[1] The Diocese of Pittsburgh covers the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania and includes the current counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland.

In the mid-18th century this rich transmontane area drew the first Indian traders, exploring surveyors, military men and later settlers, many of whom were at least nominal Anglicans primarily from Maryland, eastern Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

The earliest penetration of the southwest corner of the state, then sparsely populated with Indians, was made by Episcopalians who set up posts in the 1740s along the Allegheny, Youghiogheny and Ohio Rivers.

[2] Young George Washington, already a Virginia vestryman, was guided by Gist when he came west to warn the French to withdraw from this region claimed by the British.

The French's refusal to leave led to invasion and capture of the tiny stockade built by Virginians at the future site of Pittsburgh in 1754.

Washington read the burial office from the 1662 Prayer Book in 1755[2] when British churchman General Edward Braddock, fatally wounded while attempting to drive the French from Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio, was carried back over Chestnut Ridge and buried in the middle of the wagon tracks of what would become US 40 in Fayette County.

The successful 1758 campaign of British churchman General John Forbes marked the end of French control of the region.

From then until the 1820s, the leadership of the scattered congregations established was mainly in the hands of the few early ministers who sought ordination as Episcopalians and rode wide itinerant circuits The first known Episcopal services led by ordained clergy were conducted by Francis Reno.

The Diocese grew under the successive leadership of Bishops John Barrett Kerfoot, Cortland Whitehead, Alexander Mann, Austin Pardue, and Robert Appleyard and developed several notable institutions: St. Margaret's Hospital, the Church Home (later Canterbury Place), St. Barnabas Community, and Sheldon Calvary Camp.

The diocese was known for its work among miners and steelworkers, and as the steel industry began its collapse in Pittsburgh offered a variety of programs supporting workers.

The committee designated by the Episcopal Church voted that the charges were substantive and the matter was put before the House of Bishops on September 18, 2008.

James Simons, appointed two additional members to the Standing Committee and informed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the situation.

On October 9, 2008, Jefferts Schori acknowledged the reorganized Standing Committee as the legitimate ecclesiastical authority of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The convention voted unanimously that the recent canonical changes were null and void and affirmed the diocese's communion in the Episcopal Church.

[18] The same day that the appellate Commonwealth Court issued its opinion, the Episcopal Diocese announced it had reached a property settlement with St. Philip's Church, Moon Township.

Over the next three years, the chapter included elected representatives from both dioceses and Jeremy Bonner served as a lay delegate to both the TEC and ACNA diocesan conventions.

The agreement confirms their titles but also recognized a beneficial trust interest of the Episcopal Diocese in all property held by the parishes on or before October 8, 2008.

Michael B. Curry held a revival in the diocese as part of The Presiding Bishop’s Pilgrimage for Reconciliation, Healing and Evangelism in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Bishop Curry's visit focused on evangelism and racial reconciliation with events scheduled at Calvary Church in East Liberty and Presbyterian-affiliated Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.