Gilbert Haven (September 19, 1821 – January 3, 1880) was a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

, elected in 1872. He was consecrated a bishop on May 24, 1872 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. He was an early benefactor of Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University), visualizing it as a university of all the Methodist schools founded for the education of

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

(former African American slaves). He succeeded Bishop Davis Wasgatt Clark (for whom Clark College was named) as the President of the Freedman's Aid Society of the

. Rest Haven is a historically black section for burials in Atlanta's

Westview Cemetery Westview Cemetery, located in Atlanta, Georgia, is the largest civilian cemetery in the Southeastern United States, comprising more than , 50 percent of which is undeveloped. ( Georgia National Cemetery, for military veterans and their families, ...

named after Haven.

Biography

Gilbert Haven was born in Malden, Massachusetts on September 19, 1821. He married Mary Ingraham in 1851; she died ten years later."Bishop Gilbert Haven Dead"
''The New York Times'', January 4, 1880, p. 1 They had two children, one of whom, William, served for 29 years as the general secretary of the

American Bible Society American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...

. In 1846 he graduated with honors from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

and then taught Greek and Latin He traveled widely, visiting the Holy Land, Africa,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and Europe, and was an early proponent of equality of the sexes. He became a member of the New England

Annual Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...

in 1851, and served as bishop in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

to a conference composed entirely of African Americans.K E Rowe, "Gilbert Haven", ''For All the Saints: A Calendar of Commemorations for United Methodists'', ed. Clifton F Guthrie, (Akron, Ohio: Order of Saint Luke Publications, 1995) p. 42 When in Liberia in 1877, he contacted

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, from which he never fully recovered. He died in Malden on the evening of January 3, 1880. He believed in the absolute equality of all persons, and if they are equal in the eyes of God, he held that civil society would have to recognize their equality under law and in practice. He was absolutely opposed to the practice of any type of racial separation in churches. Due to his radical egalitarian views, shocking at the time, no Northern conference would have him as a bishop—hence, his appointment to an all black mission conference. Among the books he wrote were ''The Pilgrim's Wallet'' (1864) on travel; ''National Sermons'' (1869), ''Sermons, Speeches and Letters on Slavery and its War'', and ''Life of Father Taylor''. After the Civil War he was editor of '' Zion's Herald'', a weekly newspaper for New England's Methodists. After his death Benjamin Tanner, editor of ''

The Christian Recorder ''The Christian Recorder'' is the official newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and is the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States. It has been called "arguably the most powerful black periodi ...

'', wrote: "he was one of the few that made public opinion rather than followed it; and happily...he made it on the side of the poor..and the ostracized."Rowe, citing William Gravely, ''Gilbert Haven: Methodist Abolitionist; A Study of Race, Religion, and Reform, 1850–1880'', Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church (Nashville: Abingdon, 1973) p. 256 Bishop Haven is included in the

Calendar of Saints The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

prepared by the

Order of Saint Luke The Order of Saint Luke (OSL) is a religious order begun within the Methodist Church in the United States that is dedicated to sacramental and liturgical scholarship, education, and practice. As a Christian religious order, it is a dispersed co ...

and recommended for

The United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelica ...

References

External links

Haven Home Industrial Training School
historical marker
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Gilbert Haven papers, 1873-1875
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haven, Gilbert Wesleyan University alumni Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church American Methodist bishops American abolitionists 1821 births 1880 deaths People from Malden, Massachusetts People from Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts Methodist abolitionists 19th-century American clergy

Biography

See also

References

External links