John Newton McCormick (February 1, 1863 - November 26, 1939) was bishop of Western Michigan in

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 ...

. He was the author of ''Good News from a Far Country'' and ''A Small Part''.

Early life and education

McCormick was born on February 1, 1863, in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, the son of John McCormick and Virginia Newton. He studied at the Randolph–Macon College, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and 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 1883. He also did some postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University between 1886 and 1888. He was awarded a

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

from the University of the South in 1903. On October 9, 1889, he married Bessie Chapman Tucker in

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Career

McCormick was ordained deacon in 1883 and priest in 1884 in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He then served as pastor in Frederick, Maryland, between 1884 and 1885, Arlington, Maryland, between 1885 and 1887, Trinity Church in

between 1888 and 1889, and in Winchester, Virginia, between 1890 and 1891. McCormick then joined the Episcopal Church, being ordained a deacon on December 4, 1893, and priest on March 16, 1894, by the Bishop of Southern Virginia Alfred Magill Randolph. He served as rector of St Paul’s Church in

Suffolk, Virginia Suffolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as such has no county. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,324. It is the 9th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia by boundary land area as ...

, between 1893 and 1895, rector of St Luke’s Church in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1895 and 1898, and rector of St Mark’s Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, between 1898 and 1906.

Bishop

McCormick was elected Coadjutor Bishop of Western Michigan in December 1905, and was consecrated on February 14, 1906, by Presiding Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle. He then succeeded as diocesan bishop on March 19, 1909, retaining the post till his retirement in 1937. McCormick also served as Bishop in charge of the American churches in Europe, represented the war communications of the Episcopal Church in France between 1917 and 1919, and was a major in the American Red Cross, in charge of Red Cross Chaplain’s Bureau. Consequently, he was known as the ''Bishop of the Trenches''. He died of heart disease in his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on November 26, 1939."BISHOP M'CORMICK, WORLD WAR FIGURE; 'Bishop of the Trenches' to A.E.F. Troops in France Dies in Grand Rapids at 76"
'' New York Times'', 27 November 1939, New York, NY. Retrieved on 30 December 2020.

References

1863 births 1939 deaths Religious leaders from Richmond, Virginia Episcopal bishops of Western Michigan Converts to Anglicanism from Methodism World War I chaplains 20th-century American clergy {{US-Anglican-bishop-stub