Trailblazers play a unique role in the world. They walk on paths where no one else has traveled, often bringing light and possibility to places that have previously known only darkness and despair.

For those who were moved by the first female Episcopal Bishop of Washington speaking truth to power from the Washington National Cathedral’s Canterbury Pulpit at last month’s National Prayer Service, Bishop Mariann Budde‘s trailblazing presence in that role follows another pioneer, one whose life and ministry was honored and celebrated at a Choral Evensong this past Wednesday. This year marks two significant milestones in the life of the man who was the first African American Episcopal Bishop of Washington, The Right Reverend John T. Walker, sixth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and former dean of Washington National Cathedral. The 100th anniversary of Bishop Walker’s birth and the 70th anniversary of his ordination on February 19, 1955, are being celebrated this year. The readings, music, and prayers for the service were drawn from and influenced by the liturgies of Bishop Walker’s consecration as suffragan bishop on June 29, 1971, and his funeral on October 5, 1989.

Bishop John Thomas Walker was born in 1925 to sharecropping parents in Barnesville, Georgia. He grew up in Detroit, his family part of the Great Migration of African Americans from southern states. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather were ministers in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Walker joined the Episcopal Church after college and discerned a call to priesthood, becoming the first African American to attend Virginia Theological Seminary in 1951. After parish ministry in Detroit, he accepted a call to teach at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. 

In a moving remembrance from 2019, Bishop Mariann outlined his story, noting that he came to the Cathedral in the mid-1960s as the first Canon Missioner.

“As an African American whose life bridged the worst of Jim Crow and the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement, he knew the pernicious evil of racism and yet refused to be defined by it. He integrated nearly every institution he attended, joined and led, and he helped others walk proudly through the doors of church and society that had previously been closed to them.

The Diocese of Washington elected John Walker as bishop twice, first as Bishop Suffragan in 1971, and then as Diocesan in 1977. As bishop, Walker realized that the completion of Washington National Cathedral fell to him. In a move that takes my breath away, he named himself both bishop and dean of the Cathedral. He then poured himself into the hard work of fundraising for the Cathedral, while at the same time leading the diocese and providing moral leadership during one of the most volatile periods of our society. He was, in the eyes of some, a moderate, yet he never shied away from the pressing issues of his day.” 

Sadly, Bishop Walker’s death came on September 29, 1989, the very day chosen to mark the beginning of a full year’s celebration of the Cathedral’s completion. As Bishop Mariann wrote, “Reading the accounts of that day, you can feel grief rising from the page—the stunned sense of loss and immediate resolve to carry his light forward.”

The full service honoring the life, ministry, and legacy of Bishop John T. Walker can be seen on the Cathedral’s website.

After an organ prelude, the service began with the choir singing Moses Hogan’s arrangement of the spiritual Give Me Jesus (at the 8:50 mark). I was also very moved by the Matthew Glandorf arrangement (at the 22:00 mark) of the Phos hilaron, an ancient lamp-lighting hymn that is used for evening prayer and seemed especially appropriate given Bishop Walker’s legacy of lighting the spaces where he moved. Eugene Sutton’s remembrance of John Walker at Evensong reflects this legacy, as Sutton—the Retired Bishop of Maryland—spoke to how as a young African American he could see possibilities because of the life of Bishop Walker.

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I’ve included two additional videos, reflecting different approaches to those two musical experiences. The first is of Kenneth Hanson in concert at Convent Avenue Baptist Church in New York City singing the Hogan arrangement of Give Me Jesus. Mr. Hanson sings with the Harlem Jubilee Singers.

And although it is a different arrangement, I also appreciate The Gesualdo Six‘s Phos hilaron. As the program note states:

“Among the earliest known Christian hymns, Phos hilaron (‘Gladdening light’) can be dated to at least the fourth century on account of its inclusion in the Apostolic Constitutions—prescriptive texts compiled in the Syrian region in the 370s AD. Contemplating the dying light of the evening, the hymn has traditionally been associated with the ritual lighting of candles, and Owain Park’s 2017 setting, which features a solo line accompanied by soft-grained chords, evokes both the literal and spiritual contrast between darkness and illumination.”

One of the readings at the Evensong came from the words of Bishop Walker, and I’ll close with his remarks.

“We are preparing our children for a life in a complex, pluralistic society. My friends, I am convinced that we can begin here a process of openness to new ideas, to bring about change in society. We can offer as the chief option of life—inclusiveness opposed to exclusiveness; trust as opposed to distrust; love of each other; we can help them to make caring responses to each other; we can help to raise them up when they fall and set them on a course that may make this a better world for them and for their posterity.”

With gladness for the life, ministry, and legacy of The Right Reverand John Thomas Walker. May he rest in peace.

More to come . . .

DJB

Photo by CHIRAG K on Unsplash