Michael Ford Rehill, who defended Bishop Walter Righter on doctrinal charges and represented many other clergy in Title IV cases, died September 16 at 78.
Rehill served as the Diocese of Newark’s vice chancellor (1984-91) and chancellor (1991-2002), and then was named chancellor emeritus.
In 1996 he defended Righter, who was charged with violating the doctrine of the church by ordaining Barry Stopfel, an openly gay man, as a deacon. After two pretrial hearings, the court ruled that the church’s teachings on homosexuality were not part of its core doctrine, and it dismissed the charges.
Rehill was one of the most prominent critics of extensive changes to Title IV, and frequently defended clergy charged under the title.
“My sense is that a Title IV proceeding is an ecclesiastical death sentence,” Rehill told TLC during General Convention in 2012. “We don’t want to throw away good priests. I really believe in our church. All priests have is their reputation. If they lose that they lose everything.”
In the same interview, Rehill said he would gladly defend any of the bishops who filed charges against Righter, should they face Title IV charges.
“Yes, absolutely,” he said. “They, like all clergy, need to be represented by someone who’s competent and who knows about their rights.
“Justice does not distinguish between liberal and conservative,” he said. “When we stop welcoming everybody, we will lose our reason to exist.”
He is survived by five children and six grandchildren.
Joyce (Joy) Owen Stevenson, the wife of Bishop E. Mark Stevenson of the Diocese of Virginia, died October 30 at 77.
She was a native of Buffalo, New York, and the youngest of four children. She married William Owen soon after graduating from high school, and they had three sons. William Owen died in November 1990, and two years later she met Fr. Stevenson at church. They married in 1995.
“Those who knew Joy have spoken of her compassion, generosity of spirit, and loving presence,” Assistant Bishop Gayle Harris wrote in a message to the diocese. “More than a partner in marriage, she engaged in her own ministry of support, service, and counsel to all she encountered. She was a good and faithful servant of God. We pray that Joy now rests in peace as she begins life again in the presence of our Creator.”
She is survived by two sisters, her husband, three sons, five grandchildren, and one great-grandson. She will be buried in Sunville Cemetery, Cooperstown, Pennsylvania. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in her memory to Episcopal Migration Ministries.
The Rev. Canon Lorentho Wooden, a revered leader among Black Episcopalians who was a mentor to Bishop Michael Curry, died October 7 at 97.
Wooden was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, and was a graduate of Moorehouse College and Episcopal Divinity School. He also studied at the University of Chicago. He was ordained deacon in 1960 and priest in 1961, and served parishes in Florida, New York, Ohio, and Virginia.
In the early 1970s, after Wooden served the Diocese of New York as an urban affairs officer, Bishop John Krumm recruited him to serve as the Diocese of Southern Ohio’s development officer.
“He led the groundbreaking institutional racism project, in which the diocese spent 20 years exploring our assumptions about clergy recruitment, staffing, and education,” Ariel Miller wrote in a remembrance. “The results of this project bore fruit in a marked increase in the representation of people of color — both clergy and lay — in leadership bodies and staff of the diocese.”
Wooden later served as Southern Ohio’s archdeacon, then moved to All Saints Church, Pasadena, California (1986-89). While serving as rector of St. Simon of Cyrene Church in Lincoln Heights, Ohio (1989-95), he was a mentor to Curry. Presiding Bishop Curry preached at Wooden’s funeral on October 28, in the closing days of his ministry in that office.
“Fr. Wooden continued to interact with white Episcopalians with a combination of élan, hope, and salty challenge,” Miller added. “His first-person stories went straight to our hearts and stayed there to keep us from staying complacent, while giving us the energy to keep working on social justice.”
In retirement, Wooden was a parishioner of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, where he was an honorary canon.
He is survived by his three daughters, five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Other Deaths
The Rev. George H. Brant, Sept. 20
The Rev. Jose Pascual Ramon Fernandez Lopez, Aug. 24
The Rev. Richard Mayberry, Oct. 14
Diocesan secretary Winfred Potts Scheid, Sept. 24
Douglas LeBlanc is the Associate Editor for Book Reviews and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. John’s Parish Church on Johns Island, South Carolina.