The Diocese of Virginia is the largest

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 ...

of the

Episcopal Church in the United States of America The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop o ...

, encompassing 38 counties in the northern and central parts of the state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. The diocese was organized in 1785 and is one of the Episcopal Church's nine original dioceses, with origins in colonial Virginia. As of 2018, the diocese has 16 regions with 68,902 members and 180 congregations. The see city is

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

where Mayo Memorial Church House, the diocesan offices, is located. The diocese does not have a conventional

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

church but rather an open-air cathedral, the Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration at

Shrine Mont Shrine Mont is a retreat and conference center owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in the town of Orkney Springs, Virginia, United States which is located at the foot of Great North Mountain in the Shenandoah Valley and at the edge of the ...

, which was consecrated in 1925. Shrine Mont in

Orkney Springs, Virginia Orkney Springs is an unincorporated community in western Shenandoah County, Virginia, Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. The reason for the name "Orkney" is unknown, but believed to be tied to either the Orkney Islands off the coast of Sco ...

is also the site of a diocesan retreat and camp center. The diocese also operates the Virginia Diocesan Center at Roslyn in western Richmond, a conference center overlooking the James River.

Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, located at 3737 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Virginia is the largest and second oldest accredited Episcopal seminary in the Unit ...

, the largest accredited Episcopal seminary in the United States, is located within the diocese in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

History

Church of England in Virginia

Anglicanism Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

came to Virginia in 1607 with the settlers who founded Jamestown. The charter of the

London Company The London Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of London, was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N. History Origins The territo ...

instructed them to adhere to the practices of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

, and between 1607 and its dissolution in 1624, the company sent 22 ministers to the colony. These ministers were not only concerned for the spiritual lives of the colonists but also attempted (largely unsuccessfully) to convert the Native Americans. When Virginia's General Assembly first met in 1619, it passed a series of laws concerning the church, including formally designating the Church of England as the

established church A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...

of the colony. To keep pace with the colony's growth, the Burgesses ordered each settlement to set aside a house or room as a place to hold regular worship services.Edward L. Bond and Joan R. Gundersen (2007), "The Episcopal Church in Virginia, 1607-2007", ''Virginia Magazine of History & Biography'' 115, no. 2: Chapter 1. After Virginia was made a

royal colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Coun ...

in 1624, it would face an acute and serious clergy shortage until the end of the 17th century. The shortage was fueled by an expanding population and insufficient clergy recruitment despite efforts to attract ministers by offering incentives, such as tax breaks. This forced parishes to rely on lay readers to lead prayers and read published sermons. The absence of North American

bishop 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 ...

s necessitated that colonists desiring

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

make the dangerous trip to and from England. It also meant children could not be confirmed, which meant (prior to 1662) that they could not receive communion, although many clergymen overlooked this requirement. In this vacuum, the legislature assumed some episcopal functions, such as outlining the responsibilities of clergymen and providing for their financial maintenance. It created a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

system in 1642-1643 that was

lay Lay may refer to: Places *Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada *Lay, Loire, a French commune * Lay (river), France *Lay, Iran, a village * Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community People * Lay (surname) ...

dominated, a radical departure from the English system where rectors were nominated by parish patrons and usually held office for life. In Virginia, vestries, usually consisting of 12 wealthy men, could appoint and remove ministers. Colonial parishes were units of local government and social welfare agencies. In addition to paying the minister's salary and building churches, the parish levy provided the vestry with funding for poor relief. Vestries were in charge of road maintenance, presented moral offenders to the county courts, and determined the legal bounds of an individual's land. It was not until Henry Compton was appointed

Bishop of London 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 ...

that the hierarchy of the English Church would address the problems in America. Compton not only worked to improve the quality of the colony's ministers but appointed commissaries to act on his behalf. Commissaries could "summon the clergy, conduct visitations, administer oaths customary in ecclesiastical courts, and administer discipline or judicial proceedings to wayward clergy either by admonition, suspension, or excommunication" but could not ordain to the priesthood. The first commissary, Henry Clayton, arrived in 1684 but left two years later. His successor, James Blair, held the office for 54 years, from 1689 to his death in 1743. Blair was successful in establishing parishes in every county. He was also committed to educating colonial men for the ministry, establishing the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William ...

