Two Princes of the Diocese
BISHOP DENNIS:
His Life
BISHOP MOORE:
The Rt. Rev. Walter Decoster Dennis
By Neva Rae Fox
The Rt. Rev. Walter Decoster Dennis
The Rt. Rev. Walter Decoster Dennis, retired Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, died Sunday, March 30 in Hampton, VA after a long illness. He was 70 years old.
Priest and lawyer, well known and well loved, Dennis served as Suffragan Bishop for 19 years, from 1979 to 1998. He was the second African-American bishop to serve the Episcopal Diocese of New York.
He will be remembered for his pastoral nature and warm manner. He will also be remembered as a trailblazer, mostly in race relations and legal issues. Bishop Dennis was deeply committed to civil rights, with a lifelong commitment to justice and peace, evidenced by a range of activities from giving aid to the freedom riders to founding organizations whose goals were the pursuit of equality.
“Walter Dennis was a bishop whose deep faith marked him as a man of great common sense with a burning passion for justice and he will be greatly missed,” Bishop Mark Sisk commented.
Bishop Dennis was born in Washington, DC on August 23, 1932, the son of Walter Decoster and Helen Louise Dennis. He held degrees from Virginia State, New York University, and General Theological Seminary. Dennis was ordained a deacon in 1956 and in 1958 was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Horace Donegan.
A
Life Dedicated to Freedom
As an ordained deacon in 1956, Dennis started his ministry at a time marked
by the end of legal segregation in the United States. The landmark Supreme
Court case Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education was announced in 1956.
Also that year, Dennis became the first African-American hired as a member
of the clergy on the full-time staff of the Cathedral Church of St. John
the Divine. Dennis had just graduated from the General Theological Seminary
and was named a full-time Curate. Between 1956 and 1960 he worked with
the national church in developing conferences on race relations.
As a young priest, Dennis served as vicar of St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in Hampton, VA from 1960 to 1965. During that time he was also an adjunct professor of Constitutional Law and American History at Hampton University. While serving at St. Cyprian’s, Dennis opened the doors of the church as a stop for buses headed south on the freedom rides for civil rights.
Dennis returned to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on September 1, 1965, as a Canon Residentiary. While at the cathedral, he presented forums on issues such as extremism and politics, and homosexuality. At one conference, Dennis helped bring together white southern rectors to meet with Thurgood Marshall. Marshall would go on to be named the first black member of the United States Supreme Court, and the two remained friends. Bishop Dennis gave the eulogy at Marshall’s funeral, which was held at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
Dennis was a founding member of the Union of Black Episcopalians, a national organization of African-American clergy and laity that still plays a strong role in the Church today.
A
Priest and a Lawyer
Bishop Dennis was one of the Episcopal lawyers and clergy who formed the
Guild of St. Ives, named for a 14th-century Breton saint known in his
own time as “advocate of the poor.” The purpose of the Guild
of St. Ives is to give legal assistance with a “pastoral dimension”
to Episcopalians in canon or civil law. The Episcopal New Yorker reported
in April 1966, “The formation of the Guild has been spearheaded
by the Rev. Canon Walter D. Dennis. Canon Dennis said he envisioned the
organization as a place to which church people without recourse to other
help could turn ‘for an advisory opinion’ in legal matters
relating to areas of Church concerns.”
As
a Bishop
On October 6, 1979, Dennis was elected Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal
Diocese of New York. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities in the
Diocese, he became active with the national and international Church,
focusing on issues concerning individual rights and relations.
Bishop Dennis was chairman of the National Church’s prestigious Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons in 1982 and continued his work with that board until 1994. In 1985, Bishop Dennis was elected chair of the Board of Episcopal Black Ministries Commission (which became the Office of Black Ministries at the National Church Center).
He served on the national board of Planned Parenthood, the Board for the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity, the Board for the Society of Juvenile Justice and the Board of the National Association for the Study for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
In 1995, Bishop Dennis was elected as vice president of Province II (the Episcopal Dioceses of New York, New Jersey, Newark, Western New York, Central New York, Albany, Rochester, Haiti, the Virgin Islands, and the Convocation of American Churches in Europe). In 1997, Bishop Dennis was appointed to another prestigious board, the national Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Structure.
He retired in 1998 and moved to his home in Hampton, VA.
Bishop Dennis authored many important pamphlets in the Episcopal Church including Puerto Rican Neighbors, Mexican-American Neighbors, Oriental Neighbors, and various articles in the Sewanee Theological Review. He received his Doctor of Divinity from GTS in 1980 and was also a sub-prelate in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.