Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia, by James Callahan, 1913 Church Devlopment - THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN WEST VIRGINIA This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm From the Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia, by James Callahan, 1913. pg. 534-536 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN WEST VIRGINIA By George W. Peterkin, Bishop of West Virginia. The Protestant Episcopal Church in West Virginia was a part of that Church in the State of Virginia from May, 1607—the date when Rev. Robert Hunt of the Church of England held his first service at Jamestown— until October, 1877, at which time West Virginia was formally set apart as a separate Diocese. How soon this church began to acquire a hold upon that mostly uninhabited and, at the best, sparsely settled territory is not known, save that we have a list of nine clergymen who labored in what is now West Virginia from 1700 to 1785. In the convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of 175, in Rich- mond, Va., we have the first notice of any delegate from West Virginia, and such attendance of clergy and laity was regularly kept up until 1877, when, for the last time, the original undivided Diocese of Virginia met in Staunton. During that time (ninety two years) Bishops Madison, Moore, Meade, Johns and Whittle lived and labored. The membership of churches, and ministers, rose very slowly. In 1842 the clergy. In what is now West Virginia, numbered ait; in 1853 there were thirteen and 636 communicants. In 1877 there were 15 clergy and 1,033 communicants. Subsequent development will he noticed, but it is important now to mention some of the causes for the slow start in growth which this church made. The Episcopal Church of Virginia commenced with the first settlement of the first colony in Jamestown, Va., 1607, but she had to labor under great disadvantages during nearly the whole period of her early existence, on account of her connection with the Government and the Church of England. America was, in early days, largely settled by those who from various causes, had left, or were leaving, the church of England—the church of their fathers. In asserting the cause of popular rights and liberties against the crown, in the times of Elizabeth (1859-1603) James I. (1603-1625) and Charles I. (1625-1649), owing to the connection of church and state, many persons came to look upon the established church as their enemy, and to make it equally with the state, the objects of their assaults, and this is not strange, for the great principles of religious liberty were not at the time understood, either by those who remained in the Church of England, or by those who left her fold. The Bishop of London was in charge of the church in Virginia, but his superintendence was of necessity only nominal. And so for about one hundred and eighty years did the Episcopal Church in Virginia, as elsewhere in the country, try the experi- ment of a system whose constitution required such a head as a Bishop, but which was actually without it. So she everywhere suffered for lack of this office, so indispensable to the most important parts of her ecclesiastical administration and discipline. The clergy necessarily came from England, for there was no Bishop here to confirm and ordain, and so, as the Revolution approached, dissatis- faction with the mother country grew, and with it, naturally, dissatis- faction with the mother church. Since the clergy came from England, many of them very naturally showed attachment to the King, and this subjected the church to suspicion; and this notwithstanding the fact that the prominent laity in the state, churchmen as they were—the Washing- tons and the Lees and Henrys and Pendletons and Masons and Nelsons and Meades and Mercers and Harrisons and Randolphs—were also ardent patriots. This state of things was common throughout the country, as out of 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence 35 were Episcopalians. So it came to pass that, whereas, when the Revolutionary war began, Virginia, in her sixty-one counties contained ninety-five parishes, one hundred and sixty-four churches and chapels and ninety-one clergymen, she came out of the war with a large number of her churches destroyed, twenty-three of her parishes extinct, and thirty-four more destitute of all service, while only twenty-eight out of ninety-one clergy remained, and they subject to the suspicion of which we have spoken. In 1790 Dr. Madison was consecrated in England as Bishop of Virginia, and the church began at length to spread, as we shall try to show, through that part of the old state now known as West Virginia. Owing to the great extent of territory and the imperfect means of communication, it was, time and again. In the interest of a better supervision, proposed to divide the Diocese—in 1821, 1851, 1865, 1872, 1873, 1874 and 1876. Finally, in 1877, it was accomplished. At that time there were 13 clergy, 1,048 com- municants, 22 churches and chapels and 10 rectories. In 1890, 13 years after the division, there were 23 clergy, 2,929 communicants, 56 churches and chapels and 23 rectories. In 1900 there were 34 clergy, 4,175 com- municants, 67 churches and chapels and 26 rectories and in 1913 there were 41 clergy, 6,067 communicants, 95 churches and chapels and 10 rectories. The money raised tor all purposes has increased from $10,000 In 1878 to $100,000 annually. The Diocese has under its control two hos- pitals, caring for about 1,800 patients annually, more than halt of whom are practically free. During all this time the state has increased from 600,000 to 1,220,000 in population. Bishop George W. Peterkin has been in charge of this work since May, 1878, when it was started on its inde- pendent existence, and since 1899 has been assisted by Bishop W. L. Gravatt. The growth of the church during the period spoken of has been encouraging, but there are still 17 counties where we have no church— two in what we call the Eastern Convention, eight in the Northwestern Convention and seven in the Kanawha Convention. During these years of independent existence, there have been confirmed 8,287 persons in the diocese, 47 ordained to the sacred ministry and 73 churches consecrated. The Episcopal Church, though small in numbers, is well represented in all sections of the state, especially in the large cities and towns.