Edgar Otis Charles (called Otis; April 24, 1926 – December 26, 2013) was the eighth

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

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, less that part of the Four Corners region which is in the Navajoland Area Mission. It includes a small part of northern Arizo ...

Early life

Charles was born in

Norristown, Pennsylvania Norristown is a municipality with home rule status and the county seat of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Montgomery County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the third-most populous county in Pennsylvania and the 7 ...

. He attended

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, receiving at B.A. While at Trinity, he was a member of

St. Anthony Hall St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the Calendar of saints, feast day of Anthony the Great, Saint Anthony the Great. The frater ...

. He attended the Union Theological Seminary in

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where he received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1951 and a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1983. He received a Doctorate of Sacred Theology from Creighton University.

Career

In May 1951, Charles was ordained as a priest. He served at St. John's Church in

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a city and the county seat of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New J ...

. He was a vicar of St. Andrew's in

Beacon, New York Beacon is a city located in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The 2020 census placed the city total population at 13,769. Beacon is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area as we ...

. Charles served as a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut from 1959 to 1971. In 1958, he became a faculty member of the Episcopal Theological School. There, he served as a dean from 1969 to 1974. He was also a rector of St. John's Parish in Washington, Connecticut from 1959 until 1967. While in Washington, he helped establish the Washington Montessori School and reopened the Wykeham Rise School that focused on the visual and performing arts. From 1968 until 1982 he was a member and president of the Standing Liturgical Commission, which developed the 1979 edition of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

. In 1971, he was elected

Bishop of Utah The Episcopal Diocese of Utah is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States, encompassing the state of Utah, less that part of the Four Corners region which is in the Navajoland Area Mission. It includes a small part of northern Ari ...

and served in that position through 1986. At the same time, he was also the Bishop-in-Charge of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland for two years. While in Utah, Charles was involved in the

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

. He opposed

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

and

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

being launching sites for the MX missile. He was board chair of St. Mark's Hospital and of

Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School Rowland Hall (RHSM) (formerly Rowland Hall-St. Mark's) is an independent school of 945 students from preschool to high school on two campuses in Salt Lake City, Utah. The current headmaster is Mick Gee. There are 100 teachers, with approximately ...

. He also helped create the

Hospice of Salt Lake City Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by ...

. In the House of Bishops, Charles was chair of the Prayer a member of the Bishops' Committee on Racism. In June 1985, Charles became dean and president of the Episcopal Divinity School in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. He retired in 1993. In 1993, he relocated to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, where he helped to found and was the executive director of Oasis/California, a gay and lesbian Episcopal ministry. He was also an interim dean at the School for Deacons in California. He also became the Bishop-in-Residence at the Church of St. John-the-Evangelist in San Francisco. Charles was also a founding editor of ''Millennium3'' which was distributed to all Episcopal clergy.

Honors

The Otis Charles Chair of Pastoral Theology was endowed at the Episcopal Divinity School in 1997.

Personal life

Charles married Elvira Latta on May 26, 1951. They had five children: Christopher, Nicholas, Emilie, Timothy, and Elvira. After his retirement in 1993, Charles publicly came out as gay, the first Christian bishop ever to take such a step. However, he told his wife that he was gay in 1976. He and his wife divorced shortly after his public announcement. Charles said, "I was ashamed of myself for remaining silent when the church was involved in an acrimonious debate about the whole question of gay people in the life of the church. I couldn't live with that any longer. I came to realize that I was only going to wither and die and it would be a destructive relationship for my wife and myself." On April 24, 2004, he had a commitment ceremony with Felipe Sanchez-Paris (1941 – July 31, 2013). He legally married Sanchez-Paris on September 29, 2008. Sanchez-Paris was a retired professor and political organizer; he had four ex-wives and four children. The two appear in the documentary film ''Love Free or Die,'' testifying about a resolution directing the Episcopal Church to create a provisional rite for the blessing of same-gender relationships at its 2009 General Convention in Anaheim, California. Sanchez-Paris died on July 30, 2013. In 2013, Charles died in San Francisco, California. He is buried alongside Sanchez-Paris at St. Mark's Cathedral,

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, Utah.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Otis 1926 births 2013 deaths People from Norristown, Pennsylvania 20th-century American Episcopalians Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni St. Anthony Hall Creighton University alumni General Theological Seminary alumni American Episcopal priests Episcopal Divinity School faculty Gay men LGBT Anglican bishops Episcopal bishops of Utah 21st-century American LGBT people