- Benjamin Brewster
Benjamin Brewster (
November 25 ,1860 -2 February ,1941 ),Bishop is the Episcopal Diocese of Maine andMissionary Bishop of Western Colorado.Early life
He was born in
New Haven ,Connecticut , the son of Joseph Brewster and Sarah Jane Bunce. After graduating with a B.A. in 1882 fromYale University , where he was a member ofSkull & Bones , and then he received his B.D. in 1886 from theGeneral Theological Seminary ,New York City . Meanwhile, he taught school inCleveland, Ohio , during 1882-1883.Ordination
He was ordained
deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1886 andpriest in 1887. His first charge was as assistant toHenry Yates Satterlee (his first wife's first cousin) at Calvary Church, New York City, from 1886-1891, and he also served asVicar of Calvary Church during 1887-1891. In the next four years he was pastor at that Church of the Holy Communion,South Orange, New Jersey , and during 1895-1906 was pastor at Grace Church,Colorado Springs, Colorado . In addition he was a member of the standing committee of the Diocese of Colorado from 1897-1906 and examining chaplain from 1900-1906. During the next three years he was Dean of St. Mark's Cathedral,Salt Lake City, Utah , and president of the council of advice for the District of Salt Lake.Consecration
On
June 17 ,1909 , he was consecrated Missionary Bishop of Western Colorado. He was consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of Maine onJune 7 ,1916 . Brewster announced in May 1940, that he would retire at the end of the year as Bishop because of his age, but his successor had not been named and he was serving in the capacity of Bishop emeritus at the time of his death.The church in Maine had a steady growth during his bishopric and reached into more communities. Prominent in church affairs outside his diocese, Brewster served as president of the Synod of New England during 1933-1939 and as vice-president of the Church League for Industrial Democracy from 1916-1941. He was chairman of the joint committee of Bishops and clerical and lay deputies on nominations at the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church,
Cincinnati, Ohio , in 1937, and was a commissioner of theWorld Council of Churches .In his first year in Maine he was a delegate to the neutral conference committee that met with
Woodrow Wilson to discuss the possibility of calling a conference of neutral nations to haltWorld War I . In 1936 he presented a resolution to the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church requestingFranklin D. Roosevelt to call an international conference of nations which had signed theKellogg-Briand Peace Pact. In 1921 and again in 1930 he attended theLambeth Conference ,London ,England . He was known as a liberal in economics and politics as well as religion. In 1934 he worked in favor of a measure endorsing efforts to obtain for physicians and medical clinics the legal right to disseminatebirth control information and the measure passed the House of Bishops by a vote of 44 to 38.Personal life
Brewster married on
June 10 ,1891 , inNew York City , as his first wife Stella Yates (November 23, 1866 - February 2, 1929), daughter of Charles Yates and Josephine Bosworth, by whom he had five children. He married onAugust 25 ,1937 , inPortland, Maine , Maine, as his second wife Mary Phillips (February 11, 1884 - 1941), widow of George Guillifer Hay, and daughter of Charles Leonard Phillips, by whom he had no children. Benjamin Brewster died in Portland, Maine.References
The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume 44. New York: James T. White & Company (1962) 478-479.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.