• About Us
  • About Us
  • Diocesan Staff
  • History of the Diocese
  • Photos
  • Find a Church
• Bishop
  • Bishop's Page
  • Assisting Bishop
• Bishop Search
  • Bishop Search
  • Profile & Application
  • Q & A
  • Search Committee Updates
  • Transition Committee Updates
• Calendar, News & Events
  • Calendar
  • News
  • Events
  • Anglican Cycle of Prayer
  • Diocesan Cycle of Prayer
• Resources
  • Business Manual for Churches
  • EDRG Forms
  • EDRG Policy
  • Christian Ed Resources
  • Episcopal Church
• Diocesan Convention
  • Convention
  • Agenda
  • Registration
  • Nomination Information
• Committees & Officers
  • Officers
  • Diocesan Council
  • New Life Team
  • Search Team
  • Standing Committee
  • Transition Team
• Commission on Ministry
  • Members
  • "Road to Ordination"
  • Commission Resources

• Constitution & Canons

• Clergy Deployment
  • Clergy Deployment
  • Clergy Positions Open
  • Letter of Interest

Print

History of the Diocese

A Brief History of the Diocese of the Rio Grande

The 1859 General Convention of the Episcopal Church assigned New Mexico to the jurisdiction of the Missionary District of the Northwest under Bishop Josiah Cruickshank Talbot. He ventured south in 1863 on a “dreadful trip with drunken passengers singing obscene songs”. Talbot held services at Fort Union, Santa Fe, and Taos.

The Rt. Rev. George Maxwell Randall of the Missionary District of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming visited the territory in 1871. He baptized, preached and confirmed in Santa Fe and then traveled for 4 days in a mail coach to visit the infant church in Mesilla, but he did not stop in Albuquerque.

Three years later, the General Convention appointed William Forbes Adams as Bishop of the newly formed Missionary District of New Mexico and Arizona. After his consecration on January 17, 1875, Adams traveled to the district accompanied by his chaplain, Henry Forrester. Starting in Las Vegas, at the end of the railroad, they journeyed by mail coach to Santa Fe and then to Albuquerque where nine people attended the first Episcopal worship service. It was held at the Exchange Hotel on the Plaza on March 4, 1875. The Hon. Hezekiah Johnson, a judge in the 2nd Judicial District, was made a deacon to lead weekly services at the hotel and studies of the “Calvary Catechism,” the 1789 Prayer Book, and the King James Bible.

Bishop Adams discovered that his bishopric required more physical stamina than he had. Citing family concerns, he left New Mexico soon after his tour of the territory and resigned as Bishop on October 15, 1877. Chaplain Forrester took on ecclesiastical oversight of the Missionary District and established St. Paul’s in Las Vegas to serve as the ecclesiastical center. The Rev. Mr. Forrester was a thin, bearded man, with a high forehead who seemed to have endless energy for his calling to serve the Missionary District. He traveled widely around the territory, establishing missionary outposts in 15 towns.
The arrival of the telegraph in 1875 and, more importantly, the railroad on April 10, 1880, led to rapid growth in Albuquerque. Nearly immediately “New Town” sprang up close to the tracks.

In 1880, the first convention of the Missionary District of New Mexico & Arizona was held at the Exchange Hotel. Bishop George Dunlop appointed the Rev. Henry Forrester priest to the congregation in Albuquerque. Forrester continued to travel across the territory, encouraging the missions he had established in the District.

Forrester reported to Convocation in 1882 “land has been purchased at 4th and Silver” for $5,000. The first service in the stone & brick church of St. John’s in November, led by Bishop George Dunlop, was attended by 33 people.

A resolution from the Vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church to Bishop Howden and the Convocation of 1920 designated St. John’s as the Cathedral Church of the Missionary District of New Mexico & Southwest Texas. Although the resolution was accepted on a one-year trial basis, it was three years later after new canons were adopted, before the designation was official.
In 1925, the Rev. Henry R.A. O’Malley, a bachelor, came to St. John’s. He took up residence in the deanery at the church. When O’Malley arrived St. John’s, the Cathedral of the Diocese was still a small stone building. An arched door faced 4th Street and a wooden picket fence surrounded the grounds. Despite the deepening Depression, O’Malley oversaw fundraising of $30,000 to start the Cathedral house designed by John Gaw Meem, for parish and diocesan offices. The work cost him dearly and he resigned for health reasons before seeing his dream started.Bishop Howden laid the cornerstone of the Cathedral House on Easter Sunday, 1930.

