ABOUT AGR

[In 1894 the Church Missions House was constructed at 281 Fourth Avenue – eventually renamed Park Avenue South – to house the Episcopal Church's Board of Missions (consisting of 30 members divided into two separate committees which oversaw domestic and foreign missionary work). The 1919 General Convention reorganized the governmental structure of the church and of the position of Presiding Bishop, and created the National Council of the Episcopal Church. The position of Presiding Bishop was heretofore accorded to the senior member (in consecration number) of the House of Bishops; however, that convention ruled that the position of Presiding Bishop would become an elected position from among the diocesans of that house. The first such election took place at the 1925 General Convention and the first elected Presiding Bishop (the Rt. Rev. John Gardner Murray, Bishop of Maryland) took office as Presiding Bishop on January 1, 1926.]

by James E. Teets, BSG