Henry Irving Louttit Sr. (January 1, 1903 – July 24, 1984) was bishop of

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

and

Central Florida Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, including the Tampa Bay area and the Gr ...

The Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine Ecclesiastical provinces and dioces ...

. His son,

Henry I. Louttit, Jr. Henry Irving Louttit, Jr. (June 13, 1938 – December 31, 2020) served as the ninth Bishop of Georgia. He was the 901st bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). Early and family life Henry I Louttit, Jr. was born ...

, was also a bishop.

Early life and education

Louttit was born on January 1, 1903, in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, the son of William Henry Louttit and Susan Bruman. He was educated at Hobart College in Geneva, New York, where he graduated with a

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degree in 1925. He then entered Virginia Theological Seminary and graduated with a

Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD or BDiv; la, Baccalaureus Divinitatis) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology ...

in 1929. He married Amy Cleckler on June 22, 1936, and together they had two sons. He was awarded a

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from both the Virginia Seminary and Hobart.

Ordained ministry

Louttit was ordained deacon on July 15, 1928, and priest on June 23, 1929. He became rector of All Saints' Church in Tarpon Springs, Florida. He then moved to his home parish, Trinity Church in

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to serve as a curate. From 1930 to 1933, he was rector of Holy Cross Church in

Sanford, Florida Sanford is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Seminole County. As of the 2020 census, its population was 61,051. Known as the "Historic Waterfront Gateway City", Sanford sits on the southern shore ...

. In 1933 he became the rector of

Holy Trinity Church Holy Trinity Church may refer to: Albania * Holy Trinity Church (Berat), Berat County * Holy Trinity Church, Lavdar, Opar, Korçë County Armenia * Holy Trinity Church, Yerevan Australia * Garrison Church, Sydney, South Wales, also known as ''H ...

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. During World War II, he enrolled as a chaplain in the

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with the 31st Infantry Division in the

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Episcopacy

On February 7, 1945, Louttit was elected on the second ballot as Suffragan Bishop of South Florida during a special diocesan meeting that took place in St Luke's Cathedral,

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. He was then consecrated on May 23, 1945, by the Bishop of South Florida John Durham Wing in

. On April 14, 1948, he was elected Coadjutor Bishop of South Florida and succeeded as diocesan on January 1, 1951. During his episcopate, the large Diocese of South Florida was divided in three in 1969. With his retirement on December 31, 1969, the Diocese of South Florida ceased to exist and he became the first Bishop of Central Florida. He served in that post till 1970, when a new bishop was elected. Louttit was also one of twelve bishops who formed a "Committee of Bishops to Defend the Faith" and charged the Bishop of California,

James Pike James Albert Pike (February 14, 1913–) was an American Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal bishop, accused heretic, iconoclast, prolific writer, and one of the first mainline, charismatic religious figures to appear regularly on televi ...

, with several heresies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Louttit, Henry I. Sr. 1903 births 1984 deaths Religious leaders from Buffalo, New York Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni Virginia Theological Seminary alumni 20th-century American Episcopalians Episcopal bishops of Central Florida Episcopal bishops of South Florida 20th-century American clergy