John Robert Wright (October 20, 1936 – January 12, 2022) was an American Episcopal priest and

St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery is a parish of the Episcopal Church located at 131 East 10th Street, at the intersection of Stuyvesant Street and Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The property has bee ...

professor at

General Theological Seminary The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (GTS) is an Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal seminary in New York City. Founded in 1817, GTS is the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church and the longest continuously operating ...

and a church historian. Wright was Professor Emeritus of Ecclesiastical History at the

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. He was a specialist in

patristic Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...

studies and an authority on the Anglican ''

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 ...

'' and on Russian Orthodox and other icons. He was the longest-tenured faculty member at the General Theological Seminary. Wright was known for his engagement in ecumenical dialogues between the US Episcopal Church and other churches, particularly the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

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, and Russian Orthodox, as well as the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxim ...

, the Old Catholics, and the Philippine Independent Church. He was the principal Episcopal author of the

Called to Common Mission Called to Common Mission (CCM) is an agreement between The Episcopal Church (ECUSA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in the United States, establishing full communion between them. It was ratified by the ELCA in 1999, the ECUSA ...

accord with the

Early life and education

Wright was born on October 20, 1936. He did his undergraduate work at the University of the South in Sewanee and also studied at

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and the

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Career

Wright wrote a history of St. Thomas Church in New York City as well as a history of the church and the English crown in the 14th century, based on his research into the records of Archbishop Walter Reynolds. In 2008, he published a commentary on the ''Ecclesiastical History'' by the

Venerable Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...

. Wright was the president of the former US Anglican Society and the chaplain, in perpetuity, of the

Guild of Scholars of The Episcopal Church The Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church is a society of lay Episcopal academics, teachers, artists and professional practitioners which for many years met annually at General Theological Seminary in New York in November of each year. Since ...

. He was the immediate past Historiographer of the Episcopal Church in the US and a member of the advisory board of Project Canterbury. In 2007, he was awarded the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...

Cross of St Augustine The Cross of St Augustine is an award of merit in the gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is awarded to members of the Anglican Communion who have made significant contributions to the life of the worldwide Communion, or to a particular auton ...

for his scholarly contribution to ecumenical dialogue. In 2010, a group of his students presented a prayer book owned by

William Reed Huntington William Reed Huntington (September 20, 1838 – July 26, 1909) was an American Episcopal priest and author, and known as the "First Presbyter of the Episcopal Church." Life Huntington was born September 20, 1838 in Lowell, Massachusetts. He wa ...

to the General Theological Seminary in Wright's honor. In 2010, as the result of a letter he published in the ''

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'', Wright made a lecture tour in

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a international recognition of Kosovo, partiall ...

as the guest of the

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was cha ...

there. As of July 2012, he was completing a study of the (Anglican)

Thirty-Nine Articles The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (commonly abbreviated as the Thirty-nine Articles or the XXXIX Articles) are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the ...

of Religion with the assistance of his student Daniel Fowler, and his major essay on

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 o ...

was published in the 2013 ''Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion''.

Death

Wright was hospitalized with pneumonia derived from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

in late 2021, but was released. He died in his New York City home on January 12, 2022, at the age of 85.

Honors

A ''festschrift'' in his honor, ''One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism: Studies in Christian Ecclesiality and Ecumenism in honor of J. Robert Wright'', edited by Marsha L. Dutton and Patrick Terrell Gray, copyedited by Richard Mammana, was published in 2006 by Eerdmans on the occasion of Wright's 70th birthday.

References

External links

J. Robert Wright
Project Canterbury
J. Robert Wright, church historian, ecumenist, dies at 85
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, J. Robert 1936 births 2022 deaths 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American Episcopal priests American male non-fiction writers General Theological Seminary faculty Recipients of the Cross of St Augustine Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)