An Outline History of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. Canon Charles Lee Egleston, Historiographer

Transcription

1 An Outline History of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island Canon Charles Lee Egleston, Historiographer

2 November 2018 Garden City, New York Welcome to the Diocese of Long Island The Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. As we celebrate 150 years of ministry to the people of God, I invite you to absorb the faithfulness and care of Episcopalians who have come before us captured in the pages that follow. I invite you to regard An Outline History of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island in a manner reminiscent of the Prayer Book collect, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest these words. The celebration of a significant anniversary, like a 150 th anniversary, can merely be left as a storytelling of the past. But for us today, this anniversary is both a grateful remembrance of the past and an enthusiastic catapult to the future. From the foundation of our past faithfulness and history, we launch into the adventure of all that God is calling us to be in the name of Jesus Christ in this time, in this place, and with the ever-growing population of our diocese. This anniversary comes at a time in which the Church s presence, its teaching, and its sacramental life are an essential but little appreciated factor in the lives of God s people. As our ancestors in faith accomplished, as told in the history of our diocese, we today are being called to a vigorous and faithful witness to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. I offer my congratulations to Canon Charles Egleston, Diocesan Historiographer, for his extraordinary work on this outline and offer the gratitude of the entire diocese for his hard work and dedication in this process. So, sisters and brothers, read, mark, learn and yes, inwardly digest this history that together we might propel forward into the future the Trinity has prepared for us. Faithfully, The Right Reverend Lawrence C. Provenzano VIII Bishop of Long Island

3 This outline history of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island is framed around the tenures of the seven bishops who have served it and references the service of the current eighth bishop. Few priests or lay persons are mentioned; instead the churches and their dates of organization are emphasized. There is no discussion of the Church on Long Island in the period before this diocese was established as distinct from the Diocese of New York. Much of the data and many of the dates used in this history are recorded in the journals of convention of the diocese, published between 1869 and 2007, and the digital archive of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. T he roots of the Church on Long Island go back more than 300 years to the late 17th century. The Rev. Samuel Eburne was the first known person directly associated with the Church of England on Long Island. He was active in Brookhaven in William Vesey was a lay reader for Anglicans in 1693 in Sagg (now known as Sagaponack ) and in in Hempstead, in a nondenominational chapel. In Jamaica, Anglicans worshipped in a nondenominational chapel erected in 1699, and may have worshipped previously in another chapel erected by the Dutch around mid-century. On 22 September 1693 the legislature of the Province of New York passed An Act for Settling a Ministry, and Raising a Maintenance for them in the City of New York, County of Richmond, Westchester, and Queens County. For then royal governor Benjamin Fletcher, the purpose of the act was to establish the Church of England in New York City and contiguous areas. Brooklyn s Church of the Holy Trinity, site of the primary convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, as it would have appeared in The spire was removed in 1906 due to structural concerns. From the 1870 first edition of volume 3 of Henry Stiles A History of the City of Brooklyn (Special Collections, the George Mercer, Jr. Memorial School of Theology Library, gift of the Rev. Canon John W. Davis). Regular Anglican services on Long Island began in 1702 for two reasons. Edward Hyde, the Viscount Cornbury, the royal governor of the Province of New York from 1702 to 1708, was both determined and able to enforce the establishment of the Church of England in areas around New York City, and the province began to be served by clergy sent over by the Bishop of London through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). Documented in SPG correspondence in Great Britain is a record of missionaries serving eight Long Island areas: Brookhaven (in the area now known as Setauket ), Flushing, Hempstead, Huntington, Islip (in the area known as Oakdale ), Jamaica, Newtown (now known as Elmhurst ), and Oyster Bay. Churches organized when they expected to be self-supporting. Eight Long Island Episcopal churches that exist today were organized in the 18th century: Grace, Jamaica (June 1701); St. George s, Flushing (between ); Christ Church, Oyster Bay (1703; reorganized 1742; and reorganized again ca. 1835); St. George s, Hempstead (1704); Caroline Church of Brookhaven, Setauket (1723); St. John s, Huntington (1745; reorganized 1838); St. James, Elmhurst (September 9, 1761); Charlotte Church, Oakdale (1765; since 1784 known as St. John s, Islip ); and St. Ann s, Brooklyn (1784; since 1969 known as St. Ann & the Holy Trinity ). Although the Church of England missionaries on Long Island were supported financially and politically by the royal governors and the Church in England, and they were successful in starting congregations, their labors were not without difficulty. They were strongly opposed in Flushing by Quakers, and almost everywhere else, but especially in Jamaica, by Presbyterians and Independents (those who believed in the right of each congregation to make decisions and to deal with internal discipline), all of whom resented being taxed to support a Church of which they were not members. On 27 July 1703, Cornbury ordered his attorney general to inquire into a riot in Jamaica that had resulted when Presbyterians had ejected Anglicans worshipping in the nondenominational chapel there. He subsequently insisted that the space be shared because the chapel had been built with public funds. Cornbury, or his representative, inscribed the title page of a 1701 Book of Common Prayer to the Church in Jamaica in October The prayer book is the oldest document in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island Archives. The Church of England in British North America was disrupted during the American Revolution, as would be expected with a denomination so closely allied with the crown. On Long Island some of the presbyters and congregations were loyal to the mother country, such as those in Hempstead, and others were supportive of the revolution. After the August 1776 Battle of Long Island and during the remainder of the war until 1783, the British occupied New York City and its environs, including all of Long Island. page 1

4 Following the battle, Sir William Howe, Sir Percy Clinton, Earl Cornwallis, and Prince William are said to have attended Sunday services at St. James, Newtown, in a church building that still exists. The present Caroline Church of Brookhaven stood in the crossfire of the 22 August 1777 Battle of Setauket. The churches in Huntington and Oyster Bay became derelict during the war, which accounts for the 19th century dates of their re-organization. In Grace Church, Jamaica, there is an 18th century Book of Common Prayer with paper taped over the name of the king of England in the prayers for the ruler. An unintended benefit of the war in Kings County was that it marks the beginning of the Church of England in Brooklyn. Although it is said that as early as 1766 Anglican clergy would come over from New York City to Kings County for occasional services, the area was predominantly Dutch until the end of the 18th century. Both the British and their Hessian mercenaries burned Fairfield, Connecticut, in July Afterward, the Rev. James Sayre, who had been serving in Fairfield, took refuge in Brooklyn. In the sacramental registers for St. Ann s Church, Brooklyn, in the Diocese of Long Island Archives is the record of a 1780 baptism of a child by the Rev. James Sayre of the Episcopal Church at Brooklyn Ferry. The Rev. George Wright, St. Ann s rector from 1784 to ca. 1789, recorded the service in the registers, stating here that he copied it from a document that Sayre had certified. The Episcopal Diocese of New York was organized in 1786 and the Rev. Samuel Provoost was elected its first bishop. Provoost and the Rev. William White of Pennsylvania were consecrated as bishops in Lambeth Palace in For Anglicans three bishops are necessary to consecrate a bishop, so the consecration of Provoost and White as bishops 2 and 3 in the American Episcopate marks the beginning of the Episcopal Church in the United States. An original 1801 journal of convention of the Diocese of New York in the Diocese of Long Island Archives includes presbyter delegates from St. James, Newtown; Grace, Jamaica; St. George s, Flushing; St. George s, Hempstead; and St. Ann s, Brooklyn, and lay delegates from five of these churches. born in 1824 in Florida, Montgomery County, which was located within