UPDATED: Bishops Stephen Jecko, Frederick Putnam die on same day
Episcopal News Service. June 8, 2007 [060807-01]
Joe Bjordal, Freelance writer in the Diocese of Minnesota, Mary Frances Schjonberg
Bishop Stephen Hays Jecko, 67, and Bishop Frederick Warren Putnam, 89, both died on June 7.
Jecko was the retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida and had been serving the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas as an assisting bishop.
Dallas Bishop James Stanton will celebrate Jecko's life at a requiem on June 13 at 2 p.m. at Christ Church, in Plano, Texas.
Putnam was the retired Bishop Suffragan of Oklahoma and the retired Bishop of Navajoland. Putnam, who was ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, had been an assisting bishop to both Robert Anderson and James Jelinek, the seventh and eighth bishops of Minnesota.
A memorial service for Putnam, who died ten days before his 90th birthday, is set for 11 a.m. June 12 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Edina, Minnesota.
Jecko was elected to be the seventh bishop of Florida on December 11, 1993, and was ordained and consecrated on May 7, 1994 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida.
He was born in Washington, D.C., on January 15, 1940. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering at Syracuse University in 1964, a Master of Divinity at the General Theological Seminary (GTS) in 1967, and a Doctor of Ministry at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) in 1982. GTS and VTS awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree to him in the fall of 1994. The University of the South honored him with a D.D. in May 1995.
Jecko began his ordained ministry as a curate at Christ Church, Binghamton, New York in 1967. In 1969, he became priest-in-charge of St. Margaret's Church, Plainview, New York and served the congregation for five years. He went on to be associate rector at St. James' in Warrenton, Virginia in 1974, and rector at Zion Church, Rome, New York in 1977. He founded the Zion Episcopal School and served in local community organizations.
In 1984, he was called to the Diocese of Florida to become rector at St. Michael's Church in Gainesville. He became assistant to the bishop of Florida in 1990. In this capacity his primary focus was as chair of the Commission on Ministry. He designed the vocational deacon formation program and the diocesan process for what was then known as Canon 9 or local ordination.
Jecko was a chaplain with the Order of St. Luke, and a priest associate of the Order of The Holy Cross. He helped develop a Province IV priestly formation program that focused on the first three to seven years of ordained ministry. He also supported "efforts to enhance effective deployment of both lay and ordained ministries in the life of the Church," according to a biography on the diocesan website.
Following retirement in January of 2004, Jecko was invited to serve the Diocese of Dallas as Assistant Bishop, working with Bishop James M. Stanton.
Jecko lived with his wife Joan in Plano, Texas. He has two sons, a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter.
Florida Bishop John Howard was enroute to Cuba for the consecration of two new suffragan bishops -- Nerva Cot Aguilera and Ulises Aguero Prendes -- and was not available for comment. The diocese has a companion diocese relationship with the Episcopal Church of Cuba.
Putnam, a native of Red Wing, Minnesota, attended the University of Minnesota and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He was ordained a deacon on March 8, 1942 by then-Minnesota Bishop Frank McElwain and as a priest on October 1, 1942 by then-Minnesota Bishop Coadjutor Stephen Keeler. Seabury-Western awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1963.
He served parishes in Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas before being elected bishop suffragan of Oklahoma in 1963. He served in that position until 1979, when then-Presiding Bishop John Allin appointed him the first resident bishop of the new Navajoland Area Mission, which was created by General Convention in 1976 and covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
Age 61 at the time of his appointment to Navajoland, Putnam told the Episcopal News Service it was a rare chance to begin a new work at a time when many of his contemporaries were beginning to think about retirement.
The creation of such a diocese had never before been attempted in the Episcopal Church. Putnam described the work as "so new a concept that you start from scratch."
"In a way we are 'writing the book' for area missions," he explained.
One of Putnam's first priorities for the mission area was the raising up of seminary-trained Navajo clergy. During his four-year tenure he built up a clergy team of seven -- from the two who were ministering at the start -- and saw "the unique area mission grow into a smoothly-working cooperative venture, welding the Navajo people of three former dioceses into a cohesive unit," reported the Episcopal News Service on the date of Putnam's farewell eucharist in Navajoland.
Putnam served Navajoland for four years, retiring at age 65 in 1982. He then returned to his native diocese.
Jelinek said June 8 that Putnam was often the senior member present at the House of Bishops in recent years (including at the 75th General Convention in 2006) and was very proud to "be the first" in votes that were taken by seniority.
Putnam was preceded in death by his wife, Helen. He is survived by three sons and a sister.