Episcopal polity Apostle. Currently the bishops of the Assyrian Church of the East continue to maintain its apostolic succession. Anglicanism is the most prominent of the Reformation traditions to lay claim to the historic episcopate through apostolic succession in terms comparable to the various Roman Catholic and Orthodox Communions. Anglicans assert unbroken episcopal succession in and through the Church of England back to St. Augustine of Canterbury and to the first century Roman province of Britannia. While some Celtic Christian practices were changed at the Synod of Whitby, the church in the British Isles was under papal authority from earliest times. The
Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania and the growth of the church necessitated reorganization. In 1865, a new Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh took responsibility for every parish west of the Alleghenies. By 1910 there were five Episcopal dioceses in Pennsylvania, and the Diocese of Pennsylvania covered only the southeastern corner of the commonwealth. But the bulk of Pennsylvania’s Episcopalians lived there - in Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties. Throughout its history, the Diocese of Pennsylvania has been subject to what some might call countervailing forces. On such important matters as governance, worship, and doctrine, it has struggled to resolve differences. The Episcopal Church itself