Constitutional Changes: A Look Back at the Church That Never Was

The Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, originally adopted in 1789, was completely revised and rewritten, starting on its one hundredth anniversary, in 1889. The process took five succeeding General Conventions to complete. The history of that process is instructive, and deserves to be told in detail, as it is largely unknown and ignored. That will be the purpose of this series of posts.

At the General Convention held in New York City from October 2-24, 1889, three different questions arose, from entirely independent sources, which impacted the then-hundred-year-old Constitution.

The first question came from the rapidly expanding Dioceses of Nebraska and of Michigan, whose extent and population had in each instance become too great for a single bishop to oversee. At the same time, much of the population in the expanded areas was too thinly scattered to support the creation of additional full-fledged dioceses, by dividing the existing ones. Since the areas in question could not stand as dioceses on their own, it was felt that they should be organized as missionary dioceses, under the responsibility and care of the whole Church. Both dioceses therefore petitioned General Convention to accept a cession of the respective portions of their territory which they were unable to support.

The Constitution, however, contained no provision for General Convention to do any such thing. Before any Diocese could cede territory to General Convention, a majority of the Dioceses and their bishops felt that the Constitution would have to be amended to allow for such a procedure, and to set standards for its application. (Note the implications of this prevailing sentiment in 1889 for the argument that General Convention, as a body unlimited in its powers, may do whatever a majority of its dioceses decide to do.)

To read the entire article. click here.