in 1693. Compton's attention brought stability to Virginia's church and by 1703 nearly 80 percent of Virginia's 50 parishes had ministers. Until the

Great Awakening Great Awakening refers to a number of periods of religious revival in American Christian history. Historians and theologians identify three, or sometimes four, waves of increased religious enthusiasm between the early 18th century and the lat ...

of the 1740s, the Church of England faced few challenges apart from small groups of

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

. During the Awakening, however,

Presbyterians Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

and

Baptists Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul com ...

emerged as a threat to the religious establishment. Baptists especially resented the privileged status of the Anglican Church and laws requiring that the government license dissenting ministers. The Great Awakening also inspired an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

movement within the established church, much of which would eventually be absorbed by

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

. By the 1750s and 1760s, however, the Church of England in Virginia was stable and prosperous.

Piety

In the 1740s the Anglican church had about 70 parish priests around the colony. There was no bishop, and indeed, there was fierce political opposition to having a bishop in the colony. The Anglican priests were supervised directly by the distant

, who paid little attention. Each county court gave tax money to the local vestry, composed of prominent layman. The vestry provided the priest a

glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

of 200 or , a house, and perhaps some livestock. The vestry paid him an annual salary of . of tobacco, plus 20 shillings for every wedding and funeral. While not poor, the priests lived modestly and their opportunities for improvement were slim. Ministers reported that the colonists were typically inattentive, uninterested, and bored during church services. According to the ministers' complaints, the people were sleeping, whispering, ogling the fashionably-dressed women, walking about and coming and going, or at best looking out the windows or staring blankly into space. By 1740, the acute shortage of clergy was easing, and by 1776, there were more Anglican clergy living in Virginia than there were parishes. Devout parishioners used the Book of Common Prayer for private prayer and devotion. This allowed devout Anglicans to lead an active and sincere religious life in addition to the formal church services. However the stress on private devotion weakened the need for a bishop or a large institutional church of the sort Blair wanted. The stress on personal piety opened the way for the

First Great Awakening The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affecte ...

, which pulled people away from the established church.

Revolution

The

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

was a difficult time for the Anglican Church in America. Clergymen were divided between allegiance to their

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

and their

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

. As public officials, ministers were required to swear loyalty to the state, breaking the

Oath of Supremacy The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in England to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Failure to do so was to be treated as treasonable. The Oath of Supremacy was or ...

in the process. Some were able to do this, but those who could not either resigned or withdrew from parish duties while continuing to provide pastoral care. There were calls for dis-establishment, but powerful church members resisted drastic change. In 1777, the legislature passed bills recognizing the church's right to its property and the right of the clergy to occupy the

s. Clerical salaries were suspended and ended entirely in 1780. Thus for much of the war the Anglican Church faced an identity crisis. It was a state church controlled by a government refusing to fund it. The war also led to the breakdown of the vestry system as refugees strained parish resources and desperate vestrymen resigned or petitioned the state to dissolve their vestries.Bond and Gundersen (2007), Chapter 2.

Postwar Episcopalians

After the American Revolution, when

freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedo ...

and the

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular s ...

became dominant ideas, the Church of England was dis-established in Virginia. A few ministers were Loyalists and had returned to England. When it began organizing as a diocese after the Revolution about 50 Episcopal clergy were still active in the state. The lack of a steady means of pay and natural aging continued to reduce the number of clergy. Reforms at the College of William and Mary resulted in no place for Episcopal clergy to study for ordination. The clergy shortage deepened over time. When possible, worship continued in the usual fashion, but the local vestry was no longer the unit of local government and no longer handled tax money. The Right Reverend James Madison (1749–1812) (a cousin of politician

