Arthur E. Woolley (July 27, 1931 – May 29, 2021) was an Episcopal priest noted for urban activism, racially integrated parishes, and conservative declarations, especially against the ordination of women.

Early life

Son of a U.S. Army officer, his mother died in childbirth, he attended Brooklyn Tech, Andrew Jackson High School, and Queens College.[1] At Queens College, he met, and eventually married Alma Schelle. But marrying meant he had to leave the seminary in which he was enrolled, Nashotah House, which had no married housing accommodations to finish his seminary studies at Philadelphia Divinity School (which later merged with the Episcopal Divinity School).[2]

Career

In Jamaica, Queens, he led St. Alban's, a parish of predominantly black congregants and made efforts against "block busting" by local realtors taking advantage of racial fears to force home sales.[3] Moving on to Philadelphia in the 1960s, he merged a mature white parish, St. Barnabas, with a black parish, St. Cyprian's, which had been displaced by redevelopment.[4] After the merger, he ran racially integrated summer camps in the solid white, Italian neighborhood, coopting mainline parishes and parishioners to help.[5]

But he also openly disagreed with the Episcopal diocesan bishop's stance opposing the U.S. military involvement in Vietnam and called for the resignation of the bishop Robert DeWitt after one of his favored clergy called for burning draft cards.[6] Responding to the controversy, Bishop Dewitt forbade his clergy from making any public calls for civil disobedience.[7] Meanwhile, Woolley publicly condemned "phony" peace groups that "decry war" abroad but "condone, excuse, or fail to condemn violence in the streets, riots and other violent means used at home to bring about change."[8]

In 1970, Woolley moved from Philadelphia to Wildwood, New Jersey, to become rector of St. Simeon's by-the-Sea and found controversy there as well. He ran for the North Wildwood school board as a write-in candidate and won.[9] When he criticized the Guidance Department of the K-8 school as "singularly ineffective" and led a vote to eliminate it, the teachers union demanded an apology and filed a grievance against him.[10] He said the union's action was meant "to intimidate freedom of discussion on the part of any member of the board.”[11]

Woolley got involved in other civic affairs, including chairing the diocesan committee on migrant ministry which aided Hispanic farm workers in the rural counties of south jersey and chairing the county's Citizens Advisory Board for Health and Human Health Services.[12] He also paid off the debt of the parish.[13] But it was as co-founder of Operation Junction that he made the most noise as the organization tried to address problems of the youthful tourist population, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexually transmitted disease.[14] It soon went from counselling abusers to treatment, including treatment of VD,[15] and then to providing methadone to heroin addicts.[16]

At the same time, he loudly opposed the ordination of women as priests in the Episcopal Church, saying the issue had "brought the [Episcopal] Church into schism, if it is not actually heretical.".[17] Yet, when the "new" Book of Common Prayer appeared in 1979, Woolley embraced it, and disparaged conservative opposition to it, saying "people who want to go back to the good old days don't know what the good old days were."[18]

Moving on to St. Christopher's in Princeton, Illinois,[19] in the Diocese of Quincy which did not ordain women as priests, he merged two small, rival parishes, St. Christopher's and St. Jude's, Tiskilwa, to make a larger, sustainable congregation.[20] He returned to the east coast in 1986 to become rector of St. Luke's, Bladensburg, MD where he made a splash rejecting the visit of the female suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., Jane Dixon. Woolley wrote to her: "As long as I am rector of St. Luke's, Bladensburg, no woman bishop or priest will be permitted to minister in this cure," a congregation which was described as "very diverse, drawing members from the Caribbean, India and Africa, where they worshiped in the conservative Anglican tradition."[21] "They're certainly not going to change our view, and we're not going to change theirs," said Patrick Delaney, the Senior Warden of the parish, "so why not leave us alone and let us worship in peace? Don't be arrogant or mean-spirited..."[22] Bishop Dixon nonetheless made her official visit bringing 45 supporters with her, joined by nine of St. Luke's parishioners, while Woolley absented himself.[23] Later, after Woolley retired, the parish left the Episcopal Church for the Roman Catholic church which did not ordain women as priests.[24]

