The Rev. Eugene Harvey Buxton Jr., a priest of the Diocese of Texas who also served in Hawaii, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the United Kingdom, died Aug. 11.
Born in Akron in 1931, he attended the College of Wooster and Bexley Hall Seminary. He was made deacon in 1955 and priest in 1956.
On the recommendation of Bishop C. Andrew Doyle of Texas, Buxton wrote the book Bishops in My Life, which detailed his recollections of Maurice Benitez, John Pares Craine, William Wallace Horstick, and Beverly Dandridge Tucker.
“I see and feel an exiting and fresh future for the Episcopal Church,” Buxton wrote. “Simply stated, the once-upon-a-time church needs to wake up from her Rip Van Winkle sleep and discover with fresh words what it means to truly receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I still wonder what the great 19th century gospel preacher Billy Sunday meant when he said, ‘The Episcopal Church is a sleeping giant.’”
Adapted from Garland Poland, Diocese of Southwestern Florida
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
