Charles D. Williams

Charles David Williams (July 30, 1860 - February 14, 1923) was the fourth Bishop of Michigan in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He was an advocate of the "Social Gospel" views of Walter Rauschenbusch.

The Right Reverend

Charles David Williams

Bishop of Michigan
Charles David Williams as Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland
ChurchEpiscopal Church
DioceseMichigan
ElectedNovember 16, 1905
In office1906-1923
PredecessorThomas Frederick Davies Sr.
SuccessorHerman Page
Orders
OrdinationOctober 30, 1884
by Thomas Augustus Jaggar
ConsecrationFebruary 7, 1906
by Daniel S. Tuttle
Personal details
Born(1860-07-30)July 30, 1860
Bellevue, Ohio, United States
DiedFebruary 14, 1923(1923-02-14) (aged 62)
Detroit, Michigan, United States
BuriedWoodlawn Cemetery
NationalityAmerican
DenominationAnglican
ParentsDavid Williams & Eliza Dickson
SpouseLucy Victoria Benedict
Alma materKenyon College and Bexley Hall

Personal

Charles David Williams was born July 30, 1860 in Bellevue, Ohio. He was educated at Kenyon College and Bexley Hall where he was ordained an Episcopal deacon on June 17, 1883 and priest on October 30, 1884. He died February 14, 1923.[1]

Professional

Williams served as priest of Fernbank, Ohio and Riverside, Ohio from 1884 to 1889; as deacon at St. Paul's in Steubenville, Ohio from 1889 to 1893; and as dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland from 1893 to 1906. In 1906, he was consecrated as bishop of the Michigan Diocese of the Episcopal Church, where he remained until his death in 1923.[1]

In his religious and social views, Williams was a liberal clergyman who advocated for the views of Walter Rauschenbush. Williams believed that the church should play an active role in resolving social problems. Although convinced that the church would always need to minister to individual philanthropic causes, he argued equally vigorously that the established denominations, in their teachings and advocacy of basic principles, should support reform of the economic and industrial system.[1]

He was a member of the commission of church leaders that investigated the steel industry and was national president of the Church League for Industrial Democracy. After the January 1920 raids in Detroit, Bishop was recruited as part of a citizens committee to help release the over 1000 men illegally arrested for peaceful assembly by the Justice Department run by General Palmer. This citizen's committee was led by Federick F Ingram and the other members were SS Kresge, FE Brown, FE Steelwagen, & Fred M Butzel.[2] In 1921, he attended a seminar in England that studied the English labor movement in its relation with the church.[1]

References

  1. "Charles David Williams Biography". Bentley Historical Library. University of Michigan. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
  2. Post, Louis F. The Deportations Delirium of Nineteen-Twenty: A Personal Narrative of an Historic Official Experience. Chicago Charles H Kerr, 1923. 141.
Episcopal Church (USA) titles
Preceded by
Thomas Frederick Davies Sr.
4th Bishop of Michigan
1906 - 1915
Succeeded by
Herman Page
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