Tennessee Diocesan Division Completed
Episcopal News Service. January 10, 1985 [85004]
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (DPS, Jan. 10) -- The 120-year-old dream of the Rt. Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, has finally come true. Feeling that smaller dioceses would allow the bishop to be closer to the parishes and people in them, in 1866 he proposed to the national Episcopal Church that the Diocese of Tennessee be divided in three, but the plan was not approved, then.
Now, more than 100 years later, the plan is being fulfilled, the 1982 General Convention having approved the diocese's request to divide into three dioceses through a two-step process.
The boundaries of the Diocese of Tennessee were originally contiguous with those of the state, but on Jan. 1, 1983, the Diocese of West Tennessee was formed to include the area between the Mississippi River and the western branch of the Tennessee River. Later that month, the Rt. Rev. Alex Dickson was elected first Bishop of West Tennessee.
The middle and eastern sections of the state remained as one continuing diocese from that time until Jan. 1 of this year, when the final division took effect.
The legal title, constitution and canons of the Diocese of Tennessee will be retained by the middle section of the state, which will continue its 155-year history, while the eastern section of the state becomes the new Diocese of East Tennessee.
The Rt. Rev. William E. Sanders, eighth bishop of the Diocese of Tennessee, had the choice of either remaining with the continuing diocese or becoming bishop of the new one. At the recent House of Bishops' meeting in Jackson, Miss., he stated his decision to become the first bishop of East Tennessee and resigned as bishop of the Diocese of Tennessee.
Middle Tennessee Episcopalians will meet in Nashville on Jan. 24-26 to elect the ninth bishop of Tennessee. More than 80 names were proposed, and a special committee on the episcopate has selected ten nominees from the original list. However, the annual convention may, if it chooses, propose other nominees on the convention floor, and will not necessarily elect one of the ten nominees.