Episcopal Diocese of Missouri

Specialties

Making Disciples

Building Congregations

For the Life of the World

The Mission of the Diocese of Missouri is the mission of all baptized Christians: to teach and to spread the Gospel and its knowledge of salvation to all people; and to make the love of Christ known in the world through our own actions as individuals, as congregations, and as the Diocese, by feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, visiting the prisoner, and comforting those in times of trouble.

History

Established in 1841.

There are 44 congregations in the Diocese; 31 are parishes and 13 are organized missions At the 170^th Convention of the Diocese in November 2009, Church of the Transfiguration in Lake St. Louis was admitted as a parish. A parish is financially self supporting. Typically the lead cleric at a parish is a Rector, and at a mission is a Vicar.

According to the 2010 Parochial Reports, there are 12,603 active members in the diocese. The 25 congregations in the metropolitan St. Louis area have approximately 78 percent of the communicants. The Tables of Statistics for all dioceses in the Episcopal Church, including the Diocese of Missouri, are maintained online.

Meet the Manager

The Rt. Rev. George W. Smith S.

Manager

The Rt. Rev. George Wayne Smith is the tenth bishop of Missouri. He was elected on the third ballot from a slate of four candidates on Nov. 3, 2001, and was consecrated on March 6, 2002. He served as bishop coadjutor to the Rt. Rev. Hays Rockwell and succeeded him on June 6, 2002.

Before his election, Bishop Smith was rector of St. Andrew’s in Des Moines, Iowa, and had previously served congregations in Michigan and Texas. He was ordained a deacon in 1981 and a priest in 1982 for the Diocese of Northwest Texas following graduation from seminary at Nashotah House in 1981.

A native of Abilene, Texas, he was born Jan. 29, 1955. Raised a Baptist, he was a student at Baylor University when he became an Episcopalian. He graduated from Baylor with a master’s of arts in 1978. He earned his doctorate in ministry from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., in 1993.