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James De Wolf Perry

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The Most Reverend

James De Wolf Perry III
18th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
Bishop Perry as a young man
ChurchEpiscopal Church
In office1930–1937
PredecessorCharles Palmerston Anderson
SuccessorHenry St. George Tucker
Other post(s)Bishop of Rhode Island (1911–1946)
Orders
OrdinationFebruary 18, 1896
by William Lawrence
ConsecrationJanuary 6, 1911
by Daniel Sylvester Tuttle
RankPresiding Bishop
Personal details
Born(1871-11-03)November 3, 1871
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedMarch 20, 1947(1947-03-20) (aged 75)
Summerville, South Carolina
SpouseEdith Weir Perry
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania
Harvard University
Episcopal Theological School

James DeWolf Perry (October 3, 1871 – March 20, 1947) was an American Episcopal clergyman and prelate. He was the 7th Bishop of Rhode Island (1911–1946) and the 18th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (1930–1937).

Biography

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The third of five children, Perry was born in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Rev. James DeWolf Perry II[1] and Elizabeth Russell Tyson.[2] His father was rector of Calvary Church in Germantown; he was also a descendant of Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, (who was the father of Commodores Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew C. Perry), and Senators William Bradford and James De Wolf, and was great great grandson of Lieutenant Benjamin Bourne who served in the American Revolution.[3]

The Rev. James DeWolf Perry II, father of Bishop Perry

After graduating from Germantown Academy in 1887, he matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, where he was an "able high-jumper."[4][5] In 1895 he earned a Bachelor of Divinity from the Episcopal Theological School.[3] Perry was ordained a deacon by Bishop William Lawrence on June 9, 1895, and a priest on February 18, 1896.[6] He then served as a curate at Christ Church[7] in Springfield, Massachusetts until 1897, when he was named rector of Christ Church in Fitchburg. During the Spanish–American War, he was chaplain of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry from 1898 to 1904. In 1904 he became rector of St. Paul's Church[8] in New Haven.[3] In 1908 he married Edith Dean Weir (daughter of John Ferguson Weir). She was an author[9][10] and painter of miniatures.[11][12][13] They had three children: James DeWolf, John Weir, and Beatrice Weir.[4]

On September 21, 1910, Perry was elected the 7th Bishop of Rhode Island at age 39[3] and was consecrated on January 6, 1911, by Bishops Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, Leigh R. Brewer, and William Lawrence.[14]

Perry was admitted as a member of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati in 1915 and became president of the Society in 1921.

During World War I, he served as chief of Red Cross chaplains in France from 1918 to 1919.[3]

On March 26, 1930, Perry was elected the 18th Presiding Bishop by the House of Bishops.[4] He was the last Presiding Bishop to retain his diocesan jurisdiction while serving in the national post.[6] In 1932, he accepted a 10 percent pay cut to help with the church's budget difficulties.[15]

In August 1930, he was chosen to deliver the farewell sermon at the Lambeth Conference and invited to lay the cornerstone of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Aberdeen.[3] Especially interested in foreign missions, he once spent five months visiting mission stations in the Philippines, China, Japan, and Hawaii.[6]

The French government awarded him the Legion of Honor in 1934. At the 1934 General Convention of the church, there was a campaign to have Perry made an archbishop, an office that did not exist within the Episcopal Church, which led to his portrait by Jerry Farnsworth being on the cover of Time magazine.[16][17][18]

In a rare instance, he participated directly in politics in 1937 when he accepted an appointment to the Republican Party's Committee on Program, which was charged with drafting "a declaration of principles to redefine the party's stand on political and economic issues."[19]

He retired as Presiding Bishop in 1937, and as Bishop of Rhode Island in 1946.[6] Perry died at the age of 75 from a heart attack in Summerville, South Carolina.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ [https://library.brown.edu/riamco/xml2pdffiles/US-RUn-msg29.pdf See more at Guide to the Bishop James DeWolf Perry Papers 1835-1961|
  2. ^ "James-John Perry". Landers Genealogy. Archived from the original on October 26, 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE". University of Rhode Island.
  4. ^ a b c "Religion: Primate Perry". TIME Magazine. April 7, 1930. Archived from the original on July 16, 2010.
  5. ^ TIME (October 15, 1934). "Religion: In Atlantic City". TIME. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d "James Dewolf Perry (1930-1937)". Episcopal Church (United States). Archived from the original on July 28, 2011.
  7. ^ cccspfld.org
  8. ^ "St.Paul's Church". Stpaulstjames.org. April 14, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  9. ^ Perry, Edith Weir (1934). An Altar Guild Manual. Milwaukee, Wis.: Morehouse Publishing Co. revised 1945, 1951, and 1963; reprinted 1969, 1989, 1996
  10. ^ Perry, Edith Weir (1940). Under Four Tudors, Being the story of Matthew Parker sometime Archbishop of Canterbury. London: G. Allen & Unwin. reprinted 1964
  11. ^ The exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1900: the one hundred and thirty-second. London: Clowes and Sons. 1900.
  12. ^ Le Salon CXXI Exposition Officielle. Paris. 1903.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^ Wardle, Marian (2011). The Weir Family, 1820-1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art. Lebanon NH: University Press of New England.
  14. ^ "PECUSA Bishop listpg-p". Apostolic Episcopate Succession Online Project. Archived from the original on May 17, 2009.
  15. ^ TIME (March 14, 1932). "Religion: Episcopal Economy". TIME. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  16. ^ TIME (August 6, 1934). "Religion: Trinity's Idea". TIME. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  17. ^ TIME (October 15, 1934). "Religion: In Atlantic City". TIME. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  18. ^ "The TIME Vault: October 15, 1934". Time. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  19. ^ New York Times: "Republicans Name Glenn Frank Head of Policy Group," Dec. 17, 1937, accessed December 10, 2009
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Media related to James De Wolf Perry at Wikimedia Commons

Episcopal Church (USA) titles
Preceded by 18th Presiding Bishop
March 26, 1930 – December 31, 1937 		Succeeded by
Preceded by 7th Bishop of Rhode Island
1911–1946 		Succeeded by
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