the new diocese. At the time of his election to Central New York, Littlejohn was rector of Brooklyn s Church of the Holy Trinity. A writer for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in its 15 November 1868 issue accurately predicted election success again for Littlejohn at the primary convention of the Diocese of Long Island on 18 and 19 November 1868, where, indeed, he was elected on the third ballot on 19 November He accepted Long Island over Central New York. The Diocese of Long Island Archives contain the calligraphic certificate of Littlejohn s election signed by many of the Long Island presbyter and lay delegates to the nominating convention, as well as the canonical consents to his election from the other dioceses in the Episcopal Church. Bishop-elect Littlejohn of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island was a significant figure in the Church. The nationally distributed Harper s Weekly published news of his election in an article with his portrait in its 12 December 1868 issue. Prior to his election as bishop in two dioceses, the University of Pennsylvania had awarded him an honorary doctorate of divinity in And in 1858, he was elected president of Hobart College in Geneva, New York, which he had declined. At the September 1866 convention of the Diocese of New York he had been appointed to a committee tasked with assessing the political and financial viability of creating a new diocese on Long Island. Littlejohn had a stellar reputation as rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity where, shortly after arriving in 1860, he helped to satisfy a debt of $65,000 and built (and paid in advance for) a 306-foot spire for the church costing over $50,000. Bishop 91 in the American Episcopate, Littlejohn was consecrated in the Church of the Holy Trinity on 27 January 1869 by Bishops Horatio Potter (New York, consecrator), John Johns, and William Henry Odenheimer. At the convention of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in September 1868 the decision was made to form two new dioceses from within it, one on Long Island and another in Central New York. Appendix 2 of the Journal of the Primary Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Long Island in the Archives includes a list of 65 Churches of the Diocese of Long Island, with the date of their Admission into Union with the Convention of the Diocese of New York. Of these 65 churches, 38 were in Kings County four there noted as already extinct (i.e., dissolved), and one not in union with the Convention of Long Island, 17 in Queens County, and 10 in Suffolk County, three of which were also not in union with the Convention of Long Island. The primary conventions of the two new dioceses, at both of which a bishop would be elected, were then set for November The Diocese of Central New York (now known as the Diocese of Albany ) held its primary convention on 11 November 1868 and elected the Rev. Abram Newkirk Littlejohn its first bishop. Littlejohn was In 1868 in Kings County active churches included, St. Ann s; All Saints, Park Slope (organized 1867); Ascension, Greenpoint (organized 1846); Atonement, th Street (organized 1864; closed ca. 1983); Calvary, Williamsburg (organized 1849; merged with St. Cyprian s in 1960); Christ Church, Cobble Hill (organized 1835); page 2 The manuscript testimonial of the election of the Rev. Abram Newkirk Littlejohn as the first bishop of Long Island. Attached to the manuscript, but not pictured here, are accompanying sheets with signatures of many of the presbyter and lay delegates who attended the primary convention. (Diocese of Long Island Archives, 1.A1 oversize). page 3

5 Christ Church, Bedford Avenue (organized 1846; closed ca. 1941); Christ Church, Bay Ridge (organized 1853); Emmanuel, Union Street and Court Street (organized 1854; later known as St. Martin s and since 1954 unified with St. Martin s as St. Stephen s and St. Martin s ); Evangelists, Degraw Street near 6th Avenue (organized 1867; closed ca. 1873); Grace, Brooklyn Heights (organized 1847); Grace, Williamsburg (organized 1853; closed ca. 1848); Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn Heights (organized 1851; dissolved 1960); Messiah, Greene Avenue, corner of Clermont (organized 1850; closed ca. 1975); Our Saviour, Clinton Street and Luquer Street (organized 1867; closed ca. 1903); Redeemer, Pacific Street and 4th Avenue (organized 1853; closed ca. 2010); Reformation, Gates Avenue near Classon (organized 1867; closed ca. 1975); St. Andrew s, New York Avenue and Herkimer Street (organized 1859; closed ca. 1873); St. James, St. James Place, corner Lafayette (organized 1868; closed ca. 1955); St. John s, Park Slope (organized 1827); St. John s, Fort Hamilton (organized 1834; closed ca. 2010); St. John s, Ocean Parkway, corner of Webster Avenue (organized 1860; closed ca. 1971); St. Luke s, Clinton Hill (organized 1841; merged with St. Matthew s in 1943); St. Mark s, Adelphi Street near DeKalb Avenue (organized 1850; merged with St. Michael s, High Street 1949; closed ca. 1992); St. Mark s, Bedford Avenue (organized 1837; moved to Union Street in 1901); St. Mary s, Classon Avenue (organized 1836); St. Matthew s, Tomkins Avenue and McDonough Street (organized 1859; merged with St. Luke s in 1943); St. Michael s, High Street near Gold Street (organized 1847; merged with St. Mark s, Adelphi Street 1949; closed ca. 1992); St. Paul s, Penn Street and Marcy Avenue (organized 1848; closed ca. 1885); St. Paul s, Flatbush (organized 1836); St. Paul s, Williamsburg (organized 1848; closed ca. 1885); St. Paul s, Carroll Street (organized 1849); St. Peter s, State Street near Bond Street (organized 1848; closed ca. 1921); St. Stephen s, Patchen Avenue, corner Jefferson Avenue (organized 1867; merged with St. Martin s in 1954); and Trinity, East New York (organized 1854; closed 1980). In 1868 in Queens County active churches included Christ Church, Oyster Bay; Grace, Jamaica; St. George s, Flushing; St. George s Hempstead; St. James, Elmhurst; Christ, Manhasset (organized 1802); Grace, South Oyster Bay (now known as Massapequa ; organized 1844); Grace, Whitestone (organized 1858); Redeemer, Astoria (organized 1866); St. George s, Astoria (organized 1827); St. John s, Cold Spring Harbor (organized 1825); St. John s, Long Island City (organized 1865; closed ca. 1940); St. Paul s, Glen Cove (organized 1833); St. Saviour s, Maspeth (organized 1847; closed ca. 1989); St. Thomas, Ravenswood (organized 1839; closed ca. 1920); Trinity, Rockaway (now known as Hewlett ; organized 1844; merged with St. John s, Far Rockaway in 1874, and now known as Trinity-St. John s, Hewlett ); and Zion, Douglaston (organized 1830). In 1868 in Suffolk County active churches included Caroline Church and St. John s, Islip, noted above, and Christ Church, Sag Harbor (organized 1845); St. James, Smithtown (now known as St. James ; organized 1853); St. John s, Huntington (reorganized in 1838); St. Mark s, Islip (organized 1847), St. Mary s, Ronkonkoma (now known as Lake Ronkonkoma ; organized 1867); St. Paul s, Patchogue (organized 1844). In Kings County the four dissolved churches listed are Ascension, 3rd Place and Smith Street (organized 1852; dissolved before 1868); Calvary, Pearl Street and Concord Street (organized 1840; dissolved ca. 1861); St. Thomas, Bridge Street, near Myrtle Street (organized 1843 or before; dissolved before 1868); and St. John s, North 4th Street and 6th Street (organized ca. 1851; dissolved before 1868). The church sited as not in union with the Convention of Long Island is St. James, St. James Place (organized May 25, 1868; closed ca. 1955). In Suffolk County the three churches not in union with the Convention of Long Island are St. Paul s Chapel, East Hampton (likely a misprint for St. Luke s, East Hampton, which was organized in 1846); Holy Trinity, Greenport (organized July 1865); and St. Paul s, Patchogue (organized February 9, 1844). Appendix 3 of the primary convention journal gives the total number of communicants in the diocese in 1868 as 9,014: 6,917 in Kings County, 1,854 in Queens County, and 243 in Suffolk County. Bishop Littlejohn laid out the goals of his episcopate in his address to the second convention of the Diocese of Long Island held 29 September-1 October 1869 in the Church of the Holy Trinity. For Queens County and Suffolk the directive was to establish churches. The need in Kings County was ministry to the poor. Brooklyn was the fourth largest city in the United States with a population of 350,000 inhabitants. There was no public assistance of any kind, save an incipient public school system and almshouses. Disease, death, and dire poverty wracked the City of Brooklyn, while the Episcopal Church was strong there. Six of the 31 Brooklyn churches had over 450 communicants each, including Christ Church, Cobble Hill (527), Grace, Brooklyn Heights (500), Holy Trinity, Brooklyn Heights (555), St. Ann s, then in a transition from what is now Dumbo to Brooklyn Heights (504), St. Luke s (454), St. Matthew s (477), and St. Peter s, State Street, near Bond Street (560). Said Littlejohn of Brooklyn and Kings County: In this city and county we have a great work before us. We fail utterly to keep pace with the enormous growth of our population. It is the one supreme sadness of the hour to be obliged to walk around the spreading