The Very Rev. James E. Carroll, who served as dean of the cathedrals in Chicago and San Diego, died January 16, at 92.
Carroll was born in Tucson and grew up in San Diego. He planned to be a concert pianist before responding to a call to ministry. He studied at San Diego College, the University of Puget Sound, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1954.
He served as vicar of two small churches along the Puget Sound, and then in Van Nuys and Long Beach, California. He was rector of Trinity, Reno, Nevada, before being called to St. James Cathedral in Chicago, where he served for five years. Carroll returned to his childhood parish, St. Paul’s Church in San Diego, in 1978. Seven years later, it became the diocesan cathedral. A highlight of his ministry there was the 1983 visit of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
He was deeply involved in the church’s wider ministry, serving as deputy to several General Conventions and as president of the standing committees in the dioceses of Chicago and San Diego. He represented the Episcopal Church on the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue team and was chaplain general to the Community of the Transfiguration for a decade.
Carroll retired in 1994, on the 40th anniversary of his ordination, and served as an interim in several parishes in the Diocese of San Diego in subsequent years. He is survived by Lanita, his wife of 63 years, and by his three sons.
The Rev. Dr. Robert C. Friedrich, a priest who used his musical gifts and strategic insight to help churches grow and welcome those suffering with dementia, died January 18, at 73.
A native of Pittsburgh, Friedrich studied philosophy at Houghton College and then prepared for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He would later earn a certificate from General Seminary and, just recently, a doctorate from the University of Bangor in Wales.
He was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1986, and served congregations in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Music was at the heart of his ministry, and he enjoyed wandering to the piano during a sermon to illustrate a point, and leading patients in song at the psychiatric center he served for a time as chaplain.
He wrote Discerning Your Congregation’s Future in 1996 and consulted with churches across the country in developing strategic plans. At the end of his career, he served as a hospice chaplain, an experience that sparked an interest in the spiritual lives of people with dementia.
A 1998 pilgrimage to Wales began a special connection to that country, which led Friedrich and his wife, Sandy, to spend six and a half years living in a cottage near Conwy. He assisted in parishes in the Diocese of St. Asaph, and served as its Dementia Support Officer, focused on helping parishes become more welcoming to those with memory challenges. He returned to the North Shore of Boston for the last eight months of his life.
Friedrich was preceded in death by his son Christopher, and is survived by his wife, his son David, and three grandchildren.
The Rev. Canon John Carter “Jack” Powers, the second General Secretary of the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion, died December 26, at 85.
A native of Tulsa, Powers graduated from the University of Oklahoma before preparing for ministry at General Seminary. He led several congregations in rural Oklahoma, and became rector of Trinity, Tulsa, in 1975. During 16 years of ministry there, he launched a ministry to feed the homeless behind an “iron gate” on the church grounds. Today, as an independent ministry, The Iron Gate feeds 300,000 guests a year.
He moved to New York in 1991 to serve in the Partnership for Service Learning at Episcopal Church headquarters and became vice president of the Association of Episcopal Colleges in 1993. He worked closely with Linda Chisholm to expand the organization’s reach, and succeeded her in 1995 as the second leader of what became known as the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion. He traveled extensively in Africa and Asia to convene and support educational leaders, and was awarded a doctorate in humane letters by Liberia’s Cuttington University in recognition of his service.
He returned to Tulsa upon his retirement in 2000, and led St. Bede’s in Cleveland, Oklahoma, for 17 years. Powers was preceded in death by his wife, Betsy Buck Powers, and is survived by three children and three grandchildren.
The Rev. Robert Grant Two Bulls, a priest, sailor, artist, and cowboy who served mission congregations on Indian reservations in South Dakota and Utah for more than 40 years, died February 5, at 87.
Two Bulls was born in a log cabin at Red Shirt Table on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and was given his Lakota name “Sunka Blo” by a warrior of the same name who had survived the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Sunka Blo foretold that Robert would lead a long life.
Two Bulls owned his first horse at 5 and worked on his family’s cattle ranch until he enlisted in the U.S. Navy at 18, in the midst of the Korean War. He served on the USS Radford, and was in the Marshall Islands during Operation Ivy and Mike.
After his honorable discharge, Two Bulls trained as an auto body painter. He worked at Howard’s Body Shop in Rapid City for 25 years, and used his creative gifts to paint award-winning murals and complex designs on car parts, many of which expressed his faith in God and his pride in the heritage of his people.
He discerned a call to the ministry and trained at the Niobrara Summer Seminary before his ordination in 1978. He began his ministry on the Pine Ridge Reservation, serving as rector of Christ Church in Red Shirt Table from 1980 to 1986. He later served congregations in Rapid City and in Whiterocks, Utah, on the Ute Reservation. He returned to his hometown in 1998, continuing to assist in congregations while raising and training horses on his ranch.
Two Bulls was preceded in death by his wife, Delores, and is survived by five children, including the Rev. Twilla Two Bulls and the Rev. Canon Robert Two Bulls, as well as 13 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.