Bishops of Maine

Henry Adams Neely, second Bishop of Maine, was born in 1830. He studied at Hobart College and graduated in 1849. In 1866, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity from Hobart. Neely was ordained deacon in 1852 and ordained a priest in 1854 in Utica, New York. Neely served as rector of Calvary Church in Utica, New York, rector of Christ Church in Rochester, New York, as chaplain at Hobart College, and at Trinity Church in New York City.

Neely was elected Bishop of Maine in 1866 and was consecrated on January 25, 1867. It was during Bishop Neely’s episcopacy that St. Luke’s Cathedral Church was built in Portland. Upon its completion, St Luke's Cathedral was consecrated by Bishop Neely on October 18, 1877. 

Neely also presided over the founding of Episcopal schools as well as the predecessor to the Episcopal Church Women, and a lively growth of missions in the central, eastern, and northern sectors of the state. During his watch, the diocesan paper, The Northeast, the oldest in the country, was established.

Bishop Neely died in office in 1899.

Henry A. Neely, Second Bishop of Maine Portrait Photograph