Steven Charleston (born February 15, 1949) is a retired American Episcopal bishop and academic. He was bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Alaska The Episcopal Diocese of Alaska is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with jurisdiction over the state of Alaska. Established in 1895, it has the largest geographical reach of any diocese in the Episcopal Church, ...

from 1991 to 1996, and dean of

Episcopal Divinity School The Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) is a theological school in New York City that trains students for service with the Episcopal Church. It is affiliated with the Union Theological Seminary. Students who enroll in the EDS at Union Anglican st ...

, from 1999 to 2008.

Early life and education

Charleston was born and grew up in Oklahoma and is a citizen of the

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma The Choctaw Nation (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American territory covering about , occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United St ...

. In 1971 he received a bachelor's degree in Religion from

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 ...

in Hartford, Connecticut, followed by a master's degree in Divinity from Episcopal Divinity School in 1976.

Ordained ministry

He later worked in Native American ministries and held various teaching positions. In 1999, following the divisions exposed by the previous year's

Lambeth Conference The Lambeth Conference is a decennial assembly of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place at Lambeth in 1867. As the Anglican Communion is an international association ...

, he was the author of the Cambridge Accord: an attempt to reach agreement on at least the

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

of homosexual people, notwithstanding controversy within 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 ...

about the churches' views of homosexuality. As of 2017 Charleston was adjunct professor of Native American ministries at

Saint Paul School of Theology Saint Paul School of Theology (SPST) is a United Methodist seminary in Leawood, Kansas, United States. In addition to the Kansas City area campus at Church of the Resurrection, Saint Paul School of Theology at Oklahoma City University has been ...

, based at

Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The university offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, graduate master's degrees and docto ...

. Via the web at the same time he described himself as a "Native American elder, author, and retired Episcopal bishop", and maintained a public presence through his Facebook page of daily spiritual reflections. He has

self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ...

several volumes of these reflections, plus two novels of a planned trilogy, through his company Red Moon Publications.

Bibliography

* * * * * * Self-published annual collections of Charleston's daily reflections: ** ** ** ** ** *Self-published novels: ** ** **

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charleston, Steven 1949 births Living people Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma people Native American Episcopalians Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni Episcopal Divinity School alumni Episcopal bishops of Alaska