The Revd Dr C. K. Robertson writes:
THE Rt Revd Frank Griswold, the 25th Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of the United States, died on 5 March in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, aged 85.
Griswold, previously the 10th Bishop of the diocese of Chicago, was elected Presiding Bishop on 21 July 1997, during the 72nd General Convention of the Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia. In accordance with the canons, the election was held in the House of Bishops, gathered together in Christ Church, Philadelphia, Griswold receiving the necessary majority of votes on the third ballot, followed by strong assent to the election from the House of Deputies.
Pledging at his election to be “a presiding bishop who belongs to all”, Griswold succeeded Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning on 1 January 1998, the public investiture taking place on 10 January, at the Washington National Cathedral. He served until 1 November 2006, when he was succeeded by Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, of the diocese of Nevada. Griswold was the first presiding bishop to serve a nine-year term, after the 71st General Convention in 1994 reduced the term from 12 years.
Griswold’s words of greeting to both Houses of Convention after his election presaged his personal commitment throughout his primacy to listening to all and seeking reconciliation whenever possible. Quoting Archbishop Dom Helder Camara of Brazil, Griswold said: “Let no one be alarmed if I am seen with compromised and dangerous people on the left or the right. Let no one bind me to a group. My door, my heart must be open to everyone, absolutely everyone.” During his time as Presiding Bishop, he presented a framed inscription of these words to all newly consecrated bishops in the Episcopal Church.
A noted liturgist who chaired the Standing Liturgical Commission in the late 1990s, Griswold was also known for his ecumenical and interreligious work. During his time as Bishop of Chicago, he served as co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Theological Consultation in the United States (1992 to 1997). During his primacy, he served as co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) (1999-2003), helping to oversee the creation of a significant theological Agreed Statement, Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ. He met Pope John Paul II and built relationships with the leaders of various Orthodox Churches.
Griswold also shepherded the Episcopal Church in its move into full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Churches’ Called to Common Mission agreement was approved in 2000 and formally recognised during an Epiphany liturgy in 2001 at Washington National Cathedral. His commitment to interreligious dialogue was evident in his installation. He invited the then president of the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington and adviser to the American Muslim Council to speak — it was the first time that an Islamic leader had done so. Griswold also joined the board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute, a non-profit, UNESCO-sponsored organisation.
Griswold’s tenure as Presiding Bishop was marked by profound changes in and around the Church. As his 18-century predecessor, the first Presiding Bishop, William White, had had to help the Church to adapt to a new contextual reality after the War of Independence, so Griswold navigated the significant contextual shifts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He did so, in the words of his successor, Dr Jefferts Schori, as a “peaceable diplomat”. In his 1998 investiture sermon, he acknowledged the “capacity for ambiguity and paradox that is part of the glory and frustration of the Anglican Way”.
In 2003, six years into Griswold’s term, Canon Gene Robinson was elected by the diocesan convention of New Hampshire to be its next Bishop; this was the first time that an openly gay, partnered person had been elected. That summer, at the 74th General Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a majority of deputies and bishops with jurisdiction gave consent to that election, including Griswold, who noted: “I see no impediment to assenting to the overwhelming choice of the people of New Hampshire.” On 2 November, Griswold served as chief consecrator at Robinson’s service.
Amid increasing tension in the years that followed, Griswold took seriously his own challenge to members of the Church “to live the mystery of communion at a deeper level”, always doing so with a generous and light-hearted spirit. He continued to build deeper connections whenever possible, as when he led a delegation from the Episcopal Church to respond to a Communion document, The Windsor Report, at a 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham.
After retirement in 2006, Griswold continued to lead retreats, preach, and write. His books include Going Home: An invitation to jubilee (2000), Praying our Days: A guide and companion (2009), Tracking Down the Holy Ghost: Reflections on love and longing (2017). He also co-wrote Seeds and Faith and Harvest of Hope with the Revd Mark Allen McIntosh, whom Griswold named his Canon Theologian. During his sermon at McIntosh’s funeral, in November 2021, Griswold said: “Eternity is finding our true home beyond death within the eternal mystery of love and goodness we name as the Trinity.”
Drawing on his spirituality and love of the monastic tradition, Griswold served as a visiting professor in various places, including the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal Divinity School, Seabury-Western Seminary, and Virginia Theological Seminary. He also taught at several international locations, among them institutions in Cuba, Japan, and South Korea, and served as bishop visitor to the Society of St John the Evangelist. He was the recipient of honorary degrees from many seminaries, as well as Rikkyo University in Tokyo. He was also appointed an Associate Sub-Prelate of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, by Queen Elizabeth II, in 1997.
Frank Tracy Griswold III was born on 18 September 1937 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, and was educated at St Paul’s School in Concord, Massachusetts. A graduate of Harvard, the General Theological Seminary, and Oriel College, Oxford, he was ordained priest in 1963, and served his title at the Church of the Redeemer, Bryn Mawr, where he had been baptised and confirmed. He later served as Rector of St Andrew’s, Yardley, and of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Philadelphia, before being elected as bishop coadjutor in the diocese of Chicago, in 1985. He succeeded Bishop James Montgomery as diocesan Bishop in 1987.
Griswold was not the first in his family line to become a bishop. In the early 1900s, a cousin, Sheldon Munson Griswold, served first as Missionary Bishop of Salina, in what is now the diocese of Western Kansas, and later as Bishop of Chicago. Before that, Alexander Viets Griswold, another cousin, served as the fifth Presiding Bishop (1836-43).
His funeral was held on 18 March at St Luke’s, Germantown, Pennsylvania. The preacher was the present Presiding Bishop, the Most Revd Michael Curry, and Dr Jefferts Schori was in attendance.
Griswold is survived by his wife of 58 years, Phoebe Wetzel Griswold, his daughters, Eliza and Hannah, three grandchildren, and one brother.