Shrine Mont in Orkney Springs, Virginia is also the site of a diocesan retreat and camp center.

These ministers were not only concerned for the spiritual lives of the colonists but also attempted (largely unsuccessfully) to convert the Native Americans.

To keep pace with the colony's growth, the Burgesses ordered each settlement to set aside a house or room as a place to hold regular worship services.

[5] After Virginia was made a royal colony in 1624, it would face an acute and serious clergy shortage until the end of the 17th century.

The shortage was fueled by an expanding population and insufficient clergy recruitment despite efforts to attract ministers by offering incentives, such as tax breaks.

The absence of North American bishops necessitated that colonists desiring ordination make the dangerous trip to and from England.

[5] In this vacuum, the legislature assumed some episcopal functions, such as outlining the responsibilities of clergymen and providing for their financial maintenance.

In addition to paying the minister's salary and building churches, the parish levy provided the vestry with funding for poor relief.

Vestries were in charge of road maintenance, presented moral offenders to the county courts, and determined the legal bounds of an individual's land.

[5] It was not until Henry Compton was appointed Bishop of London that the hierarchy of the English Church would address the problems in America.

Baptists especially resented the privileged status of the Anglican Church and laws requiring that the government license dissenting ministers.

According to the ministers' complaints, the people were sleeping, whispering, ogling the fashionably-dressed women, walking about and coming and going, or at best looking out the windows or staring blankly into space.

This allowed devout Anglicans to lead an active and sincere religious life in addition to the formal church services.

However the stress on private devotion weakened the need for a bishop or a large institutional church of the sort Blair wanted.

As public officials, ministers were required to swear loyalty to the state, breaking the Oath of Supremacy in the process.

In April 1784, a meeting of Virginia ministers asked the legislature to relinquish control over the church and to issue an act of incorporation.

In October, it passed an incorporation bill which placed the government of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the hands of an annual convention with both lay and clerical representatives.

The canons ensured that laity would participate in the trial of clergymen accused of misconduct and that bishops would have no authority except to oversee clerical conduct, perform confirmations and ordinations, and preside at the convention.

[9] After the Episcopal Church lost a challenge to the 1801 law, Bishop Madison focused on keeping the College of William and Mary going.