Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire


The Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America encompassing the northwestern third of Wisconsin. It is part of Province 5. The faith community comprises 20 interdependent congregations, mostly small and rural. The see and diocesan offices are in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, with Christ Church Cathedral as the mother church. Christ Church in La Crosse is the largest church in the diocese.

History

The roots of the Diocese of Eau Claire begin in 1822 when the Oneida Indians, removing from New York state, settled near Green Bay. The First Annual Council of the Diocese of Wisconsin met in Milwaukee in 1847. In 1874, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church erected the Diocese of Fond du Lac from the Fond du Lac Deanery of the Diocese of Wisconsin. The remaining counties continued as the Diocese of Wisconsin until 1888, when it was renamed the Diocese of Milwaukee. Growth, time, and distance led to the erection of a third Wisconsin diocese. The Diocese of Eau Claire was created from counties of both the Diocese of Milwaukee and Diocese of Fond du Lac in 1928.
On October 22, 2011, the Diocese of Fond du Lac and the Diocese of Eau Claire voted to "junction" into one diocese. However, Russell Jacobus, Bishop of Fond du Lac withheld consent because of the closeness and irregularities of the vote.

Bishops

On August 28, 2010, a special convention in the diocese elected Edwin M. Leidel, Jr. to be the Bishop Provisional. The diocese had been without a bishop since April 2008.
On May 1, 2012 the Diocesan Bishop Search Committee announced it was accepting applications for the sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Eau Claire.
On November 10, 2012 William Jay Lambert III was elected as the next Bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire.
On March 16, 2013 Katharine Jefferts Schori presided over the consecration of William Jay Lambert III at Christ Church Cathedral, Eau Claire, Wisconsin as the Sixth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire.
Bishops who served the Diocese of Wisconsin:
  1. Jackson Kemper
  2. William Edmond Armitage
  3. Edward Randolph Welles
Bishops who served the Diocese of Milwaukee, prior to creation of the Diocese of Eau Claire:
  1. Cyrus Frederick Knight 1889-91
  2. Isaac Lea Nicholson 1891-1906
  3. William Walter Webb 1906-33
Bishops who served the Diocese of Eau Claire:
  1. Frank Elmer Wilson, First Bishop of Eau Claire, 1929-1944
  2. William Wallace Horstick, Second Bishop of Eau Claire, June 29, 1944 - Resigned Dec 31, 1969
  3. Stanley Hamilton Atkins, Third Bishop of Eau Claire, 1970-1980
  4. William C. Wantland, Fourth Bishop of Eau Claire, 1980-1999
  5. Keith B. Whitmore, Fifth Bishop of Eau Claire, 1999-2008
  1. William Jay Lambert III, Sixth Bishop