Arthur E. Walmsley

Walmsley was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on May 4, 1928. He attended Trinity College in Hartford. Graduating cum laude from the Episcopal Theological School in 1951, he was ordained a deacon that year, and priest in 1952 by the Rt. Rev. Arthur Lichtenberger, then of Missouri. Following his ordination, he served inner city churches in St. Louis for the next seven years. In 1958, he moved to the staff of the national Executive Council of the Episcopal Church as executive of the Division of Christian Citizenship, and later as Assistant Director of the Department of Social Relations, and Episcopal staff member of the National Council of Churches Commission on Religion and Race during the turbulent decade of the 1960s. He later resigned staff functions when the General Convention Special Program was adopted favoring black leadership. He has the distinction of having been one of the architects of the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity and the National Conference on Religion and Race.

Subsequently, Walmsley served as priest-in-charge at Grace Church, Amherst, and Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, where he pioneered work in industrial mission, ecumenical dialogue, and inter-seminary cooperation. In 1972, he was named deputy to the rector of Trinity Parish, New York City, and a year and a half later he was called as rector of St. Paul’s Church, New Haven, where he also served as President of the Downtown Cooperative Ministry a cluster of center city churches.

Bishop Walmsley’s career covered a turbulent half century in the life of the Episcopal Church. He devoted himself in particular to the church's mission in a rapidly changing society, serving inner-city parishes and supporting a range of social ministries, including Episcopal Social Services, Integrated Refugee Ministries, Urban Bishops’ Coalition and pioneer work to HIV-AIDs sufferers. An abiding interest is the relationship of race and the Episcopal Church and the role of the Church in the civil rights movement. For a decade, he worked as a staff aide to three Presiding Bishops, and gave oversight to the church's social witness during the civil rights and Vietnam War struggles of the 1960s. In one capacity or another, he played an active role in other defining issues faced by the Episcopal Church - the revision of the Book of Common Prayer, the ordination of women, the selection of the first woman bishop. As Bishop of Connecticut from 1979 to 1993, he was chairman of the Council of Advice to Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning in emerging conflicts over the church's response to its gay and lesbian members. He was a member of the which ruled on the possible trial of Bishop Walter Righter in the ordination of a gay man. He has helped craft the Episcopal Church's response to the Millennium Development Goals as a defining thrust of global reconciliation in the missio dei, ¹ He is a founding member of the Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission, later organized as Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, 2005.

His publications include The Church in a Society of Abundance (Seabury Press, 1963); numerous periodical contributions and papers; and the editorship of the daily General Convention newspaper, Issues, in 1970, 1973, and 1976. He coordinated the Anglican Symposium on Mission Theology in 1984. He served on the board of trustees for General Theological Seminary and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and his achievements were recognized with several honorary diplomas.

In retirement he focused his energies on retreats and spiritual direction. In that ministry he served as chaplain to the diocese of New Hampshire as it selected its new bishop, V. Gene Robinson, in 2003. He also represented the Presiding Bishop in the religious leaders’ delegation to the in 2002.

• List of bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America

1. The Whole Message Conference: Inclusiveness in the Anglican Church of Canada, April 13 and 14, 2007 p.7 The Rev. Dr. Linda Privitera, Ottawa, Canada

2. Biographical Sketch, The Rev. Dr. Robert G. Carroon