circumference, through the crowded thoroughfares and by-places of this vast city, and to see how poorly we are meeting the urgencies of the present, or providing for the demands of the future. May God vouchsafe us the open hand and willing mind to grapple with the work laid at our door. May He pour into the hearts of Pastors and Flocks dwelling in the midst of these thronging multitudes, a spirit which shall put an end to the torpid, random, half-wise, half-foolish efforts of the past. Grand and costly churches, where there are the desire to build and the wealth to pay for them, have their place and value in the economy of the Church. But alone, and unsupported by outreaching missionary labors, they are to the actual battle with the ignorance and ungodliness of the masses, what regiments parading in holiday attire are to the bloody issues of the tented field. In 1869, the Church Charity Foundation had only a small home for the aged and an orphanage. Of the future work of the Church Charity Foundation Littlejohn said in this address: It is its purpose to draw around it, as time rolls on, and everincreasing cluster of affiliated charities, and to stand at the centre of an ever-widening circle of good works and of tender solicitudes for Christ s suffering children. It is intended, as the ability shall be given it, to shelter and care for friendless childhood and hapless old age, for married couples near the close of life and reduced to poverty, for the sick who shall be gathered into infirmaries and hospitals. It is also part of its comprehensive design to create a training school for nurses of the sick, a home for those who shall devote their lives to works of mercy, and a dispensary for the outside sick poor. Of the three clerical members of the Church Charity Foundation committee listed at the 1869 convention, two were from Brooklyn. The other, the Rev. Thomas Cook, was an assistant at Grace Church, Jamaica, who had been a missionary to Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He was soon sent to Riverhead in Suffolk County as a missionary by Bishop Littlejohn; by the time of his death on 1 May 1884, Cook had founded three churches in Queens and at least six churches in Suffolk County, as well as building up other churches in Suffolk. For the first nine years of its existence, the Diocese of Long Island was based in Brooklyn, where the Church of the Holy Trinity was its pro-cathedral, serving as the bishop s seat until a cathedral could be built. The diocese moved to the Village of Garden City because of the Cathedral of the Incarnation. The history of the cathedral begins with the departmentstore magnate A. T. (Alexander Turney) Stewart, who from 1869 had been developing a planned community, the Village of Garden City, on the Hempstead Plains in Eastern Queens County. At the center of the community there was to be a church that would be his mausoleum. Bishop Frederick Burgess mentions Stewart in his address to the May 1901 convention of the Diocese of Long Island saying, he proposed to have a mausoleum and what he would, no doubt, have called a non-sectarian Church. Unfortunately, Stewart died unexpectedly on 10 April His substantial fortune and the fulfillment of his plans were then left to his wife, Cornelia Clinch Stewart. She and Stewart s executor, Judge Henry Hilton, continued the project, and work began on a church designed by architect Henry G. Harrison. In a letter dated 9 June 1877, Cornelia Stewart formally offered to Bishop Littlejohn the church for use as the cathedral for the Diocese of Long Island, and he accepted. The original of Mrs. Stewart s letter is in the Diocese of Long Island Archives. The Rev. T. Stafford Drowne was Bishop Littlejohn s representative during the construction of the Cathedral. Memorandum books kept by Harrison during construction and many of his original drawings for the Cathedral are in the Diocese of Long Island Archives. It is not known why Littlejohn chose Incarnation as the name of the diocese s cathedral, but it relates to the motto he chose for the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island: I Will Set His Dominion in the Sea, a phrase from the Psalm for Christmas in the Prayer Book in use at the time of the formation of the diocese. Cornelia Stewart shortly afterward expanded her Garden City gift to the Diocese of Long Island to include a See House, a residence and office complex for the bishop, and two preparatory schools -- the Cathedral School of St. Paul for boys and the Cathedral School of St. Mary for girls. She also committed funds to an endowment for the continued support of the buildings. The Cathedral School of St. Paul opened in When the Cathedral School of St. Mary began, it did so in one of the mansions that had been built as part of the planned community. The mansion, which has been moved, is now the Garden City Historical Society. From 1871 the Bishop of Long Island s residence was at 170 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, but because Mrs. Stewart s bequest required the bishop to live in See House, he relocated to Garden City in The Remsen Street building then became the diocesan offices in Brooklyn. With the expansion of suburbs, the development of roads and highways, and the extension of the Long Island Rail Road in the 1870s and 1880s, more of the island became accessible, and while the charitable works of the diocese increased in Kings County, churches continued to grow and new churches were built throughout the diocese. In Brooklyn, St. Augustine s, the diocese s first African- American church, was organized in 1875 and Bishop page 4 page 5

6 Littlejohn opened St. Phebe s, a settlement house and home for social workers, on 8 February On 24 May 1883 Bishop Littlejohn led the invocation at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. By the May 1885 convention of the diocese, the convention reports of the Church Charity Foundation and the Missionary Committee fill 10 and 15 pages respectively. The journal of this convention lists 42 churches and chapels with 14,151 communicants in Kings County (and also 4 missions for which no communicant numbers are listed); 31 churches and chapels, with 2,735 communicants in Queens County; and 28 churches and chapels in Suffolk County, with 903 communicants. In total there were 17,789 communicants reported to that convention, 80 percent of who were communicants in Brooklyn churches. All of the Suffolk churches listed in this May 1885 journal of convention are still in existence. The Cathedral Chapter was incorporated on 20 April 1885 and the Cathedral of the Incarnation was consecrated on 2 June 1885, when Mrs. Stewart presented the deed to the bishop. At the service, all of the ushers were transitional deacons, persons who had been ordained to the diaconate and who were shortly to be ordained to the priesthood. The ushers wore silk scarves on which were figured the seal of the diocese. In the Diocese of Long Island Archives holds one of these scarves. With the opening of the cathedral, Brooklyn s Church of the Holy Trinity ended its status as the pro-cathedral of the diocese. Mrs. Stewart died in Saratoga Springs on 25 October She was interred in the Crypt Chapel of the Cathedral beside her husband on 28 October. Shortly after her death the diocese sued Judge Henry Hilton for having withheld funds to build the Cathedral School of St. Mary and for having withheld funds to maintain the diocesan buildings in Garden City. The suit concluded successfully in 1890 and the buildings for the Cathedral School of St. Mary opened in North view of the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York, This engraving of a watercolor by cathedral architect Henry G. Harrison is displayed in the offices of the Bishop of Long Island. 158 surviving architectural renderings for the cathedral by Harrison are held the the Archives. page 6 The population of Brooklyn at this time stood at almost one million. The journal of the May 1891 convention reports 49 churches and chapels, with 18,164 communicants in Brooklyn; 31 churches and chapels in Queens, with 3,554 communicants; and 24 churches and chapels in Suffolk County, with 1,354 communicants. In total there are 23,072 communicants in the Diocese of Long Island reported to the 1891 convention; seventy-nine percent were Kings County communicants. St. Giles, a home for disabled children, and St. Martha s Sanitarium, a home for consumptives, opened in Brooklyn In 1899, New York City absorbed into itself Staten Island, the Bronx, and on Long Island Kings County and Western Queens County. Eastern Queens County became the new county of Nassau. During Bishop Littlejohn s episcopate, from the establishment of the Diocese of Long Island in 1868 to its May th convention, not including the cathedral, 57 new parishes and missions had been organized on Long Island: 21 in Brooklyn, 18 in Queens and Nassau, and 18 in Suffolk. Newly organized in Brooklyn were Guion Church (organized 1869; now known as St. George s Church, Marcy Avenue); Holy Apostles (organized 1892); Holy Comforter, Debevoise Street near Humboldt Street (organized 1889; closed ca. 1920); Holy Communion, Cypress Hills (organized 1869; closed ca. 1869); Holy Cross, St. Nicholas Avenue (organized 1896; closed ca. 1998); Holy Spirit, Bay Parkway (organized 1887); Mediator (organized 1869; closed ca. 1876); Nativity, Ocean