Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the five western counties of Massachusetts. Formed from a division of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, it was officially recognized at the organizing convention of November 10, 1901. At a special meeting on January 22, 1902, Alexander Hamilton Vinton, Rector of All Saints Church in Worcester, Massachusetts. was elected first diocesan bishop. The first two Anglican parishes in what would become the diocese were started in Great Barrington in 1762 and Lanesborough in 1767 on
Episcopal conference of episcopal conferences are currently governed by the 1983 Code of Canon Law (see especially canons 447-459) In addition, there are assemblies of bishops which include the bishops of different rites in a nation, both Eastern Catholic and Latin Catholic; these are described in canon 322 §2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The nature of episcopal conferences, and their magisterial authority in particular, was subsequently clarified by Pope John Paul II in his 1998 "motu proprio", "Apostolos suos", which stated that the declarations of such conferences "constitute authentic magisterium" when approved unanimously by the conference; otherwise