Diocese of Nebraska Diœcesis Nebraskensis | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
Territory | Nebraska |
Ecclesiastical province | Province VI |
Statistics | |
Congregations | 51 (2021) |
Members | 6,843 (2021) |
Information | |
Denomination | Episcopal church |
Established | September 9, 1868 |
Cathedral | Trinity Cathedral |
Co-cathedral | St Mark's Pro-Cathedral |
Current leadership | |
Bishop | Joseph Scott Barker |
Website | |
episcopal-ne.org |
The Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with jurisdiction over the state of Nebraska. It is in Province VI. Its cathedral, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, is in Omaha, as are the diocese's offices. As of 2019, the diocese contains 52 congregations and 7,096 members. [1] Average Sunday attendance is approximately 2,418 across the diocese. [2]
Following the resignation of Joe G. Burnett, J. Scott Barker was consecrated as bishop in October 2011. His election was held during a special diocesan council meeting held at St. Mark's Pro-Cathedral in Hastings, Nebraska.
Source: [3]
While it is certain that men and women associated with the Episcopal Church were included among the earliest explorers and settlers of the territory that came to be called Nebraska, it is unknown who those first Episcopalians might have been and where in the territory they might first have led worship services from the Book of Common Prayer. The first Episcopal clergyman known to have served in the Nebraska territory was the Rev. James DePui, a Chaplain at Ft. Kearney.
In 1856 several churchmen in Omaha city requested the Bishop of Iowa visit them and consult about forming a parish. The Rev. Dr. Edward Peet arrived April 12, 1856, and met with 8 or 10 churchmen who organized a parish under the name of Trinity Church. On Sunday, April 13, Dr. Peet conducted the first known service of the Episcopal Church in Omaha.
In the autumn of 1857 an Episcopal missionary, the Rev. Mr. Eli Adams, came to Nebraska City and organized a parish under the name of St. Mary's. Having accepted a call from the vestry to be the rector, Adams went east to spend the winter. He returned in the spring of 1858 and found the parish had not been incorporated. On July 4, 1858, at the morning service the little congregation of pioneers adopted the following preamble: "We whose names are hereto affixed, deeply sensible of the truth of the Christian religion, and earnestly desirous of promoting its holy influences in our hearts and in those of our families and neighbors, do hereby incorporate ourselves under the name of St. Mary's Parish in Nebraska City, Nebraska Territory in communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States."
The Episcopal Church General Convention of 1838 tasked the great Missionary Bishop, Jackson Kemper with jurisdiction over, "the Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa and in all other parts of the United States north of latitude 36 1/2 where the Church is as yet unorganized." That included the area that came to be known as Nebraska.
Following Bishop Jackson Kemper, the Rt. Rev. Joseph C. Talbot served as a missionary bishop to the west. Kemper was the first bishop of the Episcopal Church with exclusive jurisdiction west of the Missouri River (parts of Kemper's missionary territories were located further east.) Bishop Talbot made Nebraska City (and St. Mary's) his home for five years beginning in 1860, during which time he laid foundations for the Episcopal Church's later work in his vast jurisdiction which included the present states of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and California.
Because he was appointed to serve a smaller and distinct area of the U.S. (Nebraska and the Dakotas) and because he made Nebraska his permanent home and seat, Robert Harper Clarkson is remembered as the first bishop of Nebraska.
Clarkson was born on November 19, 1826, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and received a B.A. from Pennsylvania College in 1844. He was ordained deacon on June 18, 1848, and priest on January 5, 1851. He married Meliora McPherson on May 18, 1849. They had two daughters, Mary and Nellie.
In his earliest days of ministry, Clarkson and his spouse lived in Chicago, Illinois. They were in the city during the days of the 1849 Chicago cholera outbreak that killed 678 people. Although some other clergymen fled the city, Clarkson stayed to minister to the sick and bury the dead. He went on to earn a D.D. from Racine College which was awarded in 1857 while he was serving as the rector of St. James's Episcopal Church in Chicago.
Clarkson was consecrated Missionary Bishop of Nebraska and Dakota on November 15, 1865. During his ministry in Nebraska, Clarkson helped establish the first Christian missions to the Ponca Indians and was responsible for building fifty churches in his diocese as well as a children's hospital.
Clarkson designated Trinity Church in Omaha as his cathedral and soon determined to improve that physical plant. He laid the cornerstone for the current cathedral building on May 25, 1880. Trinity served as the base of many Episcopal missions to areas of the western United States and remains today the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Nebraska.
Clarkson received an LL.D. from the University of Nebraska in 1872.
He died on March 10, 1884.
For almost sixty years there were 2 dioceses in the state of Nebraska. In 1889 the Missionary District of The Platte was split off from the Diocese of Nebraska at about mid-state. The first bishop of the diocese was Anson Rogers Graves who served from 1890 through 1910. During Bishops Graves tenure, the new diocese was renamed the Missionary District of Laramie, and later the Missionary District of Kearney.
