William A. Jones, Jr., Elected Bishop of Missouri
Diocesan Press Service. December 23, 1974 [74361]
Isabel Baumgartner, Editor, The Tennessee Churchman
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- The Rev. William A. Jones, Jr., 47, since 1972 rector of St. John's Episcopal Church here, has been elected eighth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri.
He was chosen from a slate of four nominees at a special diocesan convention held December 7 at Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis.
The Diocese comprises 57 parishes and missions in the eastern half of the state of Missouri, with 88 clergymen and some 14,000 communicants.
After the election receives consents from a majority of all the Episcopal Church's diocesan bishops and standing committees, the consecration ceremony will be scheduled, probably by mid-April. Missouri's present bishop, the Rt. Rev. George L. Cadigan, will retire at that time.
A Memphis native, Bishop-elect Jones was graduated from Southwestern At Memphis in 1948 with a B.A. degree. He earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale University in 1951.
He served Church of the Messiah, Pulaski, from 1952-57, and the following year was curate at Nashville's Christ Church. From 1958-65 he was rector of St. Mark's in LaGrange, Georgia. After one subsequent year as associate rector of St. Luke's in the Mountain Brook suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, he undertook from Memphis new work which linked him to Christians of many persuasions across the southeast.
As first executive director of ACTS (The Association for Christian Training and Service), Bishop-elect Jones spent six years developing this ecumenical agency which offers new skills to both clergy and lay people for ministry in today's urban society.
The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee was a key sponsor for ACTS, which gained wide support from nine additional communions. Its present staff of four professional consultants aids church and community groups from offices in Nashville, Charlotte, N. C., and Atlanta, Ga.
In Johnson City, Bishop-elect Jones is a board member of the Watauga Area Mental Health Center and of the United Way.
He has served on the Department of Mission of the Diocese of Tennessee, and is now a member of its interim governing body, the Bishop & Council. He led Christian education conferences at Kanuga, near Hendersonville, N.C., the past three summers for Episcopalians across the southeast.
The Bishop-elect's mother, Mrs. William Jones, resides in Memphis.
He was married in 1949 to Margaret Loaring-Clark, whose father, the late Rev. Alfred Loaring-Clark, was longtime rector of St. John's parish in Memphis. The Joneses have four daughters.
He is the third onetime Tennessee priest to be elevated to the Church's episcopate during the past two years. The Rt. Rev. Robert P. Atkinson, chosen Bishop Coadjutor of West Virginia in February 1973, was rector of Calvary Church, Memphis, at the time. The Bishop Coadjutor of Florida, the Rt. Rev. Frank S. Cerveny, was elected in February 1974, two years after he had left St. John's, Knoxville, to become dean of Jacksonville's Cathedral.