Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming - Missionary Bishops

Missionary Bishops

The Missionary District of Idaho and Wyoming was created by the General Convention of October 1886. The first missionary bishop, whom the Diocese of Wyoming counts as its first diocesan bishop, was the Rt. Rev. Ethelbert Talbot, a pioneering bishop who went on to become Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania (subsequently the Diocese of Bethlehem) and Presiding Bishop from 1924-1926.

From 1898-1909 the Episcopal Church in Wyoming was overseen by bishops with other responsibilities. Following Bishop Talbot's resignation in 1898, the General Convention, meeting in October that year, added Wyoming to the district overseen by the Rt. Rev. Anson Rogers Graves, who had been elected First Missionary Bishop of Nebraska in 1889. Bishop Graves oversaw the diocese concurrently with his work in Nebraska until October 1907. Thereafter the Rt. Rev. James B. Funsten, First Bishop of the Missionary District of Boise in Idaho since 1899, and First Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho from 1907-1918 had oversight of the Diocese until the consecration and installation of Bishop Nathaniel Thomas in October 1909. Bishop Thomas is counted as the second diocesan.