Paul Moore Jr.
Paul Moore Jr | |
---|---|
Bishop of New York | |
Church | Episcopal Church |
Diocese | New York |
In office | 1972–1989 |
Predecessor | Horace W. B. Donegan |
Successor | Richard F. Grein |
Orders | |
Ordination | December 17, 1949 by Benjamin M. Washburn |
Consecration | January 25, 1964 by Arthur C. Lichtenberger |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Died | May 1, 2003 New York City, New York, United States | (aged 83)
Buried | Stonington Cemetery |
Nationality | American |
Denomination | Anglican |
Parents | Paul Moore Sr. & Fanny Weber Hanna |
Spouse | Jenny McKean
(m. 1944; died 1973)Brenda Hughes Eagle
(m. 1974; died 1999) |
Children | 9 (including Honor Moore) |
Previous post(s) | Coadjutor Bishop of New York (1969–1972) |
Alma mater | Yale University |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | United States Marine Corps |
Years of service | 1941-fl 1945 |
Battles/wars | World War II
|
Awards |
Paul Moore Jr. (November 15, 1919 – May 1, 2003) was a
Career
Paul Moore was a graduate of
Moore joined the Marine Corps in 1941. He was a highly decorated Marine Corps captain, a veteran of the
In 1957, he was named Dean of
During his time in Washington he became nationally known as an advocate of civil rights and an opponent of the Vietnam War. He knew
of New York in 1972 and held that position until 1989.Moore was widely known for his liberal activism. Throughout his career he spoke out against homelessness and racism. He was an effective advocate of the interests of cities, once calling the corporations abandoning New York "rats leaving a sinking ship". He was the first Episcopal bishop to ordain an openly homosexual woman, Ellen Barrett as a priest in the church. In his book, Take a Bishop Like Me (1979), he defended his position by arguing that many priests were homosexuals but few had the courage to acknowledge it. His liberal political views were coupled with fierce traditionalism when it came to the liturgy and even the creed. In his writings and sermons he sometimes described himself as "born again", referring to his awakening to a fervent Christocentric faith as a boarding school student.
By birth, by inherited wealth, by friendships and career success, Moore was an acknowledged member of what was often called the "Liberal Establishment", a group that included
He wrote three books: The Church Reclaims the City (1965), Take a Bishop Like Me (1979), and, after his retirement, Presences: A Bishop's Life in the City (1997), a memoir.Personal life
In 1944, while in the Marine Corps, Moore married Jenny McKean[7] a daughter of Bohemian privilege reared on the North Shore of Boston and educated at Madeira School, Vassar College and Barnard College. (Her mother was Margarett Sargent McKean, a noted painter in the Ashcan School and a follower of George Luks.) Together they had nine children (and, at his death, many grandchildren). Jenny McKean Moore published a well reviewed account of their decade together in the slums of Jersey City under the title The People on Second Street (1968). During that time the family lived in the tenement-like rectory of Grace van Vorst Church on Second Street in Jersey City (now called in his honor, Bishop Paul Moore Place).
Jenny McKean Moore died of colon cancer in 1973. Eighteen months later Moore married Brenda Hughes Eagle, a childless widow twenty two years his junior. She died of alcoholism in 1999. It was she who discovered his bisexual infidelity, around 1990, and made it known to his children, who kept the secret, as he had asked them to, until Honor Moore's revelations in 2008.
Honor Moore, the oldest of the Moore children and a
In 2018, Bishop Andrew Dietsche, Moore's successor at the helm of the Diocese of New York, released a pastoral letter describing the late Paul Moore Jr. as a “serial predator” who engaged in “long-time patterns” of sexual exploitation and abuse. [11]
Awards and honors
In 1991 he received the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Worship.[12]
References
- ^ Moore, Honor The Bishop's Daughter: A Memoir, p.31, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 2008
- ^ Kabaservice, Geoffrey. The Guardians : Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment, p. 7, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2004
- ^ "Board of Trustees". Archived from the original on 23 June 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
- ^ "Guadalcanal Veterans Return". The Battle of Guadalcanal Foundation. Archived from the original on 10 October 2008.
- ^ "Jersey City History - Grace van Vorst Church". Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
- ^ Kabaservice, Geoffrey. The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment, Geoffrey Kabaservice, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2004
- ^ Scott, Janny (10 March 2020). "For the First of 9 Children, a Quest to Understand Mother". The New York Times.
- ^ "providencejournal.com: Local & World News, Sports & Entertainment in Providence, RI". Projo.com. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ^ Schmidle, Nicholas. "The Bishop's Daughter". The New Yorker. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ^ Vitello, Paul (3 March 2008). "A Bishop Unveiled God's Secrets While Keeping His Own". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 March 2008.; Schuessler, Jennifer. "Her Father, His Secrets, Herself", New York Times. May 23, 2008.
- ^ "Episcopal Church confronts past role in sexual exploitation". 16 October 2018.
- ^ "Four Freedoms Awards | Roosevelt Institute". Archived from the original on 25 March 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.