Avenue (organized 1899); St. Alban s, Canarsie (organized 1896); St. Andrew s, 4th Avenue (organized 1889); St. Barnabas, Bushwick Avenue (organized 1870; closed 1903); St. Bartholomew s, Pacific Street (organized 1887); St. Jude s, 55th Street and 14th Avenue (organized 1890; closed ca. 1929); St. Matthias, Sheepshead Bay (organized ca. 1895; closed 1915); St. Phebe s (organized 1886; closed ca. 1916); St. Philip s, Dyker Heights (organized 1900); St. Philips, McDonough Street (organized 1900); St. Thomas, located in a rented room (organized 1869; closed ca. 1869); St. Thomas, Bushwick Avenue (organized 1872); and St. Timothy, Howard Avenue, near Atlantic Avenue (organized 1889; closed ca. 1921). Newly organized in Queens and Nassau were St. Andrew s, Astoria (organized 1901; closed ca. 2006); All Saints, Bayside (organized 1892); St. John s, Far Rockaway (organized 1881; in 1874 merged with Trinity, Rockaway to form Trinity-St. John s, Hewlett ); St. John s, Flushing (organized 1894); All Saints, Richmond Hill (organized 1897; in 2010 moved into the former St. Matthew s, Woodhaven and now known as All Saints, Woodhaven ); St. Thomas, Farmingdale (organized 1875); a U. S. Army chapel at Willetts Point (organized ca. 1897; closed ca. 1903); St. Matthew s, Woodhaven (organized 1900; closed ca. 2010); St. Paul s, Woodside (organized 1873); Transfiguration, Freeport (organized 1892); Holy Trinity, Hicksville (organized 1899); St. Christopher s, Massapequa (organized 1894; closed ca. 1971); Nativity, Mineola (organized 1899; in 2010 merged with St. Andrew s, Williston Park; the merged church now known as Resurrection, Williston Park ); St. Stephen s, Port Washington (organized 1892); Trinity, Roslyn (organized 1869); and St. Michael and All Angels, Seaford (organized 1889). Newly organized in Suffolk were St. Mary s, Amityville (organized 1886); Christ Church, Babylon (organized 1869); St. Peter s, Bay Shore (organized 1888); Christ Church, Bellport (organized 1886); St. Luke s, Bohemia (organized 1884; closed ca. 1995); Christ Church, Brentwood (organized 1872); St. James, Brookhaven (organized 1873); St. John the Baptist, Center Moriches (organized 1898); Messiah, Central Islip (organized 1869); St. John s, Fisher s Island (organized page 7

7 1890); Emmanuel, Great River (organized 1878); Redeemer, Mattituck (organized 1878); Christ Church, Port Jefferson (organized 18720; Grace, Riverhead (organized 1870); St. Ann s, Sayville (organized 1874); St. Mary s, Shelter Island (organized 1873); St. Andrew s Dune (organized 1879) and All Souls, Stony Brook (organized 1873). By 1901 the Church Charity Foundation managed five institutions: a home for the aged, an orphan house, St. John s Hospital, a training school for nurses, and a home for the blind. Although directed by males, women, in particular the Sisters of the Order of St. John the Evangelist, did much of the work of the foundation. In the years leading up to Bishop Littlejohn s sudden death of a stroke on 3 August 1901, there had been an undercurrent of criticism that the diocese had grown too large to be properly led by one person who was clearly becoming impaired by age, but he had refused to call for a suffragan or a coadjutor. The rector of Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights from 1898, the Rev. Frederick Burgess (born 1853), was elected bishop just before 1:00 am 21 November 1901 on the tenth ballot at a special convention that had begun on the previous day. Bishop 204 in the American Episcopate, and the second bishop of the Diocese of Long Island, Burgess was consecrated 15 January 1902 at Grace, Brooklyn Heights, by Bishops Henry C. Potter (New York, consecrator), William C. Doane, and John Scarborough. The first convention of the Diocese of Long Island addressed by Bishop Burgess was on May In his address he asks the convention to support the Garden City buildings, to provide needed funds for the upkeep on the buildings of the many charitable enterprises the diocese had erected in Brooklyn, and to provide a fund for the purchase of land for new foundations of churches and chapels. The 1902 journal reports 56 churches and chapels in Brooklyn, with 25,075 communicants (21 of which had 500 or more communicants); 48 churches and chapels in Queens and Nassau, with 5,847 communicants (only two of which had more than 500 communicants -- Redeemer, Astoria (625) and St. George s, Flushing (700)); and 24 churches and chapels in Suffolk, with 2,103 communicants. In total there were 33,025 communicants in 78 churches and chapels the diocese, seventy-six percent of who were communicants in Brooklyn churches. The total of contributions was $887, Bishop Burgess s appeal for funds began successfully, as the total of contributions reported to the next convention was $944, The Rev. John Davis, author of The Dominion in the Sea, a 1977 history of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, credits Burgess not only for solving these support issues, but addressing the issue of churches falling into excessive debt. Burgess insisted on the property prerogatives granted him by recent amendments to the Religious Corporation Law of New York State that made mandatory a bishop s guardianship of real property, an issue that would come to the fore with the near-default of the mortgage of St. Barnabas Church in Brooklyn. The 170 Remsen Street property in Brooklyn was renamed Diocesan Missions House, and remodeled to include an apartment for the bishop in Burgess opened it with a benediction service on 6 January Bishop Burgess had to deal with some major shifts in society during his episcopate to include the temperance movement, the growing clamor of African-Americans and women for rights, the increase in divorce, and the disruptions of World War I. The open-church movement advocated allowing ministers from other denominations to preach from Episcopal pulpits. Progressives and evangelical Episcopalians were in favor of the policy, but conservatives and Anglo- Catholics were not. A policy was created at the General Convention of 1907 by which rectors wanting to open their pulpits were required to obtain the permission of the bishop of the diocese. Bishop Burgess s refusal to allow the Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, permission to have guest ministers preach in the coming season of Lent is recorded in the vestry minutes of Holy Trinity of 28 October and 25 November 1907 now in the Diocese of Long Island Archives. The Woman s Board of the Church Charity Foundation was organized in 1902 to support the work of the foundation, Until the early 1950s, in the absence of a governing role for women in the diocese, women tended to offer financial support through either this organization or the Woman s Auxiliary to the Board of Missions. At one point, Bishop Burgess refused a petition to designate monies for purposes identified by the women fundraising for the Home of St. Giles the Cripple, and he removed the women from their posts. At the convention of 1916, the Rev. John Howard Melish ( ), progressive rector of Brooklyn s Church of the Holy Trinity, proposed a resolution that was successfully passed allowing women to vote in parish elections. During the Burgess episcopate, racial segregation became the policy of this diocese as is evidenced in the Report to the Diocese of Long Island, May 21, 1907, by the Committee on Colored Bishops in the journal of convention in that year (a copy of which is in the Archives). The illogical nature of the policy was not in keeping with the Gospel, but one positive result was the founding between 1903 and 1921 of seven predominantly African- American and Afro-Caribbean churches in Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau, which the diocese committed to support, all of which still exist. In Brooklyn there were St. Gabriel s, Hawthorne Street (organized 1905); St. Barnabas, Belmont Avenue (organized 1907); and St. Cyprian s, Bond Street and Bergen Street (organized 1922; in 1960 merged with Calvary, Bushwick Avenue, now known as Calvary and St. Cyprian s ). In Queens and Nassau there were St. Stephen s, Jamaica (organized 1903); St. John s, Hempstead (organized 1904; now removed to Lynbrook and known as St. John the Evangelist ); the Church of St. Alban the Martyr, St. Alban s (organized 1921); and the Church of the Resurrection, East Elmhurst (organized 1923; in ca merged with Grace, Corona, as Grace and Resurrection ). Perhaps Burgess s greatest embarrassment came from the result of his conflicts with Frederick Gamage, the headmaster of the Cathedral School of St. Paul, apparently in large part because of Gamage s emphasis on sports. The ultimate result of the resignation of Gamage in 1907 was followed by the immediate subsequent resignation of the entire faculty and the departure of all of the students, most of whom followed Gamage to Westchester, where he had founded the Pawling School. The population of Queens and Nassau more than doubled in the years from 1899 to 1915, and this is a period of great concurrent growth in Episcopal churches in areas east of Brooklyn. The convention of May 1916 reports 145 churches and chapels in the diocese. At this point Brooklyn contained 59 churches and chapels, with 28,437 communicants. In addition to the African- American parishes noted above, four more churches were organized in Kings County during the