David Hummell Greer (March 20, 1844 – May 19, 1919) was an American Protestant Episcopal bishop.

Biography

He was born in

Wheeling, Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contain ...

, (now West Virginia), graduated from Washington College (Pa.) in 1862, and studied at the Protestant Episcopal Seminary, Gambier,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Ordained a priest in 1868, he was

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

successively at Covington, Kentucky (1868–1871),

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

(1871–1888), and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at St. Bartholomew's Church, 1888–1904. In 1903, he was elected Bishop Coadjutor for the New York diocese and in 1908 succeeded Bishop Potter upon the latter's decease. He was replaced as rector of St. Bartholomew's Church by Dr.

Leighton Parks Leighton Parks (10 February 1852-21 March 1938) was a liberal American Protestant Episcopal clergyman. He was born in New York City and graduated from the General Theological Seminary in 1876. Ordained a priest the next year, from 1878 to 1904 he ...

. Bishop Greer made himself known as an untiring personal worker in his parishes and his diocese, and as a believer in direct and unceremonious relationship between

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

and

laymen In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layperson ...

. In 1914, Bishop Greer was appointed president of the

Church Peace Union The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is a New York City-based 501(c)3 public charity serving international affairs professionals, teachers and students, and the attentive public. Founded in 1914, and originally named ''Church ...

.Snape, Michael. ''A Church Militant: Anglicans and the Armed Forces from Queen Victoria to the Vietnam War''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2022; (pg. 147) Prior to 1917, Greer caused controversy by expressing opposition to US involvement in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. However, after the United States entered the war, Greer endorsed the war effort as a "great crusade against tyranny and aggression". On January 14, 1915, he officiated at the society wedding of a future bishop, the Rev. G. Ashton Oldham, to debutante Emily Pierrepont Gould at the

Cathedral of St. John the Divine The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood ...

."Numerous Entertainments for the Debutantes", ''New-York Tribune'', December 20, 1914, pg. 8. Found a
Library of Congress website
Retrieved July 31, 2012. In 1869, Greer wed Caroline Augusta Keith, with whom he had three children. David and Caroline Greer died one month apart, in May and June 1919, respectively. Following his death, the Hope Farm School in

Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later orga ...

, was renamed "

Greer School Founded in 1906, Hope Farm was a home and school for disadvantaged children in Dutchess County, New York, near Millbrook. The school was renamed Greer School in 1939/40, in honor of its "founding father", David Hummell Greer, the former Protestan ...

Publications

*''Moral Power of History'' (1890) *''From Things to God'' (1893) *''The Preacher and his Place'' (1895) *''Visions'' (1898)

References

External links

Bibliographic directory
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...

Other sources

* Episcopal bishops of New York Religious leaders from New York City American religious writers 1844 births 1919 deaths Washington & Jefferson College alumni 19th-century American Episcopalians {{US-Anglican-bishop-stub