What the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas Includes and How It Is Organized

Updated

The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas is the Episcopal Church's regional body for the eastern half of Kansas, and its website (episcopal-ks.org) presents it as a set of connected parts: a bishop and diocesan staff, geographic convocations, "minsters" (clusters of congregations), task forces, affiliated institutions, and ministries. You can see the full scope by browsing the site's main menu, which links each of these areas. The structure below reflects what the site itself lists; it is an overview of how the diocese describes its own organization, not an independent audit.

Leadership and governance

The diocese is led by a bishop. The site's menu includes a Bishop Search section, indicating a search process for the next bishop, alongside About > Previous Bishops of Kansas, which records the line of past bishops. Governance and administration pages include:

  • Staff Directory — diocesan staff contacts
  • Council of Trustees and Council of Trustees Minutes — trustee body and its records
  • Diocesan Directory — directory of the diocese
  • Constitution and Canons — governing documents
  • Policies, including Safe Church Guidelines and Supply Clergy
  • Transition Ministry (Jobs), split into Clergy Positions and Lay Positions

Geographic and congregational groupings

Two grouping layers appear in the menu:

  • Convocations — regional groupings of congregations within the diocese.
  • Minsters — the site lists "Minsters" as a top-level menu item and again under About, suggesting minsters are clusters of churches that share ministry. The site does not spell out each minster's member congregations in the menu text, so use the Minsters page to see the current list.

To locate a specific congregation, the site provides Find a Church in the main menu and footer.

Task forces

The Task Forces section lists working groups focused on particular areas of diocesan life:

  • Children's Ministries Task Force
  • Creation Care Task Force (with a Care of Creation Liturgical Resources page)
  • Congregational Vitality Task Force
  • Global Partnerships Task Force
  • Justice
  • Welcome and Inclusion Task Force
  • Leadership Capacity Task Force
  • Liturgy, Music and the Arts Task Force (also linked to Authorized Liturgical Resources and Communion in the Absence of a Priest)
  • Mission & Outreach Task Force
  • Youth & Young Adult Task Force

Affiliated institutions and ministries

Under About the Episcopal Church > Affiliated Institutions and the Ministries menu, the site lists:

  • Alleluia Fund and Grants
  • The Bethany Community of Saints and Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
  • Bethany House and Garden
  • Bishop Kemper School for Ministry
  • Celebrate LGBTQ+
  • Education for Ministry, offered as EfM: Classic and EfM: Wide Angle
  • Episcopal Church Women
  • Haiti Ministry
  • Kansas to Kenya
  • Nepal Work
  • Spiritual Life
  • Youth, Young Adult and Campus Ministry

The Haiti and Kenya entries are the diocese's international partnerships; "Kansas to Kenya" names the relationship directly.

Resources, news, and events

The Resources menu covers practical material: Cycle of Prayer, Diocesan Directory, Forms, Health Insurance, Journals, Liturgical Resources, the Ordination Process (with Commission on Ministry and separate Diaconate and Priesthood tracks), The Way of Love, and Vestry Resources including Mutual Ministry Reviews.

For news and events, the site publishes DioLog – e-Newsletter, The Harvest (with issues dated through August 2026 and a past-issue archive), a Diocesan Calendar, Diocesan News, an Episcopal Podcast, and Episcopal News Service links. A Subscribe page exists for newsletter sign-ups; the site does not state terms or costs there, so check the page itself before subscribing.

Convention material is grouped under Convention, with Diocesan Convention 2026, General Convention (81st in 2024, 80th in 2022), and Previous Diocesan Conventions for 2021–2025, plus Journals.

How to use this structure

If you want to understand the diocese as a whole, start with About the Diocese and History, then read Convocations and Minsters to see how congregations are grouped. If you are looking for a church, use Find a Church. If you are looking for a specific kind of involvement — international partnership, creation care, youth work, or ordained ministry — go directly to the matching ministry or task force page rather than reading the menu top to bottom.