Burgess episcopate, including: St. Lydia s, East New York (organized 1905; closed ca. 2014); Emmanuel, Sheepshead Bay (organized 1914); and Epiphany, East 17th Street and Avenue R (organized 1906) and St. Simon s, Avenue K and East 12th Street (organized 1911). Epiphany and St. Simon merged in At this time, Queens and Nassau contains 55 churches and chapels; with 10,325 communicants. In addition to the African-American parishes noted above, the other churches organized in Queens and Nassau during the Burgess episcopate were St. Paul s, Roosevelt (organized 1901); St. Andrew s, Creedmoor (organized 1902;closed ca. 1948); Christ Church, Lynbrook (organized 1902; closed ca. 2013); All Saints, Lawrence (organized 1904; closed ca. 1928); St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, Belle Harbor (organized 1906; closed ca. 1932); Grace Church, Corona (organized 1907; merged with Resurrection, East Elmhurst, and now known as Grace and Resurrection ); St. Peter s, Rosedale (organized 1907); Advent, Westbury (organized 1910); St. Elisabeth s, Floral Park (organized 1910); St. Luke s, Forest Hills (organized 1913); St. Matthew s, Woodhaven (organized 1913; closed ca. 2010); St. James the Just, Franklin Square (organized 1913; closed ca. 2010); St. Mark s, North Bellmore (organized 1913; in 2015 merged with Christ the King, East Meadow, and now known as St. Francis, North Bellmore ); St. Stephen s, South Ozone Park (organized 1914, closed ca. 1970); St. John s of Lattingtown, Locust Valley (organized 1915); Holy Trinity, Valley Stream (organized 1920); All Saint s, Baldwin (organized 1921); St. Mary s, Carle Place (organized 1923); St. Mark s, Jackson Heights (organized 1923); St. Paul s, Great Neck (organized 1924; merged with All Saints, Great Neck); and the Church of St. John the Evangelist, South Ozone Park (organized 1925). For Suffolk the convention of 1916 reports 31 churches and chapels, with 3,327 communicants. Organized in Suffolk during the Burgess episcopate were St. Thomas s Church, Amagansett (organized 1903); St. Ann s, Bridgehampton (organized 1906); St. John s, Southampton (organized 1908); St. Mary s, Hampton Bays (organized 1912); Grace, Huntington Station (organized 1913; name changed in 1966 to St. Lawrence of Canterbury and removed to Dix Hills; closed ca. 2014); and St. Mark s, West Hampton Beach (organized 1924). On 4 July 1917, Bishop Burgess spoke in Forest Hills at an event that was also attended by President Theodore Roosevelt. In footage of the event, which is available online, Bishop Burgess is seen speaking just before Roosevelt. On 13 May 1925, Bishop Burgess called for a coadjutor to be elected at the diocesan convention later that month. The Rev. Ernest Milmore Stires (born 1866), then rector of St. Thomas s Church, Fifth Avenue, New York City, was elected on the fifth ballot at the convention of 26 May Bishop-Elect Stires was attending General Convention in New Orleans when Burgess died suddenly on 15 October Stires was not able to return in time for the funeral held in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 19 October 1925, after which Burgess was interred in the crypt chapel of the Cathedral. Bishop 346 in the American Episcopate and the third bishop of Long Island, Stires was consecrated 24 November 1925 at St. Thomas Church, New York City by Bishops Ethelbert Talbot (Bethlehem, consecrator), John Gardner Murray, and William T. Manning. He was enthroned in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 29 November Bishop Stires first addressed the diocese at the convention on May In his address he calls for the diocese to meet its assessment to the national Episcopal Church, for funds to upgrade the many charitable buildings of the diocese in Brooklyn, and he asked for bequests of funds and land to site churches in Queens and Nassau where the incoming tides of population are developing villages into towns, and towns into cities, within a few weeks or months. The largest capital project was the needed expansion of St. John s Hospital on Herkimer Street in Brooklyn of which only a small portion of the needed funds were on hand, and he announced that the page 8 page 9

8 work had begun with a groundbreaking for the hospital s Walter Gibb Memorial Chapel on the day after Ascension Day, He laid the cornerstone for the chapel on 11 October The support of Florence Swan Gibb, Gibb s widow, for this expansion is the reason that her portrait for many years occupied prominent place in See House. Stires noted that the press of work had necessitated him asking fellow bishops to help him with confirmations, a fact borne out by the 1926 journal, and that he would soon call for a suffragan bishop. The 1926 journal of convention lists 19,334 communicants in the Brooklyn Archdeaconry, 16,670 in the Queens and Nassau Archdeaconry, and 2,697 in the Suffolk Archdeaconry, for a total of 38,701 communicants. Of this total only fifty percent are from the Brooklyn Archdeaconry, and only ten of the churches in Kings County had at least 500 communicants. Eight churches in Queens and Nassau now had 500 or more communicants. During Stires episcopate, organized in Brooklyn was Our Saviour, Gerritsen Beach (organized 1927; closed ca. 1955). Churches organized in Queens and Nassau were Trinity, Astoria (organized 1926; closed ca. 1986?); St. John s, Springfield Gardens (organized 1926); Christ Church, Stewart Manor (organized 1926); St. Thomas, Bellerose (organized 1927); Trinity, Elmont (organized 1927; closed ca. 1965); St. Andrew s, Williston Park (organized 1928; in 2010 merged with Nativity, Mineola, and now known as Church of the Resurrection ); All Saints, Long Island City (organized 1928; also known as All Saints, Sunnyside ); St. James, Long Beach (organized 1929); St. Andrew s, Oceanside (organized 1929; closed ca. 2016); St. Thomas, Malverne (organized 1930; closed ca. 1995); St. Andrew s, Ozone Park (organized 1930; closed ca. 1962); St. James, Jamaica (organized 1930); and St. David s Church, Cambria Heights (organized 1940). In Suffolk the sole new church in Stires episcopate was St. Mark s, Medford (organized 1926). Like Bishop Burgess, Bishop Stires had some success with his appeal for contributions, and clearly the greatest achievement of Bishop Stires was that he kept the diocese going during the Great Depression. In addition to the new churches that were organized during his episcopate, he was able to expand St. John s Hospital and build Cathedral House for the Cathedral of the Incarnation; and he laid the cornerstone of Adelphi College (now Adelphi University) on 8 October During his episcopate, Stires called for two suffragans. Bishop 359 in the American Episcopate, the Rev. John Insley Blair Larned (born 1883) was elected at a special convention on Wednesday, 14 November He was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 11 February 1929 by bishops John Gardner Murray (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Julius Walter Atwood, and Herman Page. He served until 1947, when he became Bishop-in-Charge of the American Episcopal Churches in Europe. Stires s second suffragan was Bishop 351 in the American Episcopate, Frank W. Creighton (born 1879), the former rector of St. Ann s Church, Brooklyn, who was elected on the second ballot on 24 January He had been consecrated Missionary Bishop of Mexico in St. Ann s Church, Brooklyn, on 12 January 1926 by bishops John Gardner Murray (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Richard H. Nelson, and Thomas J. Garland. On 13 May 1934, supporters of the Rev. Lemuel C. Dade of St. Barnabas Church, Brooklyn, picketed at St. Barnabas to protest Dade s replacement by the Rev. John T. Ogburn. A photograph of the protest was published in a New York City newspaper. After a standoff, the church prevailed and Dade returned. A placard from this protest is held in the Diocese of Long Island Archives. Bishop Stires can be seen and heard in The Church at Work, a motion picture profile of the work of the diocese produced by the Diocese of Long Island around 1940, a copy of which is in the Archives. In a letter dated 1 January 1941, Stires told the clergy of the diocese that he intended to resign at the May 1941 convention. He reads the text of the letter in his address to that convention, and he retired on 9 February The dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City from 1940, the Very Rev. James Pernette DeWolfe (born 1895), was elected on the tenth ballot, during a special convention of the Diocese of Long Island on 11 February Bishop 431 in the American Episcopate and the fourth bishop of Long Island, DeWolfe was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 1 May 1942 by Bishops Henry St. George Tucker (Virginia, consecrator), William T. Manning, and Ernest M. Stires. Bishop Stires died of viral pneumonia in Palm Beach, Florida, on 12 February 1951; his funeral was at St. Thomas Church, New York, and he was interred in Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. Bishop DeWolfe first addressed the diocese at the convention of 19 May In his address he argues for faith, and a commonality of purpose throughout the whole diocese, rather than for funds for particular purposes. Given that he was a candidate from outside the diocese, and only was elected on the tenth ballot, the tone of the address is conciliatory. He posits