Diocese of Pennsylvania
| Diocese of Pennsylvania | |
|---|---|
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| Location | |
| Ecclesiastical province | Province III |
| Statistics | |
| Congregations | 132 |
| Members | 42,493 (2015) |
| Information | |
| Rite | Episcopal |
| Cathedral | Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Daniel G. P. Gutierrez |
| Map | |
 Location of the Diocese of Pennsylvania |
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| Website | |
| www |
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The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America encompassing the counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware in the state of Pennsylvania.
The Diocese has 31,800 members in 2016 in 132 congregations. In March 2016, Rev. Daniel G. P. Gutierrez was elected Bishop Diocesan; he was consecrated and assumed office on July 16, 2016.
Quakers may have founded Pennsylvania, but Anglicans were present from the beginning. They established nine congregations, including Christ Church, Philadelphia (1695), Trinity Church, Oxford (1698), St. Thomas', Whitemarsh (1698), and St. David’s, Radnor (1700) in the colony’s first twenty years. After the American Revolution, Anglicans became Episcopalians. Led by the Reverend William White, they organized the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania in 1784. White became its first bishop three years later, and the Diocese grew rapidly during his episcopacy (1787-1836).
In the beginning, the Diocese spanned a vast area, extending from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Essentially, it encompassed the whole of Pennsylvania. But the rigors of travel and the growth of the church necessitated reorganization. In 1865, a new Diocese of Pittsburgh took responsibility for every parish west of the Alleghenies. By 1910 there were five Episcopal dioceses in Pennsylvania, and the Diocese of Pennsylvania covered only the southeastern corner of the commonwealth. But the bulk of Pennsylvania’s Episcopalians lived there - in Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties.
Throughout its history, the Diocese of Pennsylvania has been subject to what some might call countervailing forces. On such important matters as governance, worship, and doctrine, it has struggled to resolve differences. The Episcopal Church itself emerged from a series of compromises that were made in England and America. Bishop White favored the “middle way” – a balance between individual piety and shared ritual, between parish autonomy and centralized leadership. Some of his successors (e.g. Henry Ustick Onderdonk, 1836-1844) tried to reconcile those committed to “high” and “low” church beliefs and practices. The emergence of “liberal” theology at the end of the nineteenth century heightened tensions. Its emphasis on social responsibility did not appeal to all Episcopalians.
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