Plans for a brand new, John Gaw Meem designed Nave that would triple the seating started in 1950. Meem was chosen so that the building would retain the design features of the Cathedral House. A fundraising goal of $200,000 was set with ground breaking scheduled for the day after Easter, 1951. The work was completed in time for the 1952 Diocesan Convention. The first services were held in the new building on October 5, 1952, with the dedication taking place on the 11th of November that same year.”

The November 11, 1952, service included both the dedication of the new Cathedral and institution of James Moss Stoney as Diocesan Bishop (10 years after he first started his ministry as Missionary Bishop to the district).

Bishop Stoney was succeeded in 1956 with the election of C. James Kinsolving as Bishop Coadjutor . By the end of his tenure in 1972, Bishop Kinsolving had been forced to deal with a number of issues arising out of the tumult of the late 1960s and early 1970s. These included questions of churchmanship and the use of alternative forms to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. The greatest controversy, however, involved the introduction of the General Convention’s Special Program that sought to distribute resources to various civil rights groups, some of which were fairly militant in tone. On the whole, however, the Diocese fared well during his administration, and demonstrated considerable growth.

It has been said of his successor, Bishop Richard M. Trelease, who was elected bishop in 1971, that he was a man of his age. He was a strong supporter of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and the 1982 Hymnal, as well as women’s ordination. The result was a doubling of diocesan clergy, and an unfortunate decrease in the number of confirmands and communicants. Bishop Trelease’s ministry ended abruptly in 1988 with his resignation for health reasons, urged by Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning.

The election of Bishop Terence Kelshaw in 1989 represented a conscious departure from the Trelease era. A British evangelical, Kelshaw quickly set about reversing many of Trelease’s policies, and instituting his own. He decentralized some of the financial decision making of the Diocese into the hands of the four deaneries, and also set a conservative agenda for the Diocese. Funds were withheld from the national Church, which mirrored the bishop’s and many others’ growing alienation. When issues of sexuality came to the fore, Bishop Kelshaw was highly visible, both locally and nationally, as a strong proponent of traditional values. He was among the bishops who filed a Presentment against retired Bishop Walter Righter for the ordination of a man in a same-sex relationship, and a vocal opponent of the election of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. By the end of his administration, Kelshaw had ceased to attend meetings of the House of Bishops, which increased the alienation of the Diocese from the national Church. By his retirement in 2005 the Diocese was perceived as one of the most conservative in the Church. After his retirement, Bishop Kelshaw left the Episcopal Church USA for the Anglican Church of Uganda.

Bishop Kelshaw’s 16-year ministry was followed by the short-lived administration of Bishop Jeffrey Steenson. Steenson, who had been Bishop Kelshaw’s Canon to the Ordinary for five years, was elected by a sizeable majority over his closest contender, Martyn Minns, in October 2004, and was consecrated Bishop Coadjutor in January 2005. He became Diocesan Bishop on August 1 of that same year, the 1000th Bishop consecrated in The Episcopal Church. Steenson differed from his predecessor in a number of respects. While a theological conservative, his perspective was that of an “Anglo-Papalist” rather than an evangelical. There was great hope that his “kinder and gentler” conservative style would usher in an era in which differing perspectives would be respected, while at the same time honoring the generally traditional character of the Diocese.

For all of these reasons, Bishop Steenson’s decision to resign as Bishop, renounce his orders in The Episcopal Church, and seek priestly ordination in the Roman Catholic Church, was greeted with a mixture of sympathy, consternation, and anger. Both prior to and following his departure on December 1, 2007, people struggled to deal with this unanticipated and unwelcome turn of events. For some, his action, though understandable given Steenson’s concerns about the direction of the national church, was viewed as a repudiation of their own beliefs. Others were angry that he had allowed his name to be placed in nomination for Bishop, given his own ecclesial uncertainty. Still others wondered whether the direction in which he had begun to take the Diocese would continue.

The Standing Committee has served as the Ecclesiastical Authority since January 2008, wrestling with the usual business of diocesan leadership, but also, the separation of four congregations, our continued division of spirituality and polity, and the launching of a diocesan-wide effort of healing and reconciliation. The Right Reverend William Frey began serving as Assisting Bishop in 2008. His pastoral approach to parish visitations and liturgical duties has been warmly welcomed.
Though the separations in recent years of the three parishes and one mission, as well as several clergy, have resulted in a diocese of more moderate polity, sharp and deep division remains. At the same time, the Diocese remains firmly committed to remaining in the Episcopal Church USA, and is striving for a new vision for the Diocese.