that the diocese has to put its energies into the areas east of Kings County. The geographic distribution of the number of communicants differs radically from the founding of the diocese in By 1942, there are 21,238 communicants in the Archdeaconry of Brooklyn, 34,440 communicants in the Archdeaconry of Queens and Nassau; and 5,955 communicants in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk, for a total of 61,642 communicants in the diocese. Of this total, fifty-six percent are communicants in Queens and Nassau. During DeWolfe s episcopate, there was a population explosion in Nassau and Suffolk, fueled in part by the housing support offered to returning veterans, who sought out the Church both for themselves and their children, the baby boom generation. The only church organized in Brooklyn during DeWolfe s episcopate was the predominately Puerto Rican Church of the Holy Family (organized 1953; in 1968 merged with Christ Church, Cobble Hill, with the corporate name Christ Church and Holy Family ). Organized in Queens was St. Margaret of Scotland, Fresh Meadows (organized 1950; closed ca. 2004). Organized in Nassau were St. Francis, Levittown (1949, closed ca. 2000); the Church of St. Philip and St. James, Lake Success (organized 1950); Christ the King, East Meadow (organized 1951; merged with St. Mark s, North Bellmore in 2015 and now known as St. Francis, North Bellmore ); St. Bede s, Syosset (organized 1953; closed ca. 2013); St. Jude, Wantagh (organized 1956) and St. Margaret s, Plainview (organized 1963). Organized in Suffolk were St. Michael and All Angels, Gordon Heights (organized 1948; closed ca. 1970); St. Boniface, Lindenhurst (organized 1951); St. Thomas of Canterbury, Smithtown (organized 1958); St. Patrick s, Deer Park (organized 1962); St. Anselm s Church, Shoreham (organized 1965); and St. Edmund the Martyr, Southold (organized 1966; closed ca. 1977). The total number of communicants in the Diocese of Long Island reported to the convention of May 16, 1965 is 75,594. Of this number 15,992 are from the Archdeaconry of Brooklyn; 44,852 are from the Archdeaconry of Queens and Nassau; and 14,750 are from the Archdeaconry of Suffolk. Bishop DeWolfe is said to have had a beautiful singing voice and when he was young to have considered becoming a professional musician. He took a paternal role with his presbyters and deacons; he delighted in performing their marriages, and he insisted on baptizing their firstborn children. There are phonograph records of him in the Diocese of Long Island Archives. Given the strong growth of population in the diocese and the corresponding demand for priests, he usually shortened the period of the transitional diaconate. Among his achievements was the establishment of a school of theology for adult men in Garden City in 1954 (in 1956 named the George Mercer, Jr. Memorial School of Theology ). In the 1930s and 1940s children and youth attended camps in Suffolk County, and in the 1940s, through a bequest to the diocese from Mary Benson of Brooklyn, Bishop DeWolfe purchased land in Wading River, Suffolk County, for a permanent camp that has been named Camp DeWolfe in his honor. St. Luke s Chapel at the camp was organized in May Aside from Bishop Larned, who continued as suffragan until 1947, DeWolfe s suffragans were the Rev. Jonathan G. Sherman (born 1907) and the Rev. Charles W. MacLean (born 1903). The Rev. Jonathan G. Sherman was elected suffragan on 12 October Bishop 486 in the American Episcopate, Sherman was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 6 January 1949 by Bishops Henry Knox Sherrill (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Lewis B. Whittemore, and James P. DeWolfe. The Rev. Charles W. MacLean was elected suffragan on 18 November Bishop 585 in the American Episcopate, MacLean was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 24 February 1962 by Bishops James P. DeWolfe (Long Island, consecrator), Horace W.B. Donegan, and Jonathan G. Sherman. Bishop DeWolfe had two significant challenges during his episcopate. One was self-inflicted or principled, depending on the perspective of the observer. On Sunday 20 April 1952 in the Cathedral of the Incarnation, DeWolfe preached A Sermon on the Function of the Cathedral, demanding from the congregation adherence to the policies and procedures of the Episcopal Church concerning the Eucharist. The sermon caused a major exodus from the congregation. But by far his biggest problem was his twelve-year struggle with Brooklyn s Church of the Holy Trinity that only ended when the church was dissolved at the convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island in In 1947, the then rector of Holy Trinity, the Rev. John Howard Melish, reported nearly 800 communicants to convention. The last parochial report submitted by the church was in 1955 and indicated 557 communicants. Holy Trinity had been vigorously active in promoting social justice from the time Melish began serving as rector in He had come to the church at the invitation of philanthropist George Foster Peabody, a progressive follower of Henry George, and for many years a member of the vestry. An overview of the first 44 years of the Melish pastorate emphasizing its social justice activities from the perspective of Melish supporters can be found in pamphlet by Lewis Reynolds, Centennial of the Church of the Holy Trinity, , a copy of which is in the Diocese of Long Island Archives. The Rev. William Howard Melish (born 1910), the son of John Howard Melish, joined his father as his assistant in The younger Melish was a member of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship and by 1948 his activist support of Communism as a just form of government was found by the vestry of the Church of the Holy Trinity to be detrimental to the parish. In the ensuing struggle as to whether Holy Trinity was a congregational church under the control of the rector or subject to the authority of the bishop, the Rev. John Howard Melish was deposed, a new rector was installed over the objections of many, there were competing vestries, punches were thrown, and lawsuits were filed. page 10 page 11

9 It was the height of the Cold War, and politicians, the public, and the media all involved themselves in the struggle. A photograph of the church interior taken in January 1956 showing two priests conducting services at the same time made the national news. A copy of a newspaper with this photograph is in the Archives. DeWolfe died in office on 15 February Bishop Jonathan G. Sherman was elected the fifth bishop of Long Island on the first ballot at the convention on 19 March Bishop Sherman first addressed the diocese at the convention of 17 May Like DeWolfe in his first address, Sherman s emphasis was on spiritual renewal rather than on programs and finance. At this convention it is reported that there were 73,816 communicants in the diocese: 15,805 in the Archdeaconry of Brooklyn; 43,144 in the Archdeaconry of Queens and Nassau; and 14,867 in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk. 12 churches in Brooklyn, 32 in Queens and Nassau, and eight in Suffolk have 500 or more communicants. Sherman s next address to convention offers more detail about his agenda and it is clear in retrospect that he was too optimistic that the growth of the diocese would continue at the pace seen during DeWolfe s episcopate. He speaks of expansions for both the cathedral schools, and planning for a new Episcopal high school to be built at the former Mitchel Field in Garden City. Bishop Sherman s plans for the schools were ill-considered. The housing incentives given to returning World War II veterans had resulted in strong schools in the wealthier areas of Long Island, and although Roman Catholic high schools on the island had flourished, Episcopal education was not as robust. Economic recessions in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s undid the idea of the school at Mitchel Field and resulted in diminished enrollments in the cathedral schools. St. John Smithtown Hospital was erected by the diocese beginning in 1966, a fact Bishop Sherman mentions with pride in his convention address. The plant was sold to Catholic Health Services of Long Island in In July 1976 the Church Charity Foundation took over a failing hospital in Far Rockaway, which was renamed St. John s. The foundation changed its name to Episcopal Health Services in The only parish begun during Sherman s episcopate was St. Cuthbert s, Selden (organized 1967), in Suffolk County. The Venerable Richard Beamon Martin (born 1913), the Archdeacon of Brooklyn and former rector of St. Philip s Church, McDonough Street, was elected suffragan on 8 October Bishop 620 in the American Episcopate, Martin was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 2 February 1967 by Bishops John Elbridge Hines (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Jonathan G. Sherman, and Lauriston Livingston Saife. Bishop Sherman called for a coadjutor in The Rev. Robert Campbell Witcher (born 1926) was elected coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Long Island on the fourth ballot at the convention of 16 November 1974, after the Rev. George Hill, nominated from the floor, had withdrawn his name. Bishop 703 in the American Episcopate and the sixth bishop of Long Island, Witcher was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 