Episcopal Diocese of Georgia
| Diocese of Georgia | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
| Ecclesiastical province | IV (Southeast) |
| Subdivisions | Six Convocations |
| Statistics | |
| Congregations | 67 |
| Members | 16,186 (2014) |
| Information | |
| Rite | Episcopal |
| Cathedral | None |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Scott Benhase |
| Map | |
 Location of the Diocese of Georgia |
|
| Website | |
| gaepiscopal.org | |
The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, USA is one of 20 dioceses that comprise Province IV of the US Episcopal Church, and is a diocese within the worldwide Anglican Communion. The current bishop is Scott Anson Benhase who succeeded Henry I. Louttit, Jr. on January 23, 2010 when he was consecrated 10th Bishop of Georgia at a service held in the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center.
As of February 2007 there were 71 organized parishes and missions in the diocese, 170 priests and deacons, and more than 18,000 communicants.
The Episcopal Church in Georgia began as a small Diocese of three parishes in 1823: Christ Church, Savannah; Christ Church, St. Simons Island; and St. Pauls, Augusta. Seventeen years later there were six churches as Christ Church, Macon; Trinity Church, Columbus; and Grace Church, Clarkesville had been added to the earlier three churches. Christ Church, Savannah's pledge of $400 to the ministry in Clarkesville made the ministry of Grace Church possible and secured the six parishes necessary to elect a Bishop. The six parishes met in Clarkesville in 1840 to unanimously nominate and unanimously elect the then 36-year-old Stephen Elliott as the first Bishop of Georgia.
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.
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