Edward Harding "Ed" MacBurney SSC (October 30, 1927 – March 17, 2022) was an American Anglican bishop. He was born in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

to Alfred Cadwell MacBurney (1896-1986) and Florence Marion McDowell MacBurney (1897-1989). A graduate of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

(BA 1949),

Berkeley Divinity School Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, founded in 1854, is a seminaries, seminary of Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Episcopal Church in New Haven, Connecticut. Along with Andover Newton Theological School and the Yale Institute ...

(STB 1952), and

St Stephen's House, Oxford St Stephen's House is an external theological college with observer status at the University of Oxford, affiliated with the Church of England. From 2003 to 2023 it was a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford. The college typicall ...

, he was ordained to the priesthood in December 1952 by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Bishop of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with ...

Edward Wynn Harold Edward Wynn (15 January 1889 – 12 August 1956) was an Anglican bishop. He was born on 15 January 1889 and educated at Mercers' School, London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Ordained a priest on Trinity Sunday 1912 (2 June), by Frederic ...

. He served in the

Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire The Episcopal Church of New Hampshire, a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), covers the entire state of New Hampshire. It was originally part of the Diocese of Massachusetts, but became independent in 1841. Th ...

at Trinity Episcopal Church, Hanover, from 1953 to 1973 before appointment as dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in

Davenport, Iowa Davenport ( ) is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...

from 1973 to 1987. MacBurney served from 1988 to 1994 as the seventh bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Quincy The Diocese of Quincy was a diocese of the Episcopal Church in western Illinois from 1877 to 2013. The cathedral seat (home of the diocese) was originally in Quincy, Illinois but was moved to St. Paul's Cathedral in Peoria in 1963. In order to ...

. During the consents process following MacBurney's election, Bishop

John Shelby Spong John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 – September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, he served as the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, from 1979 to 2000. Spong was a liberal Christian ...

of the

Episcopal Diocese of Newark The Episcopal Diocese of Newark is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America comprising the northern third of New Jersey in the United States. The Diocese represents the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Chu ...

"urged his fellow liberal bishops to encourage their diocesan standing committees to confirm Dean MacBurney's election for the sake of the catholicity of the Church." He was consecrated at the former Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Peoria, Illinois on January 16, 1988, by Presiding Bishop

Edmond L. Browning Edmond Lee Browning (March 11, 1929 – July 11, 2016) was an American bishop. He was the 24th presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Education, ordination, early ministry Browning received his se ...

with Bishop William L. Stevens of the

Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac The Diocese of Fond du Lac was a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the northeastern third of Wisconsin. The diocese contained about 3,800 baptized members worshiping in 33 locations. It was part of Provi ...

and Bishop George E. Bates of the

Episcopal Diocese of Utah The Episcopal Diocese of Utah is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States encompassing the state of Utah, other than the southeastern part of the Utah which is included in the Navajoland Area Mission. The diocese also includes a smal ...

. In 1991, MacBurney refused to discipline Peoria cathedral dean John Backus during his criminal proceedings and conviction for child pornography possession. Backus claimed at his 1991 arrest following a maid's discovery in his bedroom of videos and photographs of children engaged in sex acts that the material had been given to him by other priests in Montana and Washington struggling with child pornography addiction. Backus declined to name them, citing the seal of the confessional. After the dean's conviction, MacBurney transferred him to the

Episcopal Diocese of New York The Episcopal Diocese of New York is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing three New York City boroughs and seven New York state counties.

, where ''The New York Times'' covered the matter three times in 2002. On April 2, 2008, MacBurney was inhibited from ministry by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church,

Katharine Jefferts Schori Katharine Jefferts Schori (born March 26, 1954) is the former Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of the United States. Previously elected as the 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, she was the first woman elected ...

, over charges of celebrating confirmations in an Episcopal diocese without permission of the local bishop. On September 9, 2008, the Presiding Bishop removed Bishop MacBurney's inhibition after he apologized for accepting an invitation from

Anglican Province of the Southern Cone The Anglican Church of South America () is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Formed in 1981, the province has 35,000 members. The ...

Archbishop

Gregory Venables Gregory James Venables (born 6 December 1949) is an English Anglican bishop. He served as the Primate of the Southern Cone in South America (now called the Anglican Church of South America) from 2001 until 2010, and again from 2016 until 2020. ...

to conduct confirmations in California. In June 2009, it was announced that Jefferts Schori had accepted MacBurney's renunciations of his vows to the Episcopal Church; he later transferred as a retired bishop to the

Anglican Church in North America The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. ...

(ACNA). In the ACNA, Bishop MacBurney served as Assistant Bishop of Fort Worth in the consecrations of Bishop William Ilgenfritz in 2009 and suffragan James Randall Hiles in 2013. In 1991, he was appointed a trustee of

Nashotah House Nashotah House is an Anglican seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin. The seminary opened in 1842 and received its official charter in 1847. The institution is independent and generally regarded as one of the more theologically conservative seminaries ...

Theological Seminary, which had awarded him an honorary

Doctorate of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (i.e., Christian theology and ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the English-speaking world than elsewhere. In the United Kin ...

in 1988. Bishop MacBurney was a trustee of Berkeley Divinity School from 1964 to 1970, of St. Luke's Hospital, Davenport from 1973 to 1987; of the National Organization Episcopalians for Life from 1991 until his death, and vice president of the former Episcopal Synod of America from 1988 until its 1999 transition into Forward in Faith North America.

Personal life

On February 20, 1965, he married Anne Farnsworth Grubb, and adopted her three sons. She predeceased him on February 29, 2016, in

Bettendorf, Iowa Bettendorf is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States. The population was 39,102 at the 2020 census. Bettendorf is the fifth of the Quad Cities along the Mississippi River, along with neighboring Davenport in Iowa and Moline, East Molin ...

References

*Episcopal Clerical Directory

External links

History page at the Diocese of Quincy website
rchivedbr>The Rev. Edward H. MacBurney '49
Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
U.S. Traditionalists Join Forward in Faith Movement
Episcopal News Service, June 30, 1999

" ''The New York Times'', July 16, 2002

" ''The New York Times'', July 19, 2002

" ''The New York Times'', August 2, 2002
Inhibition of bishop temporarily lifted
Episcopal News Service, April 14, 2008
Presiding Bishop removes MacBurney's inhibition after retired bishop apologizes
Episcopal News Service, September 10, 2008
Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori accepts renunciations of Bane and MacBurney
Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs, June 12, 2009
PECUSA v. the Rt. Rev. Edward H. MacBurney
Archives of the Episcopal Church Digital Archive of Trial Cases, Accords and Orders in Matters of Ecclesiastical Discipline, last update February 2021 {{DEFAULTSORT:MacBurney, Edward Harding 1927 births 2022 deaths People from Peoria, Illinois Christians from Illinois Dartmouth College alumni Religious leaders from Albany, New York Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America Episcopal bishops of Quincy Anglo-Catholic bishops American Anglo-Catholics Anglican realignment people

Personal life

See also

References

External links