 HISTORY
The Episcopal Diocese of Utah has an interesting past, and an
exciting and promising future. Our history here is long —
about one hundred and forty years since we were the first ‘other’
church to settle here after the Mormons (though we were soon
followed by both Catholics and other Protestants). We were a
missionary district for all but the last thirty five years of
that time, becoming an independent diocese only in the early
nineteen-seventies. Thus we are still in the process of discerning
who we are and how we want to be the church here; the bishops’
pretty much did that for us in earlier days.
The Rt. Rev. Daniel S. Tuttle was the first missionary bishop
to be sent to Utah, having a huge jurisdiction that included
Montana and Idaho as well. Though being the youngest bishop
of his time — he had to wait in the east for his thirtieth
birthday to arrive so as to conform to the canons —
he became a truly heroic saint of the church. He served his
mission here for twenty years, became the bishop of Missouri,
then later became presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Tuttle was an incredibly visionary and active bishop,
founding many churches, our cathedral, the first non-Mormon
schools, and the first hospital in this part of the west.
Early on, the people who became members of the Utah Missionary
district were Native Americans, miners, railroad builders,
and members of the military. The latter were stationed at
Fort Douglas, just east of Salt Lake City. US Army troops
were stationed here to “keep an eye on” the Mormons
and the Native Americans. (Ft. Douglas became the Olympic
village when the 2002 Winter Games were hosted by Utah.) Today,
among its twenty two churches and several chaplaincies, our
diocese supports two Native American churches on the Ouray-Uinta
Reservation, and three thriving Latino congregations.
The present diocesan boundaries are the state of Utah, excluding
the Navajo Area Mission in the southeast corner of the state,
and a recently adopted and rapidly growing congregation in
Page, Arizona, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell.
Two radical changes have come our way in recent years. First,
we became an independent diocese, no longer supported financially
by the national church. Second, through the sale of St. Mark’s
Hospital, we shifted quite suddenly from being one of the
poorest dioceses in the Episcopal Church to being one of the
wealthiest. Both changes have posed huge challenges for us
- more so than we ever expected- and also more than most of
our people have realized even now. We still struggle to embrace
these changes faithfully.
In late 1995, Carolyn Tanner Irish was elected as bishop
coadjutor, soon to become the tenth bishop of Utah. She was
the first woman to lead any denomination in Utah, and only
the fourth woman in the Episcopal Church to be chosen as diocesan
bishop.
Bishop “Carolyn” is a native of Utah, who has
lived in, and served the Episcopal Church in the East, Midwest
and England for nearly forty years. Raised as a Mormon, she
has been a bridge for our church in the Utah culture. In her
seven-plus years as our leader, Bishop Carolyn has ‘opened
the books’ on our finances, and has seen that all our
diocesan budgeting and distributions are known to the parishioners,
many of whom also participate in the financial decision making
process since the dissolution of the Corporate Sole, (or Corporation
of the bishop).
After seven years of foundation building and ground work,
Bishop Carolyn believes that we are well-positioned for a
new era of mission and ministry.
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