Robert Fisher Gibson Jr. (November 22, 1906 - September 21, 1990) was the tenth

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

The Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is ...

Early life and education

Gibson graduated from the

Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, is an Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. It is the largest and second-oldest such accredited se ...

and

University of the South The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee (), is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee, United States. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an off ...

Sewanee, Tennessee Sewanee () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,535 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Winchester, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area. Sewanee is best known as the home ...

, at both of which he later taught.

Ministry

Gibson was ordained a deacon in June 1940 by Presiding Bishop Henry St. George Tucker and as a priest 6 months later by Bishop Frederick D. Goodwin. He served in two parishes and traveled to Mexico for missionary work. After that he embarked on the commencement of his academic career of teaching church history at

and later as dean of at

Sewanee, The University of the South The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee (), is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee, United States. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an off ...

. Gibson was consecrated as Suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Virginia in 1949 and in 1954 the diocesan convention elected him as Coadjutor bishop of Virginia. In 1961 he became the diocesan bishop. In addition to his diocesan duties, including support for the ordination of women as priests, Bishop Gibson was an outspoken supporter of ecumenism, and served as chairman of the Consultation on Church Union in the 1960s, although their plan to merge eight major Protestant denominations into a 24-million-member church was never consummated. He also served as vice president of the House of Bishops. He retired as bishop in 1974, having called for a bishop coadjutor in 1966, and that coadjutor, Robert Bruce Hall succeeded him as the diocese's 11th bishop. One of his suffragan bishops, Philip Alan Smith was elected coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, and would become that diocese's 7th bishop. He remained active in church matters until his death, of a heart attack, in Richmond.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Robert F. Jr. 1990 deaths 1906 births 20th-century Anglican bishops in the United States Sewanee: The University of the South alumni Sewanee: The University of the South faculty Virginia Theological Seminary alumni Virginia Theological Seminary faculty People from Williamsport, Pennsylvania Religious leaders from Pennsylvania Episcopal bishops of Virginia