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The Department of Christian Education had its roots in the General Board of Religious Education, which was established canonically in 1910 by the General Convention for the purpose of religious instruction. As part of its efforts, it trained Sunday School teachers, developed religious curricula, organized conferences, and maintained summer schools and campus ministries.

In 1919, the General Board of Religious Education became the Department of Religious Education; instead of reporting to the General Convention, the new department now reported to the Presiding Bishop and National Council. In 1938 its name was changed to the Department of Christian Education. In 1942, the department was brought under the umbrella of the newly formed Home Department, resulting in its brief re-designation as the Division of Christian Education. It was again made a separate department in 1947.

As a result of the Executive Council’s reorganization in 1968, the Department of Christian Education was integrated into the Section I (Service to Dioceses) program group alongside the Home Department, General Division of Research and Field Study, and General Division of Women’s Work with their functions being combined and streamlined to improve organizational flexibility. From 1970 to 1973, there was no staff officer in charge of religious education. The work was briefly carried out thereafter under the direction of a Program Group on Education, followed by an Education Committee headed by an Educational Officer of Executive Council, until the Office of Religious Education was established. Today, educational responsibilities are carried out by different formation ministries within The Episcopal Church.

The Department of Finance was centered in the office of the Treasurer (a continuation of the office with the DFMS). As an administrative unit, it was a creation of the National Council in 1919, and continued until 1965 when the Executive Council reorganized. The department was charged with administering funds received by the National Council and the expenditure of funds as authorized by General Convention and the Council. It was in this capacity that the department worked with the foreign missions.

Following his election as Presiding Bishop in 1985, Edmond Browning created the Deputy for Anglican Relationships (also known as Anglican Relations and Anglican Affairs). The office was part of the Senior Executive Group of the Presiding Bishop’s staff at Church Center, and its purpose was “to provide consultative and coordinative support” to the Presiding Bishop in affairs dealing with the Anglican Communion. The Rev. Charles Cesaretti was the first to be appointed to the position in January of 1986. The Rev. J. Patrick Mauney took over the office in January of 1989.

The Deputy acted as liaison to other members of the Anglican Communion and as a close advisor to the Presiding Bishop on Anglican matters, traveling to Anglican church conferences and meeting with representatives from the global Anglican Communion. As such, the Deputy was responsible for keeping abreast of world events and international crises and advising the leaders of The Episcopal Church on framing the Church’s responses.

Following budget cuts within The Episcopal Church in 1991, the position of Deputy for Anglican Relations was not renewed and much of the work was transferred to the Partnerships Office.

In 1910, General Convention established the General Board of Religious Education in response to the changing landscape of higher education in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1913, the Department of Collegiate Education was created under the Board. In 1919, with the establishment of the National Council, the Board of Religious Education became the Department of Religious Education. In 1929, the department created thirteen separate commissions for its work, one of which was a Commission on College Work. The Secretary and Commission continued to operate under these titles through 1938, when the Religious Education Department was renamed the Department of Christian Education.

In 1940, the Division of College Work was created, and in 1942 it was placed on equal footing with the Department of Christian Education, under the newly formed Home Department. As the number of college and university students grew over the decades, the scope of the division’s work grew as well. By the 1950s, the division was involved in establishing college chaplaincies, supporting local parish work, and creating missions to young women and minorities. The division also ministered to university faculty, graduate students, and foreign students. The Division of College Work was renamed the College and University Division in 1963.

The restructuring of the Church in 1967 brought about the closure of the Home Department and, with it, the College and University Division. Higher education ministries for some time thereafter were carried on in a reduced capacity and on a largely provincial or entirely local level, supplemented with some financial grants or block funds towards stipends provided by Executive Council.

Following the Joint Commission on Rural Work report to the 1940 General Convention calling for more rural Church workers, a new staff officer position for “town and country” work in the Division of Domestic Mission was created. In 1949, this position expanded to a stand-alone department under the Home Department as the Division of Town and Country Work. Two years later, the Division appointed a National Advisory Committee for Town and Country Work to perform studies and make recommendations.

The Division of Town and Country Work had a particularly close relationship with the Roanridge Training Center in Missouri. The programs at Roanridge, including the Summer Parish Training Program, were administered by the National Town and Country Institute.

Emphasis on the rural mission waned in the 1960s as the national Church became more focused on urban mission. A 1961 reorganization of the Home Department saw the elimination of the Division of Town and Country, with its responsibilities being returned to the Division of Domestic Mission. The National Advisory Committee for Town and Country Work survived the reorganization and eventually dissolved in 1967.