Diocesan.—The name given to a Bishop who presides over a Diocese.
The word also means relating or pertaining to a Diocese.
Diocesan Convention.—The annual gathering of the Bishop, Clergy and people of a Diocese. The Bishop and Clergy represent their own Order and the people are represented by delegates elected by the Vestries of the various parishes. The purpose of the Convention is to review the work of the past year; make provision for the work of the year following, and by legislative acts provide such laws as may further the purpose for which the Diocese exists. For cause special conventions may be called, a month's notice at least being given to the clergy, and to the parishes within the Diocese. (See CONVENTION.)
Diocesan Missions.—Church work done in a Diocese outside of its Parishes and having for its object the extension of the Church within the territorial limits of the Diocese, is called Diocesan Missions. This work is prompted by those words of our Lord {83} when He said, "Let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also; for therefore came I forth." The Diocese embraces all the people within its limits and for them all it has a message and a blessing. For the deliverance of this message and the bestowal of this blessing all, both Clergy and Laity, have responsibilities and therefore the Church turns to them for the means whereby this work can be carried on. The support of Diocesan Missions is as obligatory on all members of the Church as the support of the Bishop or their own Parish, and to this all will contribute annually if they love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and truth. (See CONVOCATION.)
Diptychs.—In the early ages of the Church it was customary to recite in holy commemoration the names of eminent Bishops, of Saints and Martyrs; the names of those who had lived righteously and had attained the perfection of a virtuous life. For this purpose the Church possessed certain books, called diptychs, from their being folded together, and in which the names of such persons "departed in the true faith," were written that the Deacon might rehearse them at the time when the memorial of the departed was made at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. This was done to excite and lead the living to the same happy state by following their good example; and also to celebrate the memory of them as still living, according to the principles of our Religion, and not properly dead, but only translated by death to a more Divine Life. To this custom is to be traced the origin of the Christian CALENDAR (which see). In many parishes at the present time a similar {84} custom obtains, of reciting at the Holy Communion on All Saints' Day the names of parishioners who, during the year, have departed in the true faith of God's Holy Name.
Discretion, Years of.—In the Prayer Book the Rite of Confirmation is described as "The Laying on of Hands on those who are Baptized and come to years of Discretion." The phrase "years of discretion" is defined in the Rubric at the end of The Catechism, as follows, "So soon as children are come to a competent age and can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, and can answer the other questions of this Short Catechism, they shall be brought to the Bishop." According to the modern capacity of children, they are able to learn what is required by the time they are from twelve to fourteen years old; but if they are quick and intelligent children, they will probably be ready to "be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him" at an even earlier age. From immemorial usage this is evidently the intention of the Church.
Dispensation.—A formal license, granted by ecclesiastical authority, to do something which is not ordinarily permitted by the canons, or to leave undone something that may be prescribed. In the American Canons, dispensation has special reference to an official act by the Bishop whereby he may excuse candidates for Holy Orders from pursuing certain studies required by canon.
Divine Liturgy.—(See HOLY COMMUNION, also LITURGY.)
Divine Service.—In the old rubrical usage of the {85} Church, "Divine Service" always meant the Holy Communion, which was also called the Divine Liturgy. The central point of all Divine Worship, towards which all other services gravitate, and around which they revolve, like planets around the sun, is the great sacrificial act of the Church, the offering of the Blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood.
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.—This society is the largest and most influential working organization in the American Church. By means of it the Church shows how aggressive she is, for it has enabled her to place Bishops and Missionaries in many of the States and in all the Territories in the Union and also in foreign lands. This society is the Church's established agency, under the authority and direction of the General Convention, for the prosecution of missions among the negroes of the South, the Indians in the North, the people in the New States and Territories in the West and in some of the older Dioceses; in all the Society maintains work in forty-three Dioceses and seventeen Missionary Jurisdictions in this country. It also conducts missions among the nations in Africa, China, Japan, Haiti, Mexico, Porto Rico and the Philippines. It pays the salary and expenses of twenty-three Missionary Bishops and the Bishop of Haiti, and provides entire or partial support for sixteen hundred and thirty (1,630) other missionaries, besides maintaining many schools, orphanages and hospitals. For the prosecution of this work the Society expends about $700,000 a year, which amount it expects to receive from the devotions of the faithful. The Society should be {86} remembered in making wills, and its constant needs should never be forgotten since it must regularly each and every year provide for so great a work.
The legal title of this important society is, "The Domestic and
Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
the United States of America." The Society was organized by the
General Convention in 1821 and incorporated by the State of New
York, May 13th, 1846, and is organized as follows: