Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi

The Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, created in 1826,[1] is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with jurisdiction over the entire state of Mississippi. It is in Province 4 and its cathedral, St. Andrew's Cathedral, is in Jackson, as are the diocesan offices.[2]

Diocese of Mississippi
Location
Country	United States
Territory	Mississippi
Ecclesiastical province	Province IV
Statistics
Congregations	83 (2014)
Members	17,711 (2018)
Information
Denomination	Episcopal Church
Established	1826
Cathedral	St. Andrew's Cathedral, Jackson
Current leadership
Bishop	Brian R. Seage
Map
Location of the Diocese of Mississippi
Website
www.dioms.org

The first two Bishops of Mississippi were members of what is called the Southern High Church school, but this type of churchmanship should not be confused with Anglo-Catholicism (though many High Churchmen on both sides of the Atlantic came to identify with Anglo-Catholicism). Bishop Green was very close to Bishops Otey and Quintard of Tennessee, both of whom were High Church and neither Low Church nor Evangelical. The Southern High Church group were in definite ways descended from the example of Bishop John Henry Hobart of New York (died 1830), whose watchwords were "Evangelical Truth and Apostolic Order." Though Bishop Hobart was one of the greatest preachers of antebellum America, the "Evangelical" connoted not the New Means of the camp meetings but, simply, the assumption that the Gospel rightly and forthrightly proclaimed has the power to convert the world to Jesus Christ. Like the Bishop of New York, the Hobartian High Churchmen in the Southern phase were dedicated to the doctrine that Grace really is given in the sacraments, and they taught the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. This alone distinguished them from the Low Church (sometimes called Evangelical) party stemming from the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.

Hugh Miller Thompson, the Second Bishop of Mississippi, was a graduate of Nashotah House in Wisconsin, which is a seminary usually identified with Anglo-Catholicism. Thompson was a most progressive Christian and one of the most prolific writers of the nineteenth century. He was an essayist and the editor of two leading Episcopal journals. That the Diocese of Mississippi has been at least mildly High Church since its founding is illustrated in the fact that John Maury Allin, one of its most celebrated leaders in the twentieth century, was basically a High Churchman who was right at home in New York when he served as the Presiding Bishop. What has obtained since Allin's tenure as Bishop of Mississippi is more Broad Church than Evangelical or Low Church. (The nomenclature related to church parties and differences in Anglican Christianity is quite difficult to comprehend at first. The great variety of commitments—High Church, Low Church, Broad Church, Evangelical, Liberal, Revisionist, Traditionalist, Anglo-Catholic, Emergent, Charismatic—shows how diverse the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion of Churches have been. Students of the history are advised to be cautious. For example, "Low Church" and "Latitudinarian" were synonymous in the late-17th century and much of the 18th, and no Evangelical would have wanted any part of that sort of religion. The Wesley brothers were in fact Tory High Churchmen and founders of Anglican Evangelicalism. How about that? On the other hand, George Whitefield, another Methodist and founder of the Evangelical movement, was decidedly "Low Church" as that term is usually defined in 19th-century and early-20th century assumptions. Perhaps it all began when Queen Elizabeth I (died 1603) insisted that the Island's religion would be "Catholic and Reformed." In Anglican history since Queen Elizabeth's day, authentic tolerance by one group in power for those with less political power in the Churches has waxed and waned; and, while tolerance is often espoused in the Episcopal Church, it is occasionally forgotten.)

Episcopalians in Mississippi have been by and large progressive in their views about race, economics, and other big issues in America. This is even more true of the Dioceses of Arkansas and Alabama. The Episcopal Church in Mississippi has usually tolerated freedom of belief and differing types of ritual practice (e.g., Anglo-Catholicism in Biloxi and a liberal orientation in communities like Oxford and Starkville where colleges have significant presences). As such, the fallout from the ideological and theological conflicts that beset the Episcopal Church between the 1970s and 2000s (such as the Gene Robinson controversy) has not been large in comparison to other Southern dioceses (e.g., Tennessee, Fort Worth, South Carolina).

As of 2013 the Diocese of Mississippi had 18,741 members, down from 20,925 in 2003.[3]