Eastern Diocese
On May 29, 1810, representatives from New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts (at that time including Maine) met at Boston and organized the Eastern Diocese. This was not a diocese in the regular sense, but an arrangement whereby four weak dioceses could work together. On May 29, 1811, Alexander Viets Griswold was consecrated Bishop of the Eastern Diocese. The four constituting dioceses held their own annual conventions and each sent deputies to the General Convention. In 1820 the Diocese of Maine was organized and joined the Eastern Diocese. When Bishop Griswold died on Feb. 15, 1843, the Eastern Diocese ceased to exist.
Glossary definitions provided courtesy of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY,(All Rights reserved) from “An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians,” Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors.