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Bishop of the Michigan Diocese of the Episcopal Church, 1906-1923, and advocate of the "social gospel" views of Walter Rauschenbusch. Papers consist of correspondence, notebooks on labor and social issues, and biographical material.

The papers of Charles D. Williams, Episcopal bishop of Michigan, include correspondence concerning personal and church affairs and the social gospel movement, including correspondence with Walter Rauschenbush, Samuel Mather, and Lucretia Garfield; also sermons and addresses, 1885-1923, journals of European trips, 1896, 1917, and 1921, notebooks on social and labor problems, material on the 1908 forest fire at Metz, Michigan (Presque Isle County), and material on the Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio in 1898; biographical writings by his sons, Benedict Williams, his wife Lucy V. Williams, and his secretary, Charles O. Ford; letters of condolence from fellow clergy, including Reinhold Niebuhr; also photographs.

Governing body of the Episcopal church in western Michigan, established in 1874; records include bishops' files, diocesan organization and committee files, photographs, scrapbooks, diocesan historian files.

The records of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan are a rich resource of material, not only for the programs and activities of the Episcopal Church in western Michigan, but also for their documentation of the role of the church in the life of the various communities served by the diocese.

Records from the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan first came to the Bentley Historical Library in 1972. Since then, the diocese has made several significant additions to their records. In 1999 the record group was reprocessed with the aim of drawing together like materials. The record group now consists of twenty-two separate series. These are: Bishop's Files, Chancellor, Treasurer, Diocesan Historiographer, Standing Committee Files, Miscellaneous Files, Diocesan Record Books, Publicity Files, Defunct Parish and Mission Churches Files, Diocesan Committee Files, Diocesan Organization Files, Diocesan Financial Records, Visual Materials, Sound Recordings, Scrapbooks, Western Michigan University (WMU) Ministry Files, Women's Organizations, Miscellaneous office and staff files Bulletins of Church Services, Church of Christ the King, Miscellaneous parish materials, and Miscellaneous diocesan materials.