The Ven. J. Stannard Baker—archdeacon in the Diocese of Vermont, a psychotherapist, a gay-marriage advocate, and a member of Executive Council—died of an apparent heart attack June 23 at 79.
Baker was a native of Manhattan, Kansas, and grew up Quaker in Long Beach, California. He moved to Vermont in 1971 and was a partner in BTR Psychotherapy in Burlington. He was ordained to the diaconate in 2009. He served as a deacon at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington, and as chaplain to retired clergy.
Many people, inside the Episcopal Church and otherwise, praised Baker for his kindness and empathy.
By virtue of alphabetical sorting, he was listed as the lead plaintiff in Baker v. Vermont (2000), which established civil unions in the state. He and Peter Harrigan, a theater professor, were joined in a civil union at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in 2000. They were married 10 years later in the back yard of their home in Shelburne, Vermont.
“He was incredibly courageous in the face of physical threats and cruel words hurled at him and Peter during the civil unions debates,” Susan Murray, one of the lawyers who represented the plaintiffs, told Mary Ann Lickteig of the newspaper Seven Days. “But Stan never demonized those who opposed his fight for equality. He saw his critics for who they are: complex human beings, and not just ‘the opposition’ … He will be sorely missed.”
In addition to Harrigan, Baker is survived by his sister, Jane Franklin, of Chico, California.
The Rt. Rev. William George (Bill) Burrill, who led the Diocese of Rochester from 1984 to 1999 and was an advocate for stewardship in the Episcopal Church, died on June 15 at 91.
A native of New York City, he was the son of the Rt. Rev. Gerald Francis Burrill, who later became the eighth Bishop of Chicago, and Janet Burrill. He studied at Sewanee and General Seminary, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1959.
After a curacy in Indiana, he moved to California to become vicar of St. Martin’s in Davis. Under Burrill’s leadership, the congregation experienced strong growth and developed close links with the local University of California campus, where he served as chaplain. He became archdeacon of the Diocese of Northern California in 1981.
He was active in ecumenical work, serving as a delegate to the Nairobi assembly of the World Council of Churches.
He was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Rochester in November 1983 on the 18th ballot (two electing conventions were required, five months apart, to break the deadlock). He succeeded Bishop Robert R. Spears Jr. the next year.
Burrill became known as the Episcopal Church’s “stewardship guru,” according to a December 1993 article in TLC, which reported that he had made presentations about the subject for half of the church’s domestic dioceses. Thousands of copies of a video produced by his diocese that focused on stewardship as an expression of gratitude were distributed throughout the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican world. With the Diocese of Rochester’s Canon for Finance, Bruce Rockwell, he started the network for stewardship education now known as TENS.
Burrill retired in 1999 and moved to Arizona, where he served as an assistant bishop in the diocese for nine years, and as bishop in residence at All Saints’, Phoenix.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Kay, with whom he had four children. He is survived by his second wife, Marilyn.
The Very Rev. Dr. William H. Petersen’s work led to a private audience with Pope John Paul II, but his family obituary mentions two less visible achievements: rewriting a hymn verse and helping prepare for full communion between the Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Petersen, who was dean of Bexley Divinity School in Rochester (1983-96), died June 5 at 84. He was born in Davenport, Iowa, and earned his first degree from Grinnell College. He was also an alumnus of Church Divinity School of the Pacific and earned his Ph.D. at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.
He was active in parish ministry in California, Iowa, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
He served in seminary education throughout his vocation. For a decade, he was professor of Church history at Nashotah House before joining Bexley Hall. During his years at Bexley, he was also provost of Colgate Rochester Divinity School (1985-87), provost at Bexley Hall Seminary with responsibility for the campus in Columbus, Ohio (1999-2009), and interim director of the Anglican Studies Program at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (2011-12).
As an ecumenist, he was a participant in the Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogues II and III (1978-91), which led to Inter-Eucharistic fellowship between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and later to full communion. His booklet with Robert Goeser, Traditions Transplanted: The Story of Anglican and Lutheran Churches in America (Forward Movement, 1981), summarized the history of these two traditions “as they were transplanted from state church environments in England and Europe to the religious pluralism and frontier conditions of North America.”
In 2024 he wrote “Re-Writing Wesley: An Advent Intervention,” in Proceedings—Journal of the North American Academy of Liturgy (October 4, 2024). Petersen modified the second verse of “Lo, He comes, with Clouds Descending” (No. 57, The Hymnal 1982) to address concerns some had about possibly anti-Semitic phrasing (the words “those who set at nought and sold him”).
In an audience with John Paul II in 1989, Petersen was invested with an award for extraordinary service to the ecumenical movement.
Other Deaths
The Rev. Lawrence (Larry) R. Harris Jr., June 12
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
