Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. History Massachusetts was founded by Puritans who did not accept such aspects of the Church of England as bishops and the Book of Common Prayer. The first Anglican parish in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was King's Chapel in Boston, founded in 1688, 58 years after the city. After the American Revolution, King's Chapel became the first Unitarian congregation in North America. The oldest remaining parishes in the diocese are Christ Church in Quincy, founded in 1704, St. Paul's in Newburyport, founded as Queen Anne's Chapel in 1711, St. Michael's Church in Marblehead, founded in 1714, Christ Church in Boston (Old North Church), founded in 1723, and St. Andrew's Church in South Scituate (now Hanover), founded in 1727. The diocese was organized in 1784, five years before the Episcopal Church itself. The first bishop (for New England and New York) was Samuel Seabury who was consecrated by the bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1784. Today, it is one of the largest dioceses in the ECUSA in terms of membership. It encompasses the eastern part of Massachusetts, specifically,