A Brief History
World Wars, Depression, and Boom, 1918–1949
The episcopates of Irving Peake Johnson (1918–1938) and Fred B. Ingley (1938–1949) spanned the two world wars bracketing the Great Depression—times of sacrifice and deprivation but also of expansion.
As a professor of church history at Seabury Seminary, Johnson was consecrated Coadjutor in 1917 and Bishop in 1918; he served until 1946. Warmly welcomed in Colorado, Johnson became known across the country for his speaking ability, ripe sense of humor, and his editorship of The Witness magazine.
Consecrated Coadjutor in 1921 and Bishop in 1946, Ingley served until 1949. He had been rector of St. Mark's Denver, a pretty stone church just blocks from the Cathedral. The now-decommissioned church (and nightclub) had been called the "Bishop's Church" after Bishop Spalding, its first rector.
During this period the diocese saw significant gains in the number of communicants, increasing to 16,000. This was matched by a 300 percent increase in giving, balanced against a decrease in clergy from 72 to 58, and of congregations from 108 to 57.
