The Rev. Harvey Guthrie Jr., dean of Episcopal Theology School from 1969 to 1974 and dean of Episcopal Divinity School from 1974 to 1985, died on December 17 in Oxnard, California, where he had been recovering from hip surgery. Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.
“Dean Guthrie was admired and respected by so many in the Episcopal Divinity School family, including myself, and I am indebted to him for the legacy he has left,” wrote the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, dean of EDS@Union, in a statement to the seminary’s community.
“As I reflect on Dean Guthrie’s legacy, I am reminded of how he described what undergirded his faith. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he noted, ‘For me, those commitments are rooted in my study of the thrust of the biblical message, which is first of all that the rights and privileges of being human are in every respect to be shared by all as gifts of God.’”
During Guthrie’s tenure as dean, EDS became the first Episcopal seminary to allow ordained Anglican women to celebrate the Eucharist in its chapel and the first Episcopal seminary to admit openly gay and lesbian students to degree programs.
Friends, former students and former colleagues offered tributes to Guthrie on social media. “His personal warmth, intellect, generosity, and faith were a gift to all who met or worked with him,” wrote the Rev. Randall Chase, former acting dean and president at EDS.
“Harvey Guthrie introduced me to the practice of prayer in my first year at EDS, and sharpened my theological inquiry, and welcomed all of us into the church at its best,” wrote the Rev. Anne Howard, a member of the board of trustees.
A native of California, Guthrie first studied for the ministry at Union Theological Seminary in the mid-1940s. “While I was there, I decided the Episcopal Church was the one I wanted to be ordained in,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1998. “I was attracted to the Episcopal tradition of inclusiveness and doctrinal freedom. I just felt at home there.”
After spending three years as vicar of St. Margaret’s Church in White Plains, New York, Guthrie began his long academic career in 1950, joining General Theological Seminary, where he served as a fellow and instructor while earning his ThD in Old Testament.
Guthrie joined the faculty of Episcopal Theological School in 1958 and became dean in 1969.
He served as a deputy to the triennial General Convention of the Episcopal Church four times, from 1973 to 1982, and a president of the Association of Theology Schools from 1980 to 1982.
Guthrie is the author of numerous books, including God and History in the Old Testament (1960), Israel’s Sacred Songs (1966), and Theology as Thanksgiving: From Israel’s Psalms to the Church’s Eucharist (1981).
In 1985, he became rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, retiring in 1995.
Guthrie is survived by three children, Lynn Frances, Stephen and Andrew, and several grandchildren. A son, Lawrence, died in 2016.
Adapted from EDS
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.
