The Rt. Rev. John Bowen Coburn has spent a lifetime of service to others in the church and the community. He has been successively a teacher, Navy chaplain, rector of parishes, college chaplain, cathedral dean, seminary dean, deputy to seven General Conventions, and president of the House of Deputies at three of these, a diocesan bishop, author and lecturer.

He is a charter trustee of Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1936 with high honors. For three years he was a teacher at Robert College, Istanbul, Turkey, where he met and later married Ruth Alvord Barnum, daughter of a Robert College professor. They are the parents of four children.

After graduating from Union Theological Seminary in 1942 and a brief period as assistant at Grace Church, New York City, he served as a Navy chaplain in the Pacific. His ship was in Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremonies ending World War II.

For seven years, he held the position of rector at Grace Church, Amherst, Mass., as well as chaplain of Amherst College and coach of the lacrosse team, followed by four years of inner-city service as dean of Trinity Cathedral, Newark.

As dean of Episcopal Theological School for 12 years, he shaped the lives of many students who went on to positions of leadership in the Episcopal Church.

"Dean Coburn had a knack of affirming an individual student," said the Rev. Reynolds S. Cheney II, rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, Memphis, Tenn., and a member of the Executive Council. "A vivid example of his practical spirituality was his elimination of mandatory attendance at the services in the chapel, stating that an individual is not truly free to pray until he or she is free not to pray."

In 1968, feeling the need to reach people not in the pews, he took a one-year sabbatical to teach ninth grade English in New York City, followed by six years as rector of St. James' Church. He was elected president of the House of Deputies in 1967 and served until 1976. His address in 1970 is prophetic as the church prepares now for the convention in Denver:

"It may well be that in the course of this General Convention in Houston we shall come to discover that the greatest contribution the church can ever make to any society is the gift of Spirit to deal with issues that divide the society," he said. "It is to speak the truth boldly as God gives us to know the truth. When that truth is spoken in love, then the differences that do not disappear are reconciled."

No one at the 1976 General Convention will ever forget the dramatic moments of the vote and his sensitive chairing of the House of Deputies in the debate and the passage of the canon permitting the ordination of women. The Very Rev. David M. Collins, as chair of the Committee on Ministry, concluded the report of his committee recommending adoption of the canon by calling for five minutes of silence before the vote. When the vote was to be announced, President Coburn requested no display of emotions. As evidence of his calm but firm leadership, the request was honored.

Dean Collins, who later became president of the House of Deputies, said recently, "I did then and do now consider John Coburn to be the very model of the president of the House of Deputies. He had the sense of the house and the voice and the wit and the humor to preside perfectly."

Elected Bishop of Massachusetts some seven months before the 1976 General Convention, he had the integrity to fulfill his commitment as president of the House of Deputies before being consecrated bishop.

His episcopacy was noted for ecumenical outreach. He was a founder of the Boston Theological Institute, which continues today as a beacon of ecumenical relations.

The Rev. George L. Blackman, historiographer of the Diocese of Massachusetts, observes that Bishop Coburn put into question everything in the life of the diocese. "He opened the door for reform leading the church into a new era with new ways."

The Rt. Rev. Robert B. Appleyard, retired Bishop of Pittsburgh and a close friend of Bishop Coburn, said that "John Coburn has shown mutual respect for and acceptance of the differences of people and their positions, which are critical to the mission of the church."

He is the author of some 10 books, including Anne and the Sand Dobbies, 1964, a powerful commentary on grief over the death of their young child, and Christ's Life, Our Life, 1978. In retirement, he has continued a busy life, fulfilling lecture assignments among other things.o

Charles M. Crump is chancellor of the Diocese of West Tennessee and former vice president of the House of Deputies (1967-1970).