The Rt. Rev. Paul Victor Marshall, a liturgical historian who served as Bishop of Bethlehem from 1996 to 2013, died October 21 at 77.
“We mourn his passing and recall his ministry among us as bishop, theologian and advocate for the most vulnerable. Most poignant to me was his commitment to launch the now 17-year partnership with the Diocese of Kajo Keji in South Sudan,” said the Rt. Rev. Kevin Nichols, Marshall’s successor as bishop.
A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Marshall was raised in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and educated at the denomination’s junior seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and its seminary in St. Louis. Ordained as a Lutheran pastor, he served for several years as a chaplain in the U.S. Army before becoming an Episcopalian.
He was ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal Church in 1978 in the Diocese of Fond du Lac, and earned a doctorate from General Seminary, writing on the 17th-century English liturgical historian Harmon L’Estrange. While at General, he also taught homiletics, Latin, and liturgy.
In 1982, he became rector of Christ Church in Babylon, New York, and began teaching liturgy and homiletics at the Diocese of Long Island’s George Mercer School of Theology. He became an associate professor of liturgy at Yale Divinity School in 1989, a position he held until his consecration to the episcopate.
Marshall is probably best known for his Prayer Book Parallels (1989), a two-volume resource modeled on Synoptic Gospel textbooks, which allows the reader to trace developments in the American prayer book tradition by comparing different versions in parallel columns. He also wrote volumes about Samuel Seabury, liturgical preaching, episcopal visitations, and same-sex blessings.
He was elected as Bishop of Bethlehem on December 2, 1995, on the third ballot, and was consecrated the following June at St. Stephen’s Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He signified his progressive bona fides by inviting Bishop Walter Righter, whose ecclesiastical trial for ordaining an openly gay man to the priesthood had been dismissed just a month earlier, to serve as one of his consecrators.
At the same time, he sought to build bridges to conservative clergy and congregations by allowing bishops from the Episcopal Synod of America, a predecessor organization to Forward in Faith-North America, to minister to congregations within his diocese. He also worked to expand permission for the use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, and expressed regrets about its forceful imposition in some dioceses.
A highlight of his episcopal ministry was developing a companion relationship with the Diocese of Kajo-Keji in the Episcopal Church of Sudan. In 2007, the Diocese of Bethlehem launched a capital campaign, New Hope, that raised over $4 million for the construction of seven schools and a college in Kajo-Keji. Marshall visited the diocese several times, and developed a friendship with the diocese’s young bishop, Anthony Poggo, now the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion.
Bishop Poggo told TLC that he was “saddened to hear the news of his death,” and said he wished to send “thoughts and prayers to Paul’s family and specifically his wife, Diana.” Poggo added that Marshall “made an important contribution to the Anglican Communion” and was “a great friend to the people of Kajo-Keji”
“On a recent visit to Kajo-Keji, I was glad to hear that the two current bishops of Kajo-Keji have agreed to continue with this link. I give thanks to God for the tremendous contribution their partnership has made to the education sector in Kajo-Keji and the flourishing of God’s Church,” he said.
Marshall is survived by his wife, Diana, and by their two children.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
