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee was created; the Diocese of Tennessee was again split in 1985 when the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee was formed. It is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the state of Rhode Island. It is one of seven New England dioceses that make up Province 1.
The Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina (EDUSC) is a diocese in the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee is the diocese of the Episcopal Church that geographically coincides with the political region known as the Grand Division of West Tennessee. The geographic range of the Diocese of West Tennessee was originally part of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, which was partitioned into three separate dioceses during 1982–1985. Phoebe A. Roaf is the current bishop of West Tennessee. It is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee on the close of St. Mary's Cathedral.
The Episcopal Diocese of Newark is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America comprising the northern third of New Jersey in the United States. The Diocese represents the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a province, and presides over Episcopal parishes, missions, outreach ministries and schools in the New Jersey counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Warren, and one church in Union County.
The Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma dates back to 1837 as a Missionary District of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church recognized the Diocese of Oklahoma in 1937. The diocese consists of all Episcopal congregations in the state of Oklahoma. The ninth Bishop and sixth diocesan Bishop is Poulson C. Reed, consecrated in 2020.
The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida is a diocese in Florida in Province IV of the Episcopal Church. It is bounded on the north by the Episcopal Diocese of Florida, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the dioceses of Southeast Florida and Southwest Florida and on the west by the Gulf of Mexico. The two largest cities in the diocese are Orlando, with over 220,000 people, and Port St. Lucie, with over 150,000 people. The Kennedy Space Center and Walt Disney World are located within the diocese. Orlando, where St. Luke's Cathedral is located, is the see city of the diocese.
John Watrous Beckwith was the Second Bishop of Georgia. He was the 86th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA).
Frederick Focke Reese was the fourth Bishop of Georgia. Reese was the 238th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA).
Middleton Stuart Barnwell was the seventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho and the fifth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. Barnwell was the 349th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He was also the first president of what is now Boise State University.
Albert Rhett Stuart, born in Washington, DC, was the Sixth Bishop of Georgia. He was the 532nd bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA).
The Episcopal Diocese of Florida is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). It originally comprised the whole state of Florida, but is now bounded on the west by the Apalachicola River, on the north by the Georgia state line, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and on the south by the northern boundaries of Volusia, Marion, and Citrus counties. Its cathedral church is St. John's Cathedral in Jacksonville.
The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America. It has parishes in the several counties of Western Pennsylvania. In addition, the diocese has oversight of several parishes that are not located within its geographical boundaries, including three in Illinois, two in Tennessee, and one in Colorado. The diocese also has a parish in Mexico.
Harry Woolston Shipps was the eighth Bishop of Georgia. He was the 778th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA).
Henry Irving Louttit, Jr. served as the ninth Bishop of Georgia. He was the 901st bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA).
William Hampton Brady was a bishop in the American Episcopal Church.
Trinity Episcopal Church is a parish church of the Episcopal Church of the United States located at 213 1st Ave., NW in Winchester, Tennessee, USA, and affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee.
Christ Church is an Episcopal church at 28 Bull Street, Johnson Square, in Savannah, Georgia. Founded in 1733, it was the first church established in the Province of Georgia and one of the first parishes within the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, earning it the nickname "the Mother Church of Georgia". The present church building was constructed in 1838 and is located in the Savannah Historic District.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The Episcopal Church in Georgia 1733-1957, by Henry Thomas Malone, published by The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Atlanta, 1960
↑ The Episcopal Church in Georgia 1733-1957, by Henry Thomas malone, published by The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Atlanta, 1960
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