The Pacific Basin Conference was held June 19-25, 1983 at Hawaii Loa College, Kaneohe, Hawaii. Conceived by Bishop Wesley Frensdorff of the Diocese of Nevada, and hosted by Bishop Edmond Browning from the Diocese of Hawaii, the conference was attended by over 150 participants and delegates from 51 dioceses of the Anglican Communion around the Pacific Basin. Its purpose was to discuss Roland Allen’s teachings on missionary work and examine how they could be implemented in the Pacific region. These teachings included giving indigenous people the responsibility for leadership in mission churches and enabling lay persons to have an important, effective role as evangelists, relying on local leaders to carry out the work of the Church rather than absentee bishops.
The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop, which first met in 1982, was chosen at that year’s General Convention, in accordance with Title I, Canon 2, Sections (b) and (c). The House of Deputies elected one clerical and one Lay Deputy from each Province and the House of Bishops elected one Bishop from each Province as members of the committee. The Joint Nominating Committee’s canonical mandate was the selection of no fewer than three members of the House of Bishops to be considered by General Convention for the position of Presiding Bishop.
This marked the first time when a Joint Nominating Committee was composed of elected members of both Houses. Previously, both bishops and deputies were appointed to the Nominating Committee by the presiding officers of their respective Houses.
Currently, the Committee elects members in person at the meeting of General Convention three years before the new presiding bishop is to be elected. The Committee is composed of 20 people. Five bishops were elected by the House of Bishops, and five clergy and five lay people were elected by the House of Deputies (Canon I.2.1.a). Two members between ages 16-21 were appointed by the president of the House of Deputies (Canon I.2.1.a). Three members were jointly appointed by the presiding bishop and House of Deputies president “to ensure the cultural and geographic diversity of the church” (Canon I.2.1.c).
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.
The first issue of “The Witness was published on January 6, 1917. The Rt. Rev. Irving Peake Johnson, of Colorado, was the first editor-in-chief and also formed the first board of directors for the publication. William B. Spofford succeeded Johnson as editor. In the earlier years, The Witness combined traditional church news and advertising with impassioned editorials concerning workers' rights and other issues of religious and social consequence.
Sometime in the 1940s, Irving Johnson and William B. Spofford, along with several other men, established the Episcopal Church Publishing Company (ECPC) that continued to publish The Witness. After Spofford’s death in 1972, publication temporarily ceased. Resuming in 1974 after the formation of a new board of trustees, the first issue featured the irregular ordination to the priesthood of 11 women deacons in Philadelphia.
Although it had undergone changes in frequency of publication and appearance, The Witness retained its emphasis on social action and justice in light of the gospel. Its roots remained Episcopal, but its readership ecumenical. Publication ceased in 2003.
The Episcopal Church in the Dominican Republic began as a mission for English speaking residents. Responding to a call to minister to US occupational forces and to the British West Indian laborers of Anglican background who worked in the sugar and banana industries, Benjamin Isaac Wilson, a self-taught priest, founded the Church of the Holy Trinity, which was consecrated by the Right Reverend James T. Holly, Bishop of the Orthodox Apostolic Church in Haiti, in 1897.
This initial Dominican congregation, headed by Father Wilson, was at San Pedro de Macoris, and operated under the episcopal jurisdiction of the independent Haitian Orthodox Apostolic Church. In 1913, both the Dominican church and the church in Haiti were received into The Episcopal Church of the United States, although both were remained under the supervision of the Diocese of Puerto Rico for some time.
In 1928, jurisdiction over the Dominican church was transferred to the Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of Haiti. Though a Missionary District of the Dominican Republic was formed by General Convention in 1940, the Bishop of Haiti continued as Bishop-in-Charge, under the direction of the Presiding Bishop. In 1961, the Rt. Rev. Paul Kellogg became the first Bishop of the newly recognized mission diocese of the Dominican Republic.
The Social Welfare Office began in 1968 with the appointment of Woodrow W. Carter, Sr. as a senior associate for specialized field services. The office was originally attached to the newly formed section of Experimental and Specialized Services (ESS), which had formed out of the former Joint Urban Program.
The ESS unit's focus on prominent contemporary issues is exemplified by the 1968 Council decision to earmark $50,000 to “finance a counseling and legal advice service to Church members with conscience problems relating to the military draft.” One of the unit’s key duties was the provision of field services to Church agencies, “devoted primarily to the development of church programs of action in society and ministries to special groups.” At the time of his initial appointment, Carter’s position was intended to focus on issues and services relating to children and families, particularly minority children.
Following another staff reorganization of the Program Function that began in 1970, the ESS unit ceased and Carter was listed as Social Welfare Officer in 1972 in the Social Welfare Services unit of the Program area. His role was to serve as a liaison to various committees and commissions as needed.