In 1910, George Allan Beecher became the second bishop of the western diocese. During Beecher's tenure, which lasted until 1943, the diocese was again renamed. It became the Missionary District of Western Nebraska. In 1918, Beecher designated St. Mark's Church in Hastings as Pro-Cathedral for the Western Nebraska district.
In 1946, the Diocese of Western Nebraska was re-absorbed into the Diocese of Nebraska. Saint Mark's in Hastings is still the Pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Nebraska.
Jackson Kemper in 1835 became the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Especially known for his work with Native American peoples, he also founded parishes in what in his youth was considered the Northwest Territory and later became known as the "Old Northwest", hence one appellation as bishop of the "Whole Northwest". Bishop Kemper founded Nashotah House and Racine College in Wisconsin, and from 1859 until his death served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Wisconsin.
The Missionary District of Western Nebraska was a missionary district of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
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.
Charles Dale David Doren was the first bishop consecrated to serve the Continuing Anglican movement, which began in 1977 in reaction to decisions taken in 1976 at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He was born on 18 November 1915 in Marvin, South Dakota, the son of Ernest Ray and Mae E. Doren. Doren was prepared for Holy Orders at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and was ordained a priest in November 1944 by Bishop Roberts of the Protestant Episcopal Church. On 16 June 1946 he married Bonney Dixon Ward in Beadle, South Dakota. Doren served as a series of parishes in the USA, including a period as a Canon of St Mark's Cathedral, Minneapolis. He was later a missionary in Korea holding the office of Archdeacon for some years before returning to the United States and settling in Paoli, Pennsylvania.
Alexander Charles Garrett was a bishop of The Episcopal Church in the United States.
The Parish of the Falkland Islands is an extra-provincial church in the Anglican Communion. In 1869, the "Diocese of the Falkland Isles" with jurisdiction over the rest of South America except for British Guiana was established. The name was due to a legal technicality: at that time there was no way an English bishop could be consecrated for areas outside the jurisdiction of the Crown. From the start, the bishop resided in Buenos Aires and had his administrative office there. From 1902 to 1973, the jurisdiction of the diocese was progressively reduced in area as more dioceses were established in South America and after the formation of the "Consejo Anglicano Sudamericano" in 1973 as a step towards the formation of a new province of the Anglican Communion the Parish became extra-provincial under the direct jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Until the war between Britain and Argentina in 1982, at the Archbishop's request episcopal functions were performed by the Anglican Bishop of Argentina.
The Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota is a diocese of the Episcopal Church with jurisdiction over the state of South Dakota.
The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, established in 1859, is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with jurisdiction over eastern Kansas. It is in Province 7 and its cathedral, Grace Cathedral, is in Topeka, as are the diocesan offices.
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 Branson in the south and from Kansas City in the west to Fayette in the east. Its Cathedral and diocesan offices are located in downtown Kansas City. As of 2020 the diocese was made up of 47 parishes and congregations divided into 3 deaneries.
Trinity Cathedral is located in Downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Nebraska's first Episcopal parish, Trinity was established in 1856, and became the state's first Episcopal cathedral in 1872. Designed by noted English architect Henry G. Harrison in 1880, the cathedral was consecrated on November 15, 1883. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Today Trinity Cathedral is considered one of the most beautiful churches in Omaha.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon is a progressive Episcopal congregation and the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon of The Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located at 147 NW 19th Avenue in Portland, Oregon, in the Northwest District.
The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America which has jurisdiction over most of Arizona. It is in Province VIII.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, formerly known as Grace Cathedral, is the historic cathedral in the Diocese of Iowa. The cathedral is located on the bluff overlooking Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1873, Trinity is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Episcopal Church in the United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1983 the cathedral was included as a contributing property in the College Square Historic District, which is also listed on the National Register.
Trinity Episcopal Church is a parish church in the Diocese of Iowa. The church is located in Muscatine, Iowa, United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 2006 it was included as a contributing property in the Downtown Commercial Historic District.
Robert Harper Clarkson was an American prelate of the Episcopal Church, who served as the first Bishop of Nebraska between 1865 and 1884.
Frank Rosebrook Millspaugh, was the Bishop of Kansas from 1895 until his death.
The REC Diocese of Mid-America, with the Convocation of the West and Western Canada, is a Reformed Episcopal Church and an Anglican Church in North America diocese, since its foundation in 2009. The REC Diocese of Mid-America is distinct from a diocese of the same name of the Anglican Province of America, which is not affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America. It has 34 congregations, 32 in 12 American states, which are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin, and 2 congregations in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its headquarters are located in Katy, Texas. The Bishop Ordinary was the late Royal U. Grote, Jr., replaced upon his passing by the Bishop Coadjutor, Ray R. Sutton.
St. Mark's Pro-Cathedral is an Episcopal Church building located in Hastings, Nebraska, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1987. In 2020, it reported 247 members, average attendance of 64, and $120,307 in plate and pledge financial support.
Craig William Loya is the tenth bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. He was formerly Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Omaha, Nebraska.
Winslow Robert Chilton Powell was an American prelate of the Episcopal Church who served as the second Bishop of Oklahoma from 1953 to 1977.