All Saints' history started in 1884 in the Episcopal Church in Florida (1838). Here is a brief story of the growth of our parish and the Diocese of Central Florida.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ALL SAINTS' EPISCOPAL CHURCH

All Saints' in the 1880's

When the Rev. Curtis retired in 1922, the membership stood at over 200, and issues of space had become paramount. The new rector, the Rev. G. Irvine Hiller, led the parish in choosing to build, instead of a new parish hall, a new church. Thus, the wooden church, which had served since Acton days, was demolished. Its furnishings, including the altar carved by the Rev. Weddell, were incorporated into the St. Mary's Chapel of the new Spanish Revival building, which could accommodate 400 at worship.

All Saints' in 1992 All Saints' in 2008

In 2006 the Westminster Chime project was completed. Four beautiful new bells made in France now hang in the bell tower and are used for a variety of church functions.

In 2007, the youth hall was completely renovated for the activities of the 6-12th graders. Plans are now being completed to replace this building with a four-story multi-purpose building.
 

Outreach and mission is prioritized in activities as wide ranging as redevelopment of neighborhoods, building for the needy, sending out teams to mission fields, and building a new Episcopal mission in Lakeland.

As a new age dawns, All Saints' looks back over a century of accomplishments. Consistently blessed with loyal leadership, it has had only one vicar and six rectors since 1884.

Dedicated clergy and lay leadership have lived the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

The Episcopal Church in Florida

The first Convention of the Episcopal Church in Florida was held in Tallahassee on January 17, 1838. At that time, there were seven congregations in the entire state. Somewhat over half a century later, the Church had grown enough to be divided into the Diocese of Florida and the Missionary Jurisdiction of Southern Florida.

At the time of the division in 1892, there were five parishes, 40 organized missions and 11 mission stations in the new Jurisdiction. Its primary Convention was held on February 21, 1893 at Holy Cross Church in Sanford, presided over by its first bishop, William Crane Gray.

Despite devastating freezes, a plague, the Spanish-American War, and World War I, the church continued to grow in Florida. Only a few short years after World War I, there were enough healthy congregations for the Missionary Jurisdiction of Southern Florida to apply for admission as a diocese. In September, 1922, the Diocese of Southern Florida was formally admitted, and on January 16, 1923, the primary Convention of the new Diocese was held at St. Luke's Cathedral with the Bishop, Cameron Mann presiding.

During the next four and one half decades, the Church grew rapidly, especially after World War II. In the 1950's alone, 74 new congregations were started in the Diocese of South Florida, and 25 of these had become parishes by 1966. At the time the Diocese applied to General Convention for division, there were 204 congregations served by 250 priests and three bishops. The Special General Convention of 1969 approved the request for the division of South Florida into three dioceses, and in December of that year, Bishop Henry I. Louttit, Bishop of South Florida presided over the primary Conventions of each new diocese - Southeast Florida, Southwest Florida, and Central Florida - for the purpose of electing their Diocesan Bishops.

The two Suffragan Bishops were elected to be Diocesan Bishops in the areas in which they had been living and serving. Bishop William H. Folwell was elected to succeed Bishop Louttit whose retirement coincided with Bishop Folwell's consecration.

In the early 1970s, that portion of the Diocese of Florida from Apalachicola west became a part of the newly created Central Gulf Coast Diocese, which also includes the southeast half of Alabama. Thus, it has come about that the fledgling Church of seven congregations of over a century and a half ago in the State of Florida, is now comprised of five healthy and growing dioceses.

History of the Diocese of Central Florida
by Beatrice Wilder, Diocesan Historian
April 2008

On the morning of January 5, 1893, Bishop William Crane Gray reached Orlando, the day and place appointed for the meeting of “The Southern Convocation.” The Bishop was fresh from his consecration at the Church of the Advent, Nashville, Tennessee, his former parish. After celebrating the Eucharist at St. Luke’s Church, he presided over the business meeting which set the 2lst of February as the date for organizing the newly formed Missionary Jurisdiction of Southern Florida. That same evening a missionary meeting was held and offerings taken for the mission work of the Jurisdiction.

“This is emphatically a missionary field,” the Bishop declared in his address to the Convocation at the close of his first year. Emphasis on the Church’s mission and on missionaries to proclaim it, has characterized the Church in Central Florida ever since.

During his first year as Chief Missionary, Bishop Gray reported, “I have traveled between eight and nine thousand miles in traversing my territory…I have confirmed two hundred and thirty-five persons. I cannot tell accurately the number of services, sermons and addresses I have had, but it is somewhere between three hundred and five hundred…However inadequate the results may appear in contrast with the work done, I am hopeful and can truly say, I thank God and take courage.”

“Inadequate” hardly describes Bishop Gray’s efforts during the next two decades. He began his episcopate with 20 clergy; when he retired in 1913 there were 46; the number of communicants had  doubled two and a half times from 2,000 to 5,000; he had confirmed 5,000 persons and visited more than 100 places; the number of parishes had increased from five to twelve. The Bishop tendered his resignation at the age of 79 so that a younger and stronger man “with all the force and ability” needed to meet the demands of the future, might continue to forward the work of the Church.

