Today The American Episcopal Church remembered William White, 1747-1836: First Bishop of Pennsylvania

                                        Psalm 31:19, modified 

How great is 

your goodness, 

O Lord! 

which you 

have laid up

for those 

who love you; 

which you have done in the sight of all…  

Bishop White was the chief architect of the Episcopal Church’s constitution & it’s first Presiding Bishop for
several months in 1789, then again for 40 years, from 1795 until his death in 1836. 

Our 26th Presiding Bishop, elected 

at the General Convention in 2005 

is Katherine Efforts Schori 

and our new Presiding Bishop elect, # 27, is Michael Curry 
elected this year, who will 
begin serving November 1 on the Feats of All Saints. 

We’ve come a long way, no mater how far we have to go.  When William White was our PB , slavery was the law of the land and women were not even delegates to the Convention, much less ordain-ed! It was William White who in 1804 ordained Absalom Jones our first African American priest.