Through Carter’s work, the Social Welfare Office grew to serve in a proactive advocacy role. In 1977 Carter organized the first meeting of an ad hoc group that became the National Commission for Social and Specialized Ministries (NCSSM), for which he subsequently became the assigned staff officer. The emphasis on supporting local ministry is found in a November 1980 Council resolution which called on the Social Welfare Office to “marshal and coordinate all possible resources available through the Episcopal Church Center in support of dioceses and parishes ministry (sic) with disabled persons.”
Following Carter’s retirement in 1983, Presiding Bishop Allin announced the appointment of Marcia Newcombe as the new Social Welfare Officer to work “with most of the Church’s agencies involved with delivery of human services: welfare, bail and criminal justice reform, and ministries among aging, deaf, alcoholics and other groups.” The release noted further that she would also monitor social services legislation and serve as an ecumenical liaison to educational and activist groups in those areas.
It is unclear when this office was dissolved, or if it changed names.
Integrity, Inc. was established in 1974 as a network of gay and lesbian Episcopalians, their families, and allies. Sparked by Louie Crew’s newsletter Integrity Forum, the first chapter formed in Chicago under James Wickliff, followed by the inaugural national convention in 1975 at the Cathedral of St. James, Chicago. Over time, the organization grew to over 70 chapters across the U.S. and Canada.
Integrity made a significant institutional impact at the Episcopal Church’s 1976 General Convention in Minneapolis, most notably contributing to the passage of resolution A069, affirming the full dignity and inclusion of homosexual persons. That same year, the Rev. Malcolm Boyd publicly came out during Integrity’s national convention in San Francisco. In 1977, Ellen Marie Barrett, a former co-president, was ordained by Bishop Paul Moore, Jr., marking a milestone in LGBTQ+ inclusion in the ordained priesthood.
Integrity fostered ecumenical relationships with organizations such as Dignity (Catholic), Lutherans Concerned, and the Metropolitan Community Church. Its national structure, driven largely by lay volunteers, coordinated local chapter activities and organized annual conventions. Advocacy efforts centered on influencing policy decisions at The Episcopal Church’s General Conventions. The Fund for Integrity, Inc., established in 1981, supported its mission financially. The organization formally dissolved in 2022.
Henry Forrester was ordained to the diaconate in 1870 and to the priesthood in 1872. He served as a missionary in the Missionary District of New Mexico and Arizona beginning in 1874. Together with the new bishop of the district, William Forbes Adams, he performed the first Episcopal worship service at the Exchange Hotel on the Plaza in Albuquerque on March 4, 1875. After Bishop Adams’s retirement several months later, Forrester took on ecclesiastical oversight of the Missionary District and established St. Paul’s in Las Vegas as the ecclesiastical center. He continued to travel widely around the territory, establishing missionary outposts in 15 towns.
In 1880, George Kelly Dunlop was elected to fill the vacancy left by Adams’ retirement. That same year, the first convention of the Missionary District was held. Dunlop appointed Forrester priest to the congregation in Albuquerque. Forrester continued to travel across the territory, encouraging the missions he had established in the district. He reported in 1882 that “land has been purchased at 4th and Silver” for $5,000 and in November the first service in St. John’s Church was attended by 33 people.
At the General Convention of 1892 the Board of Missions appointed Forrester to succeed the Rev. W. B. Gordon as the Presiding Bishop’s resident representative to the Mexican Episcopal Church, a position he held until his death in 1904.
Samuel Moor Shoemaker was born on December 27, 1893, to a wealthy Episcopalian family with deep roots in Maryland high society. He attended Princeton University where he was involved with the Philadelphian Society that shaped much of his early ministry. After graduation, he moved to Beijing to teach and do missionary work. While there Shoemaker met Frank N. D. Buchman, a Pietist Lutheran preacher and activist who would go on to found the Oxford Group that evolved into the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement.
Shoemaker was ordained to the diaconate in 1920 and to the priesthood in 1921. In 1925 he accepted a call to serve as rector of Calvary Church, New York City.
In 1926, Shoemaker began hosting weekly evening meetings geared toward training working people to witness their faith and convert others in their workplaces. He traveled the country in 1932, sermonizing to combat what he saw as the spiritual decay brought on by the Great Depression. His establishment of a rescue mission on New York City’s Lower East Side led him to minister to men struggling with addiction, including William Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Shoemaker continued to pursue those ministries at Calvary Church in Pittsburgh, where he became rector in 1952. He also sought to win converts through his writing. He published frequently in the parish newsletter The Calvary Evangel and later independently as the renamed magazine Faith at Work. Failing health forced Shoemaker to resign from active ministry in 1962.
Samuel Moor Shoemaker died in Baltimore on October 30, 1963.