7 April 1975 by Bishops John Maury Allin (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Jonathan G. Sherman, and Iveson Batchelor Noland. Bishop Witcher became diocesan on Bishop Sherman s retirement in Witcher was instituted, installed, and enthroned on 25 June Bishop Sherman died 27 October 1989 and was interred in Hawleyville, Connecticut. Bishop Witcher first addressed the diocese at the convention of 18 February In his address he says that he will try to govern as an executive. His goal is good corporate stewardship and efficiency: for the years that God has given me to serve among you as Bishop, I conceive of three stages: The first will be a time for re-evaluation of what we have been doing and setting goals for our future life and work together. The second stage will be focused in program development to ascertain the needs of the people and to extend God s Kingdom to them through his Church. The final phase will be the operational stage with constant evaluation during this time. He continues, Our present effort is to make us re-evaluate the way we raise money, the way we spend money, and the things we spend it for. He also said that he would emphasize small group meetings with clergy and laity for evangelization and spiritual renewal. The 18 February 1978 journal of convention reports 14,846 communicants in the Archdeaconry of Brooklyn, 33,914 in the Archdeaconry of Queens and Nassau, and 17,173 in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk, for a total of 65,933 communicants. Of the churches reporting 500 or more communicants, six were in Brooklyn, five in Queens, 17 in Nassau, and 13 in Suffolk. The former Bishop of Botswana, the Rt. Rev. C. Shannon Malory, served as assistant bishop from 1979 to The Rev. Henry B. Hucles (born 1928), rector of St. George s Church, Brooklyn, was elected suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Long Island at the convention on 14 March Bishop 760 in the American Episcopate, Henry B. Hucles was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 20 June 1981 by Bishops John M. Allin (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Robert Campbell Witcher, and Jonathan G. Sherman. Bishop Hucles died on 4 August He is buried in Richmond, Virginia. The journal of the 15 February 1986 convention reports 61,273 communicants in total with no breakdown by archdeaconry. Of churches with 500 or more communicants, there were nine in the Brooklyn, six in Queens, and 12 in Nassau and 11 in Suffolk. Bishop Witcher called for a coadjutor in 1987, and the Rev. Orris G. Walker, Jr. (born 1942) was elected on the seventh ballot on 21 November Bishop 826 in the American Episcopate and the seventh bishop of Long Island, Orris G. Walker, Jr. was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on April 9, 1988 by Bishops Edmond L. Browning (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Arthur B. Williams, and Robert C. Witcher. Bishop Walker made it a priority to include women in leadership roles. A few days after Walker s consecration, Bishop Witcher announced that Bishop Walker could ordain women to the priesthood, a move that Witcher had opposed. Anne Lyndall and Noreen Moody were ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Walker in the Cathedral of the Incarnation on 25 January Early in his tenure, Bishop Walker sought to reorganize the diocese and established the Diocesan Strategy Council for Mission, Ministry and Strategic Priorities Council chaired by the Rev. Deacon Dr. Betty Belasco. Enrollment at the Cathedral Schools of St. Paul and St. Mary declined during the 1980s, and they began to operate at a loss. The Cathedral Chapter first tried to resolve the financial issues by consolidating the two schools in 1990 and then closed the schools in However, closure required the approval of New York State, because the property was restricted for school use by the terms of the gift to the diocese, and the Attorney General challenged the closure in court. In 1991 the court ordered one of the campuses to be sold or leased to provide funds to reopen the other. The Cathedral School of St. Mary was reopened in 1991, at a cost of $1.5 million to the diocese, and closed permanently soon thereafter. Bishop Walker first addressed the diocese at the convention of 16 November In his address he speaks of parish developments: St. Gabriel s, Flatbush, was erecting a new church, and St. Mark s, Crown Heights, was expanding its worship space. Walker suggested expanding the role of the archdeacons, whom, he said, would serve as his regional representatives, handling pastoral concerns, especially clergy deployment, conflict resolution, and supporting clergy-parish relationships. Walker only alludes to the concerns about the Cathedral Chapter and the Cathedral Schools in his address, perhaps because he had addressed the complex situation in an extensive letter in the September-October 1991 issue of the diocesan newspaper, Tidings, a copy of which is in the Diocese of Long Island Archives. There are no parochial statistics in the 1991 journal of convention. In the journal of the 14 November 1992 convention of the Diocese of Long Island the total number of communicants given is 45,554: 9,461 in the Archdeaconry of Brooklyn; 8,879 in the Archdeaconry of Queens; 14,923 in the Archdeaconry of Nassau; and 12,291 in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk. In his address to the convention, Bishop Walker speaks of his Master Plan, which he urges the delegates to approve. Through this plan, the trustees of Mercer and Episcopal Charities respectively would function independently of the Standing Committee. Bishop Walker identifies a newly-erected parish house at the Church of St. Alban the Martyr and a new church building for St. Gabriel s, Flatbush, as accomplishments. He addresses in some detail the merger of St. John s Episcopal Hospital and Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, called Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, as well as a newly-established drug treatment center at St. Cyprian s, Brooklyn, and mentions Bishop Sherman Nursing Home in Smithtown, and a ground-breaking for Bishop Henry B. Hucles Nursing Home, scheduled for February He alludes to the severing of a relationship between a priest and parish, without naming either, and he announces that both he and an archdeacon had been sued, without referring to the nature of the suit. He makes no reference to a developing situation with the cathedral schools. On 9 April 1993 the Cathedral of the Incarnation filed for bankruptcy protection, and that year the New York State Supreme Court agreed that the Village of Garden City could take by eminent domain the Cathedral School of St. Paul, which they wanted for playing fields. With the 1996 dismissal of a suit by the Garden City Company, the Cathedral Corporation emerged from its legal problems. The buildings of the Cathedral School of St. Mary were demolished in The Rev. Rodney R. Michel (born 1943), then rector of St. Peter s, Bay Shore, was elected suffragan on the third ballot on 2 November Bishop 928 in the American Episcopate, Michel was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Incarnation by Bishops Edmond L. Browning (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Orris G. Walker, Jr., and Robert C. Witcher. In June 2000 Holy Spirit Church, Flushing, a union of St. John s, Flushing and Trinity-St. Joseph s, Astoria, was organized. This institution appears to have lapsed, as the name is no longer used by The journal of the November 2006 convention reports 39,799 communicants: 11,647 in the page 12 page 13

10 Archdeaconry of Brooklyn; 6,790 in the Archdeaconry of Queens; 10,051 in the Archdeaconry of Nassau; and 11,311 in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk. Suffragan Bishop Michel retired in 2007, the last publication year of a printed journal of convention for the Diocese of Long Island to date. The Diocese of Long Island received much unwelcome publicity during Bishop Walker s tenure for certain events that pre-dated his tenure and others over which he had little or no control. Bishop Walker called for a coadjutor at the convention of the diocese in November The Rev. Lawrence C. Provenzano (born 1955) was elected bishop coadjutor on the second ballot on 21 March Bishop Walker retired in early 2009 and died on 28 February His ashes were interred in the Crypt Chapel of the Cathedral of the Incarnation during a memorial service on 21 March The Right Rev. David Joslin, retired Bishop of Central New York, led the Diocese of Long Island as interim bishop from May 2009 until the consecration of Bishop-elect Provenzano. Bishop 1,037 in the American Episcopate and the eighth bishop of Long Island, Provenzano was consecrated 19 September 2009 at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Long Island University, Greenvale, New York, by Bishops Katharine Jefferts Schori (Presiding Bishop, consecrator), Gordon Paul Scruton, and George Edward Councell. Bishop Provenzano first addresses the Diocese of Long Island in convention in November In his address he downplays the role of the archdeaconries in the diocese, indicating his intention [to allow] parishes to cross deanery and archdeaconry boundaries to provide support, resources, and learning to each other. Elsewhere in his address he says, the use of