Robert Rae Spears Jr., fifth bishop of Rochester, dies
Episcopal News Service. March 18, 2008 [031808-04]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Robert Rae Spears Jr., 89, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester from 1970 to 1984, died March 18.
"Bishop Spears made the diocese a healthy and vibrant place, though somewhat divided because of his determination to stand for justice and on the side of those who need advocacy," the current Bishop of Rochester, Jack McKelvey, said March 18 in a diocesan news release. "He was a trusted and valued colleague."
Spears came to Rochester at the height of racial and anti-Viet Nam war riots all over the U.S., including in the city of Rochester. He supported the African-American community in its efforts to find a voice and empowerment in Rochester, according to the release.
He had previously participated in a group led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others in a non-violent protest for voting rights in Selma, Alabama.
Spears also worked on behalf of the Visitors’ Center at the state prison in Attica, New York, his home town. He was active in the anti-war movement during the Viet Nam war and led a delegation from Rochester to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to stand in solidarity with Jesuit poet and peace activist the Rev. Daniel Berrigan.
Born in Rochester in 1918, Spears was a graduate of Hobart College (now known as Hobart and William Smith Colleges) and the General Theological Seminary in New York City. He served congregations in New York and New Jersey prior to his election as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Western Missouri in 1967. He served that diocese until his election as Bishop of Rochester in 1970.
Given his passion for issues of human rights and freedoms, the Diocese of Rochester found itself at the forefront of the efforts for the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church, the release said.
In 1976, Spears was one of 67 bishops who sponsored a General Convention resolution to permit ordination of women to all orders of ministry. That convention did, in fact, agree to allow women's ordination via Resolution B005.
Very recently, as he was reflecting on this time, according to the release, he said: “I am continually astonished and pleased at what has happened because women are now priests in the church. It’s almost unbelievable, what their influence has been. All of a sudden there was a new form of courage coming out of the Episcopal Church that wasn’t there before. That’s because it took courageous people to put themselves up for all the crap that you went through as a woman to get ordained.”
Spears was a strong advocate for the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the church, according to the diocesan release, and appointed the first commission aimed at bringing about change in Rochester. He co-chaired the national Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Human Affairs and Health from 1976-1979. That commission released a report in 1979 in which it said that it would recommend to the General Convention meeting later than year in Denver, Colorado, that no "particular human condition" be singled out and made a barrier to ordination.
"The question, with regard to any ordinand, is whether he or she can and will lead a life which is a wholesome example to Christ's flock," the report proposed statement to Convention said.
Spears was a candidate to become Presiding Bishop in 1973 when John M. Allin was elected. Spears that year also co-chaired the commission which revised the Episcopal Church's canons on marriage.
Spears' commitment to ecumenical endeavors produced a covenant between the Rochester Roman Catholic Diocese and the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester in the early 1980s, according to the release.
Young people were also very much a part of his ministry and while he was bishop in Rochester, a diocesan youth council was formed from whose membership many have become leaders in the church, including the Rev. Canon Steve Lane, who is due to be consecrated May 8 as the bishop coadjutor of Maine.
Spears is survived by his wife Charlotte and their children.