The Rev. Charles Roger Butler, who served churches in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and North Carolina, died February 22 at 91.
Butler was born in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and was a graduate of Marshall University and Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon in 1956 and priest in 1957.
His longest tenure was at St. Paul’s Church, Kittanning, and St. Mary’s Church, Red Bank, Madison Township, Pennsylvania (1963-75).
Fr. Butler is survived by his first wife, Jane Campbell Englert; two sons; a daughter; a stepdaughter; a stepson; 10 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
The Rev. Dr. E. Allen Coffey, an Anglophile and friend of the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury, died June 9, 2022, at age 74.
Coffey was born in New York City, and was a graduate of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond.
He was ordained deacon in 1973 and priest in 1974, and served multiple parishes in the Diocese of Virginia. He was rector of Emmanuel Parish Church, Brook Hill, in Richmond from 1992 to 2002. He was an organist who played for churches during high school and college, and was a trained Education for Ministry mentor.
He served as the escort for the Most Rev. F. Donald Lord Coggan, the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury, when Coggan paid two visits to Richmond. Coffey, in turn, visited Lord Coggan in the United Kingdom.
Fr. Coffey is survived by Deborah, his wife of 20 years; a son; two stepsons; and three grandsons.
The Rev. John Stone Jenkins, a U.S. Army Air Corps veteran of World War II and creator of Disciples in Christian Community, died April 17 at 98.
Jenkins was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and was a graduate of Louisiana State University, the University of Chicago, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon in 1951 and priest in 1952.
Because of his ROTC training in high school and college, he joined the service as an officer. He was a navigator of B-17s in the 833rd Bomber Squadron, 486th Bomber Group. Eventually he became a lead navigator for the squadron, and in 1945 he received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
After the war, he spent a year of further study at Union Theological Seminary, under the direction of Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr. While in New York, he served as chaplain of Leake and Watts, a home for troubled teenagers.
Later, he was headmaster of St. Martin’s Episcopal School in Metairie, Louisiana, and All Saints’ Episcopal School, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He served as dean of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Jackson, Mississippi (1967-71) and as rector of Trinity Church in New Orleans (1971-84).
During these years he wrote a short book, What Think Ye of Jesus, published by the Episcopal Radio-TV Foundation. He also developed the Disciples of Christ program, later known as Disciples of Christ in Community.
His first wife, Mary, and his second wife, Lynn, both preceded him in death. He is survived by a daughter, a son, four grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren.
The Rev. Barbara Ann Kelley, who traveled the world as an Earthwatch volunteer, died February 22 at 68.
She was born in New York City, and was a graduate of Lawrence University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (earning a master’s degree in geology), and General Theological Seminary. She was ordained deacon in 1980 and priest in 1981.
She was an interim rector in 15 parishes before becoming rector of St. James, Langhorne, Pennsylvania. She served there from 2008 to 2020, when she retired.
Her Earthwatch expeditions took her to Kentucky and Wyoming, and overseas to Africa and Iceland. She enjoyed camping, rock-climbing, and riding horses.
She is survived by her mother, a brother, a nephew, a niece, and a beloved dog.