funding will shift from diocesan directed endeavors to parish/mission directed endeavors. We will plan to spend dollars where mission is happening and where mission is possible. He recommends increasing the use of Camp DeWolfe as a diocesan conference center. Matters of social justice, particularly concerns for immigrants and the empowerment of women and sexual minorities, have been emphasized during Bishop Provenzano s episcopate to date. Bishop Provenzano is a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence. At the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2018, he co-authored a resolution proposing the right of parish clergy to officiate at same-gender marriages in their local church without requiring the permission of the diocesan bishop. One church or mission been organized during Bishop Provenzano s episcopate, Bushwick Abbey, St. Nicholas Avenue, Brooklyn (organized ca. 2013). BISHOPS OF THE DIOCESE OF LONG ISLAND The Right Reverend Abram Newkirk Littlejohn First Bishop of Long Island The Right Reverend Frederick Burgess Second Bishop of Long Island Born, December 13, 1824, Florida, Montgomery County, New York Married Jane Matilda Armstrong Died, August 3, 1901, Williamstown, Massachusetts Born, October 6, 1853, Providence, Rhode Island Married, Caroline Gamble Bartow, 1881, Mendham, New Jersey Died, October 15, 1925, Garden City, New York Union College, 1845 Ordained deacon, March 19, 1848, St. Peter s, Auburn, New York Ordained priest, June 12, 1849, Christ, Hartford, Connecticut Assistant, St. Ann s, Amsterdam, New York Assistant, St. Andrew s, Meriden, Connecticut Rector, Christ, Springfield, Massachusetts, Rector, St. Paul s, New Haven, Connecticut, Rector, Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, New York, Consecrated Bishop, January 27, 1869, Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, New York Brown University, 1873 Ordained deacon, October 31, 1876, Grace, Providence, Rhode Island Ordained priest, 1877, Grace, Providence, Rhode Island Deacon, St. Mark s, Mendham, New Jersey, Rector, Grace, Amherst, Massachusetts, Rector, Christ, Pomfret, Connecticut, Rector, Church of St. Asaphs, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Rector, Christ, Detroit, Michigan, Rector, Grace, Brooklyn Heights, New York, Consecrated Bishop, January 15, 1902, Grace, Brooklyn Heights, New York page 14 page 15

11 The Right Reverend Ernest Milmore Stires Third Bishop of Long Island The Right Reverend James Pernette DeWolfe Fourth Bishop of Long Island The Right Reverend Jonathan Goodhue Sherman Suffragan Bishop Fifth Bishop of Long Island The Right Reverend Robert Campbell Witcher Bishop Coadjutor Sixth Bishop of Long Island Born, May 20, 1866, Norfolk, Virginia Born, April 7, 1895, Kansas City, Kansas Born, June 13, 1907, St. Louis, Missouri Born, October 5, 1926, New Orleans, Louisiana Married, Sarah McKinne Hardwick, January 11, 1894 Married, Elizabeth Spitler Owen, June 28, 1916 Married, Frances LeBaron Casady, January 1, 1938 Married, Elisabeth Alice Cole, June 4, 1957 Died, February 12, 1951, Palm Beach, Florida Died, February 6, 1966, Brooklyn, New York Died, October 27, 1989 Tulane University, 1949 University of Virginia, 1888 St. John s University, 1919 Yale University, 1929 Ordained deacon, June 26, 1891 Ordained deacon, June 1919 Ordained deacon, June 1933 Ordained priest, June 24, 1892 Ordained priest, December 1919 Rector, St. John s, West Point, Virginia, Rector, St. Peter s, Pittsburg, Kansas, Ordained priest, June 1934, St. John s, Bridgeport, Connecticut Ordained priest, June 1, 1953, St. James, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Rector, Church of the Good Shepherd, Augusta, Georgia, Rector, St. Andrew s, Kansas City, Missouri, Fellow and Tutor, General Theological Seminary, New York, New York, Curate, St. James, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Priest-in-Charge, St. Andrew s, Clinton, Louisiana, Priest-in-Charge, Grace, Chicago, Illinois, Dean, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, New York, Priest-in-Charge, St. Thomas, Farmingdale, New York, Priest-in-Charge, St. Patrick s, Zachary, Louisiana, Rector, Grace, Chicago, Illinois, Rector, St. Thomas, New York, New York, Consecrated Bishop November 24, 1925, St. Thomas, New York, New York Rector, Christ, Houston, Texas, Consecrated Bishop May 1, 1942, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Rector, St. Thomas, Bellerose, New York, Consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Long Island, January 6, 1949, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Elected Bishop, March 19, 1966 Instituted as Bishop, June 18, 1966, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Ordained deacon, July 6, 1952, Christ Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana Priest-in Charge, St. Augustine s, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Rector, St. Augustine s, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Canon Pastor, Christ Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana, Rector, St. James, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Consecrated Coadjutor Bishop, April 1, 1975, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Instituted as Bishop, June 25, 1977, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York page 16 page 17

12 SUFFRAGAN BISHOPS OF LONG ISLAND John Insley Blair Larned Suffragan Bishop Charles Waldo MacLean Suffragan Bishop Henry B. Hucles, III Suffragan Bishop The Right Reverend Orris George Walker, Jr. Bishop Coadjutor Seventh Bishop of Long Island The Right Reverend Lawrence C. Provenzano Bishop Coadjutor 2009 Eighth Bishop of Long Island 2009 Born, October 5, 1883, Chicago, Illinois Died, December 6, 1955 Ordained deacon, June 1911 Ordained priest, June 1912 Consecrated Suffragan Bishop February 11, 1929, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Frank W. Creighton Suffragan Bishop Born, December 3, 1879, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Died, December 23, 1948, Washington, D.C. Ordained deacon, December 1914 Ordained priest, June 1915 Consecrated Missionary Bishop of Mexico, St. Ann s, Brooklyn New York, January 12, 1926 Elected as Suffragan Bishop of Long Island, January 24, 1933 Born, June 28, 1903, Lincoln, Nebraska Died, March 22, 1985 Ordained deacon, May 1928 Ordained priest, February 1929 Consecrated as Suffragan Bishop, February 14, 1962, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Richard Beamon Martin Suffragan Bishop Born, February 23, 1913, Peak, South Carolina Died, April 11, 2012 Ordained deacon, June 1942 Ordained priest, February 1943 Consecrated as Suffragan Bishop, February 2, 1967, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Born, September 21, 1923, New York, New York Died, August 4, 1989, Gloucester, Virginia Ordained deacon, June 1942 Ordained priest, September 1943 Consecrated as Suffragan Bishop, June 20, 1981, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Rodney Rae Michel Suffragan Bishop Born, February 7, 1943, Petersburg, Nebraska Ordained deacon, June 21, 1970, St. Mark s-on-the-campus, Lincoln, Nebraska Ordained priest, December 1, 1970, St. Mark s, Gordon, Nebraska Consecrated as Suffragan Bishop, April 12, 1997, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Born, November 5, 1942, Baltimore, Maryland Married, Norma Eloy McKinney Dixon, June 12, 1971 Died, February 28, 2015, Detroit, Michigan Born, January 25, 1955, Brooklyn, New York Married, Jeanne Marie Ross, January 8, 1983, Calvary, Stonington, Connecticut INTERIM, ASSISTANT, AND ASSISTING BISHOPS University of Maryland, 1964 Ordained deacon, June 18, 1968 Ordained priest, May 1, 1969 Curate, Holy Nativity, Baltimore, Maryland, Minister, St. Mark s, Kansas City, Missouri, Priest-in-Charge, St. Alban s, Highland Park, Michigan, Rector, St. Matthew and St. Joseph, Detroit, Michigan, Consecrated Bishop Coadjutor, April 9, 1988, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York Instituted as Bishop, January 5, 1991, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, New York State University of New York, Albany, 1980 Ordained deacon, June 11, 1981, Cathedral of St. Patrick, Norwich, Connecticut Ordained priest, May 22, 1982, Cathedral of St. Patrick, Norwich, Connecticut Received from the Roman Catholic Church as a deacon December 24, 1984, and named a priest in April 1985 by Bishop George Nelson Hunt Assistant, Cathedral of St. Patrick, Norwich, Connecticut, Assistant, St. Paul s, Waterford, Connecticut, 1982 Assistant Rector, Christ, Westerly, Rhode Island, Rector, St. John s, North Adams, Massachusetts, Rector, St. Andrew s, Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Consecrated as Bishop, September 19, 2009, Long Island University, Greenvale, New York Instituted, November 14, 2009, Melville, New York Shannon Mallory Assistant Bishop Bishop of Botswana James H. Ottley Assistant Bishop Bishop of Panama Bishop of El Salvador Assistant Bishop of South East Florida Bishop of Honduras David B. Joslin Interim Bishop 2009 Bishop of Central New York Assisting Bishop of New Jersey Assisting Bishop of Rhode Island Chilton Knudsen Assistant Bishop Bishop of Maine Interim Bishop of Lexington Assisting Bishop of New York Geralyn Wolf Assistant Bishop present Bishop of Rhode Island Daniel S. A. Allotey Assisting Bishop present Bishop of Cape Coast, Ghana page 18