Episcopal Press and News
C. Fitzsimons Allison Consecrated in South Carolina
Episcopal News Service. October 2, 1980 [80346]
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- In a service attended by 2,500 people at Gailliard Auditorium here, the Rev. Christopher FitzSimons Allison was consecrated Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. He will succeed the Rt. Rev. Gray Temple as bishop of the diocese when Bishop Temple retires in 1982.
The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, served as chief consecrator. Co-consecrators were Bishop Temple; the Rt. Rev. George M. Alexander, retired Bishop of Upper South Carolina; the Rt. Rev. Richard B. Martin, retired national Executive for Ministries; and the Rt. Rev. B. Sidney Sanders, Bishop Coadjutor of East Carolina.
Also participating in the Sept. 25 rite were the Rev. Paul Zahl and the Rev. James G. Munroe, curates of Grace Church in New York City, and members of the Allison family.
The Very Rev. John H. Rodgers, Jr., dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, preached. Proclaiming, "I thank God I'm not good enough to be a Christian; I'm bad enough," he charged the new bishop to be attentive to Scripture, to continue to preach repentance and forgiveness of sin, and to rely on the promise of the Holy Spirit for power to serve.
Bishop Allison was elected at a special meeting of the Diocesan Convention here on May 17. For the past five years, he has been rector of Grace Church in New York City. He has taught at the University of the South and the Virginia Theological Seminary, and is known as an author and church historian. He is the author of: The Rise of Moralism; Guilt, Anger and God; Fear, Love and Worship;andPreaching for Clergy.
In addition, he has served on the General Board of Examining Chaplains, the Professional Development Committee and the Bicentennial Committee of the Episcopal Church, the Board of the Episcopal Radio-TV Foundation and the Board of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.
In an interview following his election, Bishop Allison set forth the emphases of his ministry: "We as a whole church need to concentrate on the teaching ministry.... Our direction should be one that would be more open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, more a word to, than an echo of, our culture, and a more complete manifestation of the church, lay and clerical."