Episcopal Church. Diocese of Michigan

The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan was organized in 1832 by Episcopal parishes in the then territory of Michigan (which included present-day Wisconsin). From its beginning St. Paul's Church in Detroit served as the see of the diocese, and the early bishops served as rector of St. Paul's. When Michigan became a state the boundaries of the diocese were fixed as the boundaries of the state. As the church grew the bishops found it difficult to administer such a large area, and the parishes farther from Detroit desired a bishop closer to their own areas and more attuned to their local needs. To address these concerns the diocese eventually was divided three times. In 1875 the western half of the Lower Peninsula became the Diocese of Western Michigan. In 1895 the Upper Peninsula became the Diocese of Marquette (later renamed Diocese of Northern Michigan). Finally in 1995 the northeastern Lower Peninsula, Saginaw Valley, and Thumb areas became the Diocese of Eastern Michigan. As a result, the current Diocese of Michigan includes only the Detroit Metropolitan Area and adjacent regions as far west as Lansing, Jackson, and Hillsdale.

In the nineteenth century the diocese was concerned with the strains of carrying the gospel to a region rapidly going through the development from frontier to a more settled state. As early as the 1840s the church began to develop urban missions in Detroit to African Americans (St. Matthew's) and laborers (Mariners' Church). The 1850s saw the development of missions in the lumbering regions of the Saginaw Valley and the mining regions of the Upper Peninsula. The problem of supporting churches in poor farming areas was a constant concern.

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