This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

WWASHINGTON, PAUL MATTHEW (26 May 1921, Charleston, S.C.–7 October2002, Philadelphia). Education: B.A., Lincoln University, 1943; Th.B.,Philadelphia Divinity School, 1946. Career: Assistant minister, Church of theCrucifixion, Philadelphia, 1946–47; missionary, diocese of Liberia, 1948–54;Vicar, St. Cyprian’s Church, Philadelphia, 1954–62; rector, Church of the Advocate,Philadelphia, 1962–87; interim rector, Church of the Crucifixion, Philadelphia,1994–2001.Paul M. Washington, a priest and social activist, was born in Charleston, SouthCarolina, in May 1921. Raised a Baptist, he had decided to enter the ordainedministry of that denomination, but he was converted to the Episcopal Churchwhile in college. When he entered the Philadelphia Divinity School in 1943, hewas the first African American student to live in the seminary’s dormitory. Ordaineda deacon in June 1946 and a priest 12 months later, he served briefly asan assistant minister at the Church of the Crucifixion in Philadelphia before travelingto the diocese of Liberia, where he worked as a teacher and priest. Althoughhe enjoyed his ministry in Africa, one of his children contracted malaria, and hedecided to return to the United States for the sake of his family’s health. He wasthen appointed vicar of two mission churches in Philadelphia: St. Cyprian’s, ablack congregation, and St. Titus’, a white congregation. However, when the layleadership at St. Titus’ Church objected to having an African American vicar,Oliver Hart, the bishop of Pennsylvania, rescinded that appointment.Washington served very effectively at St. Cyprian’s between 1954 and 1962,but when the church’s neighborhood was targeted for demolition, he left to becomethe rector of the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia. The congregationof the Advocate was then racially integrated, and the parish had been selected bythe national Episcopal Church as the site for a new community outreach program.