Herbert A. Donovan Jr.

Herbert Alcorn Donovan Jr. the son of the Rev. Herbert A. Donovan and Marion Kirk Donovan, was born in Washington, D.C. on July 14, 1931. His parents had been missionaries to Liberia but his father was then rector of Truro Church, Fairfax, VA. He attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA and the University of Virginia. While at the University he served as president of the U. S. Student Christian Movement and was sent as a delegate to the third World Conference of Christian Youth in Travancore, South India in 1952.[1] Graduating from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1957, he was ordained deacon by Bishop Frederick D. Goodwin of Virginia. He moved to Green River, WY, was ordained priest by Bishop J. Wilson Hunter of Wyoming and served as Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church. In 1959, he married his wife, Mary Sudman and they had three children, all born in Basin WY while he served at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. In 1964, he became Executive Officer to Bishop C. Gresham Marmion of the Diocese of Kentucky and served in that position until he moved to Montclair, NJ in 1970 where he became Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Elected Bishop of Arkansas in 1980,[2] he carried out an extended ministry from Little Rock until he retired on September 1, 1993 to become Vicar of Trinity Church, Wall Street and Assisting Bishop of New York.[3] After his retirement from that position in 1998, he served in several interim positions: Provisional Bishop of Chicago 1998-99 (Jan. 1998 until March 1999),[4] Assisting Bishop of New Jersey 1999-2000 (May 26, 1999 – Feb 1, 2000),[5] Anglican Observer at the United Nations, 2000-2001,[6] Rector of Trinity Church, Boston March, 2005- May 2006.[7]

Career Focus

Active in church governance, Donovan attended every General Convention from 1967 until 2012, either as a clerical deputy or later as a member of the House of Bishops (where he served as Secretary from 1986 to 1998).[8] His career spanned a turbulent period as the Episcopal Church dealt with the struggles to admit women and later gay and lesbian candidates to Holy Orders. Donovan’s impulse was to work through existing political orders to effect change. He and Byron Rushing of Massachusetts chaired Coalition E for the General Convention of 1976 and 1979—a political action group that worked to eliminate gender, racial and ethnic barriers to the ordination and church deployment processes. He also chaired the National Council’s Committee on the Employment/Deployment of Women Priests for the Episcopal Church.[9] In 1981, as Bishop of Arkansas, Donovan joined other religious leaders as plaintiffs in McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, a successful suit that challenged the regulation that required Arkansas public schools to teach “creation science”.[10]

International Concerns

From his early exposure at the World Student Conference in 1952, he developed relationships with Anglican Churches in many parts of the world and with other Christian bodies. He represented the Episcopal Church in delegations to Latin America and several provinces in Africa. In 1999, he became Coordinator of the College of Bishops at General Theological Seminary. He served as Interim Anglican Observer to the United Nations from Dec. 7, 1999 until July 1, 2001.[11] In October of 2001, he was appointed Executive Director of the Compass Rose Society, an international group dedicated to raising funds for Anglican mission initiatives around the world including an Anglican hospital in the Gaza Strip, health clinics in Nigeria, rebuilding church offices in Cuban and completing the construction of an Anglican Centre in Spain.[12] As President of the American Friends of Cuttington University in Liberia, Donovan was active in raising support for that University’s campaign to combat the ebola crisis in 2004.[13] He served as Deputy to the Presiding Bishop for Anglican Communion Relations from 2008-10.[14] He was a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church from 1979-80, and 1985-1991.[15] Dedicated to the church’s ministry to the Armed Forces, he joined the U.S. Navy as a chaplain in 1955 and served as a reserve chaplain for the next twenty years. As a Captain, he commanded a chaplains unit that ministered to the US fleet of atomic submarines. He also served on the Pastoral Care Team of the House of Bishops to minister to chaplains serving in the armed forces in Operation Desert Storm.[16]

References
  1. World's Student Christian Federation,World Conference of Christian Youth Conference, Travancore, India, Study Book, December, 1952
  2. “Episcopalians Elect Coadjutor,” Arkansas Gazette, 11 May 1980; Episcopal News Service, 22 May 1980; “High Profile,” Arkansas Gazette, 22 December 1991
  3. Episcopal News Service 17 March 1993
  4. Episcopal News Service, 13 Nov. 1997
  5. Episcopal News Service, 30 June 1999
  6. Episcopal News Service 15 December 1999
  7. Episcopal News Service 30 March 2005
  8. Episcopal Clerical Directory, 2017
  9. Report of the Council of the Development of Ministry to 1979 General Convention
  10. Complaint, 27 May 1981, McClean v. Arkansas Documentation Project. http://www.antievolution.org/projects/mclean/new_site/index.htm.
  11. Episcopal News Service, 15 December, 1999
  12. Episcopal News Service 3 April 2001
  13. Mary Frances Schjonberg, “Liberia’s Cuttington University needs help to reopen,” Episcopal News Service 28 January 2015
  14. Episcopal News Service 20 October 2008
  15. Episcopal Church Annual, 1990, p. 27
  16. Episcopal News Service, 25 January 1991
  • Episcopal Clerical Directory, 2015


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