This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

288SCARLETT, WILLIAMbecame ill, he called for the election of a bishop coadjutor to assist him with hisduties. Scarlett easily won that election, and in May 1930 he was consecratedbishop. Three year later, he succeeded Johnson as the diocesan bishop.According to Reinhold Niebuhr, his friend and political ally, Scarlett was oftencalled “the conscience of the community,” for throughout his 20 years as bishopof Missouri he sought to bring a sense of Christian compassion to numerous socialissues. For example, he served for many years as a member of the Commissionon Marriage and Divorce of General Convention. In that capacity he lobbied forthe liberalization of the church’s position on marriage after divorce. During WorldWar II, he also encouraged communication with a commission of the Church ofEngland that was considering plans for the postwar reconstruction of Europe.When the 1943 General Convention created a Joint Commission on Social Reconstructionto deliberate on this matter, Scarlett was appointed its chairman. In1946 the commission published a book, entitled Christianity Takes a Stand, withchapters on subjects such as “the moral meaning of the atomic bomb” and “theNegro problem.” As Scarlett emphasized in his introduction, “Christianity is notsomething irrelevant to life, not something that touches only the fringes of life. . . .Rather, we believe that Christianity is the truth about . . . man’s relation to Godand God’s relation to the world, and about man’s relation to his fellow men.”A low church Episcopalian, sometimes known as the “red tie” bishop becausehe did not wear a clerical collar, Scarlett was committed to ecumenical relationswith other Protestants. He encouraged interdenominational celebrations of theEucharist at Christ Church Cathedral at a time when such services were frownedon by many Anglo-Catholics. He not only overlooked those objections but alsostrongly supported efforts to establish intercommunion with the Presbyteriansduring the 1940s. Having heard, moreover, that Presbyterians in St. Louis wereinterested in establishing a hospital, he encouraged them to cooperate instead inthe operation of St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. The result was St. Luke’sEpiscopal-Presbyterian Hospital, a collaborative effort that inspired similar healthand welfare projects in the St. Louis metropolitan area.Scarlett retired from his diocesan post in November 1952. However, he continuedto receive honors from many groups and organizations in the state ofMissouri, and even in retirement he remained extremely active as a writer andpreacher. He eventually moved to Castine, Maine, where he died in March 1973.BibliographyA. Papers at AEC and at the archives of the diocese of Missouri in St. Louis; Toward aBetter World for All People (Philadelphia, 1946); Christianity Takes a Stand (NewYork, 1946); To Will One Thing (St. Louis, 1948); Christian Demands for SocialJustice (New York, 1949); Phillips Brooks—Selected Sermons (New York, 1949).B. ANB 19, 347–49; WWWA 5, 637; NYT, 29 March 1973; Charles F. Rehkopf, “TheEpiscopate of William Scarlett,” Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society 20(1964): 193–217.