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Gailor Industrial School (Mason, Tennessee) was founded in 1905 by the Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Gailor III, Bishop of Tennessee, and first became affiliated with the American Church Institute (ACI) in 1921. The school was originally named in part for the donor, Rev. Charles A. Hoffman of New York, and then renamed Gailor Industrial School in honor of Bishop Gailor after his death in 1935.

Gailor Industrial School developed into a four-year high school for girls and boys, including boarders. Fire completely destroyed the school in 1945 but it was rebuilt and continued to function. ACI appears to have discontinued funding the school in 1949. The year the school closed is not known.

Frances Joseph-Gaudet, an African American woman, founded Gaudet Normal and Industrial School (New Orleans, Louisiana) in 1900. Mrs. Gaudet raised the money necessary to buy land for the school and served as its first principal.

Originally called the Gaudet Boarding School for Boys, then the Colored Industrial Home and School, it grew from a home for orphaned and disadvantaged African American children to an elementary and high school for boarders and day students.

In 1921, Mrs. Gaudet turned the school over to the Diocese of Louisiana, at which time the school came under the supervision of the American Church Institute (ACI). Gaudet developed a cooperative relationship with Dillard University, an historically black university built near the Gaudet campus in 1935. The elementary portion of Gaudet’s curriculum was discontinued by 1946, and the school then became known as Gaudet Episcopal High School. ACI continued its funding until about 1955 when the school closed and the Gaudet Episcopal Home opened in the same quarters.

The General Board of Religious Education was canonically established in 1910 by General Convention to unify and develop religious education across the Church. Initially, the Board was meant to work on increasing Christian education at the primary and secondary levels, with particular emphasis on Sunday Schools. Membership consisted of the Presiding Bishop as ex officio President, along with seven bishops, seven clerical members, and seven lay members, all appointed triennially by the presiding officers of their respective Houses. In addition to these 22 members, each of the eight Missionary Departments was to organize a Sunday School Convention, at which it would elect two delegates who would also be members of the General Board.

In 1913 the canon was amended, reducing the number of representatives from each Missionary Department to one. General Convention also introduced the system of Provinces in that year, and accordingly the “Sunday School Conventions of the Missionary Departments” were renamed as the “Provincial Boards of Religious Education.” Spurred by a decline in postulants for clerical orders, the scope of the work quickly widened, including a new emphasis on campus ministries and theological seminaries. The Board organized its efforts under four new departments, which it reported on to General Convention in 1916: Parochial Education, Secondary Education, Collegiate Education, and Theological Education.

The General Board of Religious Education became the Department of Religious Education in 1919, when General Convention voted to replace the Board of Missions with the Presiding Bishop and National Council.

Established in 1789 in Article I of the Episcopal Church’s Canons, the General Convention is the bicameral legislature and chief policy making body of the Episcopal Church. It consists of a House of Bishops, which includes all active and retired bishops, and a House of Deputies, which includes up to four lay persons and four clergy from each diocese, each area mission, and the Convocation of the American Churches in Europe. It is the highest council of the Church that governs the American province of the Anglican Communion, including the United States, and several overseas dioceses in Central and South America.

The General Convention’s principal function, while meeting in session, is to consider legislation from bishops, deputies, the official Committees, Commissions, Agencies and Boards of General Convention (CCABs), and the dioceses and provinces. This polity and process bears much similarity to and draws its historical evolution from American governmental practice and democratic cultural traditions.

The General Field Services unit was established in 1965 as one of the five divisions of the Department of Christian Education. It acted as a consultation service to Episcopal dioceses, missionary districts, and other Church organizations, offering guidance regarding educational programs, training opportunities, and instructional materials. It also participated in educational research and development projects. The unit was discontinued in 1968 at the time of the total reorganization of the Executive Council and subsequent operational changes. In its four years of existence, its administrators were the Rev. Edward T. Atkins (1965-1966) and the Rev. Stanley Plattenburg (1967-1968).