Retiring from St. Luke's, Bladensburg, he took on interim rectorships at Mount Calvary, Baltimore, which also later left the Episcopal Church for the Roman Catholic Church and then St. Timothy's, Catonsville, MD, but after his wife, Alma S. Woolley, died, he left the Episcopal Church to join the Anglican Catholic Church, a splinter which opposed both the ordination of women and the “new” 1979 Book of Common Prayer.[25] He became rector of St. Michael and All Angels in Frederick, MD, retiring a fourth time in 2013.[26]

References

  1. ↑ "The Rev. Arthur E. Woolley, 1931-2021". The Chapter. Nashotah House. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  2. ↑ "Woolley, Arthur E.: Conservative Anglo-Catholic Priest and Activist". The Washington Times, p. A9. 3 Jun 2021.
  3. ↑ Washington Times', "Woolley, Arthur E. Conservative Priest and Activist" 3 Jun 2021.
  4. ↑ "New Community Basis for Merger". Philadelphia Tribune. 21 Mar 1964. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  5. ↑ Kimbell, Elizabeth (1 August 1968). "St. Barnabas Parish Kids Are Guests in Ardmore". No. Vol. No. LXXIX No. 38, p. 3. The Main Line Chronicle.
  6. ↑ Ingram, George (30 Oct 1967). "Cleric Urges Resignation of DeWitt". Philadelphia Inquirer.
  7. ↑ "Rector Asks Bishop DeWitt to Resign Post". The Evening Bulletin. 30 October 1967.
  8. ↑ "Assign Gracie to a Parish Cleric Says". The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 1 Feb 1968.
  9. ↑ Diamond, Michael (6 Feb 1974). "'I'll quit if They Do,' Karamessinis Says". Press of Atlantic City.
  10. ↑ Diamond, Michael (18 June 1974). "Teachers Bid Apology By Woolley". Press of Atlantic City, p. 1.
  11. ↑ Diamond, Michael (2 July 1974). "Board Rejects Grievance". Press of Atlantic City.
  12. ↑ "Service Honors the Rev. Woolley". Press of Atlantic City. 5 May 1979.
  13. ↑ "Church to Consecrate Building". Press of Atlantic City. 7 June 1975.
  14. ↑ "Operation Junction Given Mini-Grant". Press of Atlantic City. 26 April 1973.
  15. ↑ "Operation Junction Treats 84 for VD". Press of Atlantic City. 3 June 1975.
  16. ↑ Toombs, Laurie (8 September 1979). "Middle Township Methadone Clinic Proposed". Press of Atlantic City.
  17. ↑ "Women as Priests: In South Jersey There's No Middle Ground". Press of Atlantic City. 25 Sep 1976.
  18. ↑ Donchey, Marjorie (26 May 1979). "The Book That Started the Riots". Press of Atlantic City.
  19. ↑ "New Vicar Instituted at St. Christopher's Church". Bureau County Republican. 22 Sep 1980.
  20. ↑ "Woolley, Arthur E.: Conservative Anglo-Catholic Priest and Activist". The Washington Times, p. A9. 3 Jun 2021.
  21. ↑ Broadway, Bill (13 Jan 1996). "Pariah in the Pulpit". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  22. ↑ Broadway, Bill (13 Jan 1996). "Pariah in the Pulpit". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  23. ↑ "Parishioners shun visit by female Episcopal bishop". National Religion Report. 18 Jan 1996. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  24. ↑ "Episcopal parish in Bladensburg converts to Roman Catholic Church". The Washington Post. 9 Oct 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  25. ↑ "Woolley, Arthur E.: Conservative Anglo-Catholic Priest". The Washington Times, p. A9. 3 June 2021.
  26. ↑ "The Rev. Arthur E. Woolley, 1931-2021". The Chapter. Nashotah House. Retrieved 26 July 2023.


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