June 25 designated as 'Bishop Guerry Sunday'

The Episcopal Church in South Carolina will remember William Alexander Guerry as Bishop, Reformer and Martyr on Sunday, June 25, as the diocese continues to share the remarkable story of our 8th Bishop.

Bishop Skip Adams told the Diocesan Council on April 25 that he will encourage congregations in the diocese to use readings and prayers for Bishop Guerry's feast day. Dean Michael Wright said the Diocesan Liturgical Commission will be preparing materials for congregations to use; they will be made available in mid-May.

Bishop Guerry died June 9, 1928, five days after being shot in his office by a priest who had attacked the bishop’s position on advancing racial equality in South Carolina, and his proposal to install a black suffragan bishop in thediocese. The priest then took his own life. Bishop Guerry, in the hospital before he died, said of his assailant, “Forgive him, Father, he knew not what he did.”

Dean Wright, Bishop Adams, Chancellor Thomas Tisdale and many others in thediocese have been working to share Bishop Guerry's history with the wider church. Canterbury Cathedral now remembers him each June in its Chapel of Martyrs, and Bishop Adams recently related the story to a group at theSpring House of Bishops meeting.

"The more the story is told, the more it resonates," Dean Wright told theDiocesan Council.

Learn more about Bishop Guerry on the diocesan website. Liturgical resources and bulletin inserts will be mailed to congregations, shared in this enewsletter, and posted on the website later this month.

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