Theodore Sumner Gibson (1885–1953) was the second Anglican Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman and subsequently the fifth Bishop of St John's from (collectively) 1928 until 1951.

Early life

Born into a clerical family he was educated at Marlborough and Keble College, Oxford.

Ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

in 1909 and

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

a year later his first post was as curate at ''All Saints, Wokingham''.

South Africa

His next post was in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

and, after a brief return to Brixton between 1916 and 1919, he returned to spend the bulk of his career there. After a Chaplaincy to the De Beers work force in Kimberley he rose rapidly within the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman. As archdeacon, then

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 c ...

of a challenging area his ''

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'' obituary noted he His episcopate in Kimberley and Kuruman was marked by poverty in the diocese. Prayer intentions for January 1935 included: "Distress in Kimberley and on the River Diggings…" Similar dedication was shown when he was

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

to St John's. While Cochrane, in his book, ''The Servants of Power'', has written of the church of this era in South Africa as being typified by a "growing interest in apolitical spirituality," it has been noted that Bishop Gibson tracked political matters closely: hardly a bill went before parliament without his having commented on it.

Madehurst, Sussex

On retirement, Gibson was

Priest in charge A priest in charge or priest-in-charge (previously also curate-in-charge) in the Church of England is a priest in charge of a parish who is not its incumbent. Such priests are not legally responsible for the churches and glebe, but simply hold a ...

at Madehurst in Sussex.

Liturgical matters

Gibson engaged in important liturgical work, having served as secretary to the Liturgical Committee of the

Church of the Province of South Africa The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are loc ...

from 1931 to 1950. The 'South African liturgy' – the Prayer Books of 1924 and 1954 – were widely acknowledged as amongst the "most satisfactory" in the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Theodore Sumner 1885 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Anglican Church of Southern Africa bishops Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Anglican archdeacons in Africa Anglican bishops of Kimberley and Kuruman Anglican bishops of St John's People educated at Marlborough College People from Arun District 19th-century Anglican theologians 20th-century Anglican theologians