The Episcopal Church in the United States of America currently has 111 dioceses. When the church was founded in 1785, it only had nine.[citation needed]
These were:
- Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts[citation needed]
- Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut[citation needed]
- Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania[citation needed]
- Episcopal Diocese of Virginia[1]
- Episcopal Diocese of New York[citation needed]
- Episcopal Diocese of Maryland[citation needed]
- Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey[citation needed]
- Episcopal Diocese of Delaware[citation needed]
- Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina[citation needed]
They are represented by the nine white crosses arranged in a St. Andrew's Cross on a blue field (canton) on the Church arms and flag. The rest of the flag is a red St. George’s Cross on a white field reminiscent of the former national flag of the old Kingdom of England before the first Act of Union in 1706/1707 uniting England and Scotland.[citation needed]
In 2012, due to disputes over theology and authority, the standing committee of the Diocese of South Carolina voted to withdraw the entire diocese from The Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and become an autonomous Anglican diocese, joining the Anglican Church in North America in June 2017. The Episcopal Church maintained that an Episcopal diocese cannot withdraw itself from the national church. There is therefore a dispute over which South Carolina diocese is the successor to the diocese that was one of the original nine. The South Carolina entity which currently operates as a still constituent part of the ECUSA uses the name "Episcopal Church in South Carolina"; the diocese which withdrew is called the "Anglican Diocese of South Carolina".[citation needed]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Podmore, Colin (January 2008). "A Tale of Two Churches: The Ecclesiologies of The Episcopal Church and the Church of England Compared". Ecclesiastical Law Journal. 10 (1): 34–70. doi:10.1017/S0956618X08000896. ISSN 1751-8539. Retrieved 16 February 2024.