The Rev. Thomas W. Gibbs Appointed Assistant to Bishop Bayne
Diocesan Press Service. April 4, 1968 [64-7]
The Rev. Thomas Woodrow Gibbs, III has been appointed Assistant to the Rt. Rev. Stephen F. Bayne, Jr., the Deputy for Program of the newly organized Staff Program Group of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church. The appointment, according to an announcement by the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop, on April 4th, was effective as of that date.
Father Gibbs will be the executive secretary assigned to implement the work of the Staff Program Group. This is the new key group created in a recent restructuring of the Executive Council of the Church. Headed by Bishop Bayne, the Staff Program Group is responsible to the Presiding Bishop and the Executive Council for central planning, decision-making, coordinating and carrying out the Church's General Program. Under the new group, the Council will continue to operate within the framework of policies and directives laid down by the Church's General Convention and Executive Council.
Father Gibbs became Associate Secretary of General Field Services of the Executive Council's Department of Christian Education in November, 1963. He was given a special assignment in the area of oversew Christian education to develop leadership and program resources for the overseas mission districts of the Church.
Before he came to the Executive Council he was with the Counter-Intelligence Corps, Washington, D. C. (1952 to 1955). He graduated BD from the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass., in 1958; and in the same year he was ordained Deacon and Priest by the Rt. Rev. A. Ervine Swift, Bishop-in-charge of the Virgin Islands. He was Curate of All Saints' Church, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, from 1958 to 1961, with primary responsibility for Christian Education and youth work. He was also a teacher at All Saints' Parochial School.
Father Gibbs was Rector of Holy Cross Church, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, from 1961 to 1963. He was graduated in 1951 from Amherst College, Amherst, Mass., Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude. He attended the University of Chicago Law School from 1951 to 1952.