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

), was elected in 1790 as the first Episcopal Bishop of Virginia and slowly rebuilt the denomination. After the war ended, Episcopalians (as Anglicans were now calling themselves) recognized the need to be in control of their own church. In April 1784, a meeting of Virginia ministers asked the legislature to relinquish control over the church and to issue an act of incorporation. In October, it passed an incorporation bill which placed the government of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the hands of an annual convention with both lay and clerical representatives. However, the state continued to create new parishes and set parish boundaries, oversee vestry elections, and require county courts to review parish finances for several more years. For its part, the Episcopal Church continued to hold a monopoly on performing marriages. The first convention was held May 1785. It elected a standing committee, elected deputies to the first General Convention of the Episcopal Church in September, and created canons. The canons ensured that laity would participate in the trial of clergymen accused of misconduct and that bishops would have no authority except to oversee clerical conduct, perform confirmations and ordinations, and preside at the convention. At the second Virginia convention, in 1786, the Rev. Dr. David Griffith, who was both a surgeon and a priest, was elected to become the first Bishop of Virginia. He lacked the funds, however, to travel to England for his consecration, and in 1789, resigned his election, fell ill and died. The following year,

, the president of the

, rector of James City parish, and cousin of the future president of the same name, was elected to become the first Bishop of Virginia, traveled to England and was consecrated. In 1786, the Virginia Assembly passed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, written by

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

and supported by

. It also repealed the act of incorporation for the Virginia church and took from the vestries the oversight of poor relief. Baptists and Presbyterians were proposing that all property of the colonial parishes—glebes, church buildings, church yards, communion silver, and Bibles—be sold for the benefit of all Virginians. Even with a 1788 law confirming the Episcopal Church's rights to the colonial church's property and the repeal of all laws creating an established church in 1799, efforts to dis-endow the Episcopal Church continued. In 1801, the General Assembly passed a law authorizing county overseers of the poor to sell property of the former established church, using the money for education and the poor. As late as 1814, the General Assembly was still authorizing the sale of specific parishes' silver and bells, and in 1841, the

Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrati ...

ruled in a case involving the seizure of a parish glebe. After the Episcopal Church lost a challenge to the 1801 law, Bishop Madison focused on keeping the College of William and Mary going. Congestive heart failure made it difficult for Madison to travel, and the diocese suffered decline that lasted past Madison's death as once again the elected candidate declined the position. The next Bishop, Richard Channing Moore led the rebuilding of the diocese. The opening of the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria in 1823, under the guidance of

William Holland Wilmer William Holland Wilmer (October 9, 1782 – July 24, 1827) was an Episcopal priest, teacher and writer in Maryland and Virginia who served briefly as the eleventh president of the College of William and Mary. Early life and education The fifth ...

(who ultimately but briefly succeeded Madison as president of the College of William and Mary) and William Meade (who later succeeded Moore) provided the diocese with the source of clergy it needed to rebuild.

Civil War and aftermath

During the Civil War, West Virginia separated from Virginia and in 1877 that part of the Diocese of Virginia lying within the bounds of West Virginia became the

Diocese of West Virginia The Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (TEC). It encompasses all 55 counties of West Virginia. The diocese has 66 congregations, including 38 parishes, 26 missions, and 2 othe ...

. In 1892, The southern part of the diocese became the

Diocese of Southern Virginia Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America located in the southeast area of Virginia. It is in Province III (for the Middle Atlantic region). The diocese includes the Hampton ...

, and from that diocese, another emerged (the

Diocese of Southwestern Virginia Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America located in the southwest area of Virginia. It is in Province III (for the Middle Atlantic Middle or The Middle may refer to: * C ...

) in 1919. The boundaries of the Diocese of Virginia have remained unchanged since 1892.Edward L. Bond and Joan R. Gundersen (2007), "The Episcopal Church in Virginia, 1607-2007", ''Virginia Magazine of History & Biography'' 115, no. 2: Chapter 5.

