Anglicans in North Jersey: The Episcopal Diocese of Newark

Many Americans have walked through the traditionally massive red doors of a parish that is part of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, itself a part of the larger worldwide Anglican Communion that has its roots in England. One of the best known, and one of the world’s largest, is the National Cathedral in the nation’s capital. But perhaps nowhere is the history of this storied religious institution more evident than in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, which can trace its beginnings to 1729 and would later claim a pioneering role in civil rights and the ordination of women. At St. Paul’s in Paterson, the front pews were once lined with the families of millionaires, a reflection of the city’s onetime industrial might. At the Church of the Annunciation in Oradell, a boy by the name of Walter M. Schirra Jr. once attended Sunday school. He would later become one of the original seven Mercury astronauts. Anglicans in North Jersey: The Episcopal Diocese of Newark documents many of the diocese’s 114 parishes, places of spiritual life that dot the northern New Jersey landscape.