History of the Catholic Church in the United States British-America-born Catholic priest. In 1788, after the Revolution, John Jay urged the New York Legislature to require office-holders to renounce foreign authorities "in all matters ecclesiastical as well as civil." In one state, North Carolina, the Protestant test oath would not be changed until 1868. The Catholic population of the United States, which had been 35,000 in 1790, increased to 195,000 in 1820 and then ballooned to about 1.6 million in 1850, by which time, Catholics had become the country’s largest denomination. Between 1860 and 1890 the population of Roman Catholics in the United States tripled primarily through immigration and
Province 8 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Province 8 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Province 8 (VIII) is one of nine ecclesiastical provinces making up the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is composed of sixteen dioceses in the nine states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Also part of the province are the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan, which has been a diocese of the Church since 1960; and the Navajoland Area Mission which was established in 1979 to serve the specific spiritual and cultural needs of the Navajo Nation. The province encompasses more