So much had changed during these two decades. “When I first visited Tampa,” said the Bishop, “no one considered the population of the entire environment to be more than 5,000; now it is beyond 60, 000. The railroad extension on the east side has opened stations and multiplied settlements, where my first journeys could find only vast stretches of woods and forests, plains and prairies and miles and miles of coral rock region. Now all these portions have been marvelously changed, and are bristling with life, activity and striking improvement…Men, women and children from distant regions are flocking to this sunny land, and we should be among the first to answer the call, “Come over and help us.” (Acts 16:9)

From the first, Bishop Gray hoped to hasten the day of independence for his jurisdiction and a fund was established for that purpose. But the times were not auspicious. There was a financial “panic” in l893 and the Great Freeze of 189-1895 in Florida, which destroyed the citrus crop as far south as Palm Beach frustrating the Bishop’s efforts. It was left for his successor, Cameron Mann, to accomplish this goal.

An Upstate New Yorker, notable scholar, and former Missionary Bishop of North Dakota, Mann was also an astute financial manager. Just thirty years after the separation from the Diocese of Florida missionary status gave way to the independence of a diocese.  Renamed the “Diocese of South Florida”, the First Annual Convention met in St. Luke’s Cathedral, Orlando, on January 16, 1923. The new diocese was destined to be one of the strongest and most unified in the entire South.

Bishop Mann was a prophet for his times, but he speaks to the present also. “I need hardly remind you,” he told the 1925 Diocesan Convention, “that we are living in a feverish and tumultuous world – a world of bewildering physical discoveries and inventions; a world of incalculably increasing material wealth; but also a world of perplexing debates over what used to be deemed axioms; a world of wild political dreams; also a world of suspicions and jealousies and fears…nor do I need do more than barely say that here in South Florida we have peculiar distractions – that there is a roar of business speculations, and a roar equally loud of amusements and sports all around us. It is hard to live ‘a sober, righteous and godly life’ amid all these mundane distractions.” And this was half a century before Disney World, the Magic, and the Daytona 500!

John Durham Wing became our first Bishop Coadjutor in 1925, becoming Diocesan in 1932 upon the death of Bishop Mann. Born in Atlanta, he was well known to many Floridians, especially as a forceful preacher who had been chosen to conduct a missionary campaign in the diocese by the National Church as part of its nationwide program. Therefore, it was natural for him to be entrusted by Bishop Mann with the missionary work of the diocese.

Wing’s 25 years in office were marked by economic extremes, beginning with the Florida boom in 1925 and its collapse a year later. Then came the Great Depression of 1929 to be followed by the remarkable prosperity of the World War II years, when Florida became a strategic area for national defense. Later came the postwar expansion and the outpouring of population and industry into the region. The growth of the diocese more than kept pace with this fantastic influx. The number of communicants soared by 227 percent during Bishop Wing’s tenure. It continued to climb for the next quarter century under his successor, Henry Irving Louttit.

Elected Suffragan in 1945 while still serving as an Army chaplain in the Pacific, Louttit had been ordained deacon, priest, and consecrated bishop by his predecessor. He became Diocesan at the close of 1950 upon the resignation of Bishop Wing. An ardent and energetic missionary, Bishop Louttit was to bring the diocese to unparalleled heights of growth during the next two decades. A new mission was established every six weeks during the first half of his Episcopate, and it became necessary to restructure the diocese, creating three Archdeaneries. The East Coast and the Gulf Coast were each in the care of newly elected Suffragans, while Bishop Louttit retained control of the Central Archdeanery and supervision of the entire diocese.

By the close of the ‘60s the roster of parishes and missions more than topped the 200-mark and continued to climb. The diocese, it appeared, had become too large and unwieldy for effective care and administration. A committee to study division of the diocese was appointed and met for three years. Their conclusion, favoring division, was supported by Diocesan Convention and a petition to create three new dioceses was forwarded to the Special General Convention of the National Church, meeting at South Bend, Indiana, in September, 1969. The petition granted, the newly formed dioceses were structured along the lines of the existing Archdeaneries and organized as the Diocese of Southeast Florida, Southwest Florida, and Central Florida, the latter remaining the continuing diocese. William Hopkins Folwell, Rector of All Saints Church, Winter Park, who had chaired the committee that studied division, became Central Florida’s bishop and was consecrated in February 1970.

The Episcopal Church in Central Florida has never lost sight of its primary purpose, defined in its Constitution, to advance the Kingdom of Christ in the world. Under Bishop Folwell a dozen new missions were established and a number of mission congregations became parishes. The work of evangelism continues under Bishop John Wadsworth Howe, who was consecrated Coadjutor in April 1989 and became diocesan in January 1990 upon his predecessor’s retirement.

At his first Diocesan Convention Bishop Howe called for the development of a Plan for Outreach. Evangelism and Mission that was accepted the following year by the delegates, who further mandated its implementation. The Resolution stated: “In response to the Divine Commission, the call of General Convention, and the Lambeth Conference to a Decade of Evangelism, we the people of the Diocese of Central Florida do solemnly endeavor to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit in such ways that persons may be led to believe in Him as Savior, and follow Him as Lord in the fellowship of His Church.”

Among the priorities set were the establishment of new mission churches to minister to the growing population; doubling our membership; and increasing our congregations by 15 more churches by the end of the decade.

The past hundred years have witnessed the evolution of Florida from a rural to an urban culture. The fourth largest state in population, edging out New York to become the third, it has nine of the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan areas, five of them in the Diocese of Central Florida. A century ago there were a little over 2,000 communicants in the vast Jurisdiction stretching from Ocala to Key West. Now there are close to 30,000 in one-third of that area.

The field is ripe for harvest. William Crane Gray, our first bishop, said, “Take courage.” Our present bishop, John Wadsworth Howe, says, “Let’s get on with it."