New Episcopal Bishop of Delaware to be Consecrated
Diocesan Press Service. April 11, 1975 [75129]
WILMINGTON, Del. -- The Rev. William Hawley Clark will become the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware in a two-part ceremony May 16-18 in Wilmington.
The first event will be the consecration of The Rev. Mr. Clark to the office of bishop. This will take place at 11 a.m., May 16 in Christ Our King Roman Catholic Church.
The following Sunday, May 18, the new bishop will assume his place as head of the 20,000-member diocese in an installation ceremony at 3:30 p.m. in the Episcopal Church's Cathedral Church of St. John.
Officiating at the consecration will be The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Co-consecrators will be The Rt. Rev. John M. Burgess, Bishop of Massachusetts, under whom The Rev. Mr. Clark served before coming to Delaware, and The Rt. Rev. William Davidson, Bishop of Western Kansas. Bishop Davidson and Bishop-elect Clark were fellow delegates to the World Conference of Christian Youth at Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1939. Two former heads of the Diocese of Delaware are expected to participate in the service -- The Rt. Rev. Arthur R. McKinstry (retired) and The Rt. Rev. J. Brooke Mosley, now serving in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. In addition, bishops of a number of neighboring dioceses will take part.
The preacher for the Consecration will be Professor E. William Muehl of Yale Divinity School, who was The Rev. Mr. Clark's roommate at the University of Michigan. The consecration will have ecumenical overtones. In addition to taking place in a Roman Catholic parish church, the service will include the leaders of many denominations in Delaware and other representatives of the religious community. Christ Our King, the largest church building in Wilmington, was made available by the Catholic Diocese so that as many persons as possible could join in the service.
The Sunday afternoon service, while designed primarily for installation of the new bishop, will also provide a setting for his first official episcopal act. He will conduct confirmation for candidates from the Cathedral parish as well as candidates from a number of other parishes in the Diocese.
The installation service will have added significance as the final event in a 10-day celebration of St. John's 40th anniversary as the Cathedral Church for the Diocese. The parish was founded in 1857 and the church building was completed in 1858. It became the Cathedral in May, 1935.
The Rev. Mr. Clark was elected to be Delaware's eighth bishop at a convention of the Diocese January 24 at St. David's Church, Brandywine Hundred. He succeeds The Rt. Rev. William H. Mead, who died February 25, 1974.
Preparation for the election included a three-month process of self-evaluation by the Diocese in which the criteria for nominees was developed. This was followed by a long period of search for candidates, interviews and screening by a 15-member nominating committee, and finally selection of the five nominees who were presented to the convention. At the time of his election, The Rev. Mr. Clark was serving as Executive Director of the Worcester County Ecumenical Council in Massachusetts.
Previously he served as rector of parishes in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Concord, Massachusetts, Monroe, Connecticut, Flint, Michigan, and Flushing, Michigan. From 1962 to 1965, he was an Associate Secretary of the World Council of Churches, stationed in Geneva, Switzerland.
Bishop-elect Clark, 55, is a native of Escanaba, Michigan. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Yale Divinity School. He also has done graduate work at a number of other institutions, including the American University, Beirut, Lebanon; St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, England; and the Ecumenical Institute, Geneva. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1946.
The Rev. Mr. Clark has been a frequent visitor to Delaware since his election. He and his wife moved to Wilmington at the end of March and he began his official duties on April 1.
The Clarks have three children: William, West Hartford, Conn., Mary Elizabeth Clark Schmidt, Panama City, Panama, and David, Boston, Mass.