The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland forms part of Province 3 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is made up of the northern and central Maryland counties of Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington. It is one of the nine original Dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and traces its roots back to 1608 when Captain John Smith oversaw the first Christian worship in the upper Chesapeake Bay.
In 1780, a meeting in Chestertown, Maryland of Anglican clergy and laymen led to the formation of the Diocese of Maryland, and in 1789 the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America was founded. The diocese's first bishop, the Right Reverend Thomas John Claggett, was the first American Episcopal bishop consecrated in this country. Among notable historical events in the diocese is the first African-American Episcopal congregations in the South, St. James' Church, Baltimore. Another first among Maryland's bishops was the election of Bishop John Gardner Murray as Presiding Bishop. He was the first to be elected primate of the Episcopal Church, rather than inheriting the position as the senior member of the House of Bishops.
The diocese has been divided twice, first in 1868 when the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland became the Diocese of Easton, and in 1895 the District of Columbia and Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles and St. Mary's counties became the Diocese of Washington.
The Diocese of Maryland has 117 congregations (12 are missions, the rest are parishes), and membership of more than 44,200. The bishop's seat is at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Baltimore. On March 29, 2008, the Rev. Canon Eugene Taylor Sutton was elected 14th bishop of the diocese and consecrated June 28, 2008.
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