The late 19th and early 20th centuries brought growth to the Episcopal Church in Georgia. From 1893–1906, the diocese went from 88 missions to 108 and from 6,292 communicants to 9,229. During that same time period, congregations built sixty-two church buildings. In many ways, this was all according to plan. The idea at the time of Bishop C.K. Nelson’s election as the third Bishop of Georgia, the scope of the call was seen as two big for one person, but not yet enough work for two. The hope was that growing the number of congregations and parishioners could lead to two dioceses in the state, each better served by having two bishops in the state. Similar church growth was leading to states splitting into more than one dioceses elsewhere in the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Nelson would tell the convention that the need for two diocesan bishops was largely one of authority, “Observation and experience have convinced me that no arrangement of agent, Archdeacon or Coadjutor will ever satisfy the demands among these people who are most amenable when brought into direct touch with the authoritative head of affairs, but do not heed an intermediary.”
It took 15 years of sustained work by Bishop Nelson to get the Episcopal Church in Georgia to that point. In his annual address to the Convention of 1906, he referred again to the proposed separation as he had for a number of years. Following a brief summary of the amount of time devoted to his work in the preceding year, he remarked: “I am more than ever impressed with the economy to the Church which would result from a division of labor that would give me a part, at least, of the 65 days (of twenty-four hours each) spent on the cars and at railroad stations …. It is my solemn belief that no man reading these details [of my duties] would hesitate a moment in forming a conviction as to the necessity of erecting two Dioceses out of Georgia.”
In further justification of the separation, the Bishop offered some statistics comparing Georgia with other Dioceses. He pointed out that nine other Dioceses had half as many clergy as Georgia, that twenty-nine had half as many parishes and missions, and that eighteen had half as many communicants. When the plan for division came forward in 1907, there would be 28 parishes and missions in the Diocese to the north and 24 parishes and missions in the southern division. The amount of income from each part of the division was nearly identical, yet all knew that the northwest portion of the state was set to grow at a faster rate than more rural central and south Georgia.
The Diocese of Atlanta was set apart from the Diocese of Georgia in 1907 with Nelson serving as its first Bishop. Nelson would die on February 12, 1917 at the age of 65. He had served as a bishop for 25 years. The Diocese of Georgia’s first item of business would be to elect a successor to Bishop Nelson.
Pictured: Bishop C.K. Nelson.
