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The Rev. Timothy Schenck took a seat in the small chapel at St. John the Evangelist Church in Hingham a few minutes before 10 a.m. Sunday. He blinked at the bright, studio-style lights set up before him, and helped himself to one more jolt of caffeine from a large thermos. “I hope you’re in your…

Retired Bishop Barbara Harris, the first woman to be ordained and consecrated as a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, died on Friday (March 13). She was 89. Harris died at a hospice house after a recent hospitalization. “Our hearts are truly heavy at the loss of one who has been a…

Barbara C. Harris, the first woman to be ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion, died Friday in Massachusetts. She was 89. She was elected as a suffragan, or assistant, bishop in September 1988. On Feb. 11, 1989, Harris was consecrated as a bishop in the…

Along the spiritual road to her groundbreaking role in the Episcopal Church, Barbara Clementine Harris was a volunteer prison chaplain who spent so much time praying with those behind bars that she could have tallied a two-year jail sentence of her own. It wasn’t enough for her, though. “I was…

This page collects Diocese of Massachusetts updates and information regarding ongoing COVID-19 response. Guidance and messages from our bishops & leadership The most recent updates and guidelines are linked below.  Find a complete list of&nbsp…

March 14, 2020 Dear People of the Diocese of Massachusetts, Yesterday I looked out at the city park beneath my window.  The usual Friday afternoon bustle was nowhere in evidence.  A surreal and eerie quiet had descended there, as it has on so much of our lives.  Two lonely…

"Bishop Harris was not large of physical stature. In fact, the opposite. But she was larger than life. She was larger than life because she lived it fully with her God and with us. She did it by actually living the love of God that Jesus taught us about. She did it walking the lonesome valley of…

It has been said that God's time and ours met on Feb. 11, 1989, when Barbara C. Harris became the first woman to be ordained a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion.  On that day, while the world watched, a woman donned the symbolic regalia of the church's highest order for the first time…

Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts Photo: David Zadig The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, at her historic consecration service on Feb. 11, 1989. The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, announced on March 13,…

Bishop Alan M. Gates issued the following pastoral guidance on March 12, 2020, which supplements directives issued on March 11, posted here.  A Spanish-language version is attached as a PDF below.  See a growing list of congregations live-streaming and podcasting services here. March 12,…