Recent history

In recent decades, the diocese has experienced the effects of

Anglican realignment The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States ...

as some conservative congregations withdrew from the diocese and the national Episcopal Church. Many of these congregations formed the Anglican Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. In 2012, the diocese reclaimed legal access to Episcopal church properties that had been claimed by seven of the departing congregations, which included an unsuccessful appeal to the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

by Anglican members at

The Falls Church The Falls Church is an historic Episcopal church, from which the city of Falls Church, Virginia, near Washington, D. C., takes its name. The parish was established in 1732 and the brick church still in use today dates to 1769. History Colonial ...

Bishops

These are the bishops who have served the Diocese of Virginia: #

(1790–1812) # Richard Channing Moore (1814–1841)
* William Meade, Assistant (1829–1841) # William Meade (1841–1862)
*

John Johns John Johns (July 10, 1796 – April 5, 1876) was the fourth Episcopal bishop of Virginia. He led his diocese into secession and during the American Civil War and later tried to heal it through the Reconstruction Era. Johns also served as Presi ...

, Assistant (1842–1862) #

(1862–1876)
* Francis McNeece Whittle, Assistant (1867–1876) # Francis McNeece Whittle (1876–1902)
* Alfred Magill Randolph, Assistant (1883–1892); named bishop of

Southern Virginia Southern Virginia is a region in the U.S. state of Virginia located along the border with North Carolina. The region includes the counties of Brunswick, Charlotte, Greensville, Halifax, Henry, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, and Pittsylvania, and the ...

* John Brockenbrough Newton, Assistant/

Coadjutor The term coadjutor (or coadiutor, literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadj ...

(1894–1897)
* Robert Atkinson Gibson,

(1897–1902) # Robert Atkinson Gibson (1902–1919)
* Arthur Selden Lloyd,

, (1909 - 1911?)
* William Cabell Brown,

(1914–1919) # William Cabell Brown (1919–1927)
* Henry St. George Tucker,

(1926–1927) # Henry St. George Tucker (1927–1943), elected presiding bishop in 1938
* Frederick D. Goodwin,

(1930–1944) # Frederick D. Goodwin (1944–1960)
* Wiley Roy Mason,

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

(1942–1951), assistant (1951–1968)
* Robert Fisher Gibson, Jr.,

(1949–1954),

(1954–1960)
* Samuel Blackwell Chilton,

(1960–1969) # Robert Fisher Gibson, Jr. (1961–1974)
* Robert Bruce Hall,

(1966–1974)
* Philip Alan Smith,

(1970–1972), elected bishop coadjutor of

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

* John Alfred Baden,

(1973–1979) # Robert Bruce Hall (1974–1985)
* David Henry Lewis, Jr.,

(1980–1987)
*

Peter James Lee Peter James Lee (11 May 1938 - 2 July 2022) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. Ministry Lee, a former newspaper reporter, was ordained deacon in 1967 and priest in 1968. He served as deacon at St John's Cathedral in Jacksonville, ...

(1984–1985) #

(1985–2009)
* Robert Poland Atkinson, Assistant (1989–1993)
* F. Clayton Matthews,

(1994–1998), named director of the Office of Pastoral Development
* David Colin Jones,

(1995-2012)
* Francis Campbell Gray, Assistant (1999–2007)
* Shannon Sherwood Johnston,

(2007–2009) # Shannon Sherwood Johnston (2009-2018)
* David Colin Jones,

(1995-2012), subsequently visiting bishop (-2021-)
* Edwin F. Gulick Jr., Assistant (2011-2017), subsequently visiting bishop (-2021-)
*

Susan E. Goff Susan Ellyn Goff is an American prelate of the Episcopal Church. She was elected and consecrated as Suffragan Bishop of Virginia in 2012. She became Ecclesiastical Authority of the diocese in 2018 upon the retirement of Shannon Johnston, thirte ...

(2012-2018), Ecclesiastical Authority (2018-2022)
* Jennifer Brooke-Davidson, Assistant (2019-2022) # E. Mark Stevenson (2022-present)

References

External links

* *
Journal of the Annual Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Virginia
' 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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Virginia Diocese of Virginia 1785 establishments in Virginia Anglican dioceses established in the 18th century

Province 3 of the Episcopal Church (United States) Religious organizations established in 1785