Massachusetts was founded by
Puritans who did not accept such aspects of the
Church of England as
bishops and the
Book of Common Prayer. The first
Anglican parish in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony was
King's Chapel in
Boston, founded in 1688, 58 years after the city. After the
American Revolution, King's Chapel became the first
Unitarian congregation in
North America. The oldest remaining parishes in the
diocese are
Christ Church in
Quincy, founded in 1704, St. Paul's in
Newburyport, founded as Queen Anne's Chapel in 1711,
St. Michael's Church in Marblehead, founded in 1714, Christ Church in
Boston (
Old North Church), founded in 1723, and
St. Andrew's Church in
South Scituate (now
Hanover), founded in 1727. The diocese was organized in 1784, five years before the
Episcopal Church itself. The first bishop (for New England) was
Samuel Seabury who was consecrated by the bishops of the
Scottish Episcopal Church in 1784. Today, it is one of the largest dioceses in the ECUSA in terms of membership. It encompasses the eastern part of Massachusetts, specifically, the nine counties east and southeast of
Worcester County. The diocese was the first in the
Anglican Communion to consecrate a woman as a bishop.
Barbara Harris became bishop
suffragan of the diocese in 1989. It became the first diocese in the Episcopal Church to install an
African American as diocesan bishop when
John Melville Burgess was consecrated as the 12th bishop in 1970. The current diocesan bishop is
Julia Whitworth. She was consecrated bishop in October 2024 and succeeded
Alan M. Gates. The current
assistant bishop is
Carol Gallagher, consecrated in January 2003. Historically, the diocese has been considered
Low Church; however, there are a number of
Anglo-Catholic parishes, the most notable of which is the
Church of the Advent in Boston. Its best-known Low Church parish is
Trinity Church in Boston's
Copley Square. However, Trinity and most other parishes in the diocese have become 'higher' in the last 25 years with the introduction of Mass vestments such as the chasuble. Earlier distinctions between Low and High Church have largely disappeared across every diocese. • The
see city is
Boston. •
Episcopal Divinity School was located in the diocese from its formation in 1974 until moving to
New York City in 2017. Many of the diocese's
clergy are
alumni of EDS. •
List of Bishops in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts The diocesan offices are located at 138 Tremont Street, adjacent to the
Cathedral Church of St. Paul. The diocese had 87,000 members in 2013 and had fallen to 82,450 by 2014. ==Diocesan Bishops==