Mark Dyer | Episcopal bishop, 84
The Right Rev. Mark Dyer, 84, an Episcopal bishop who was best known for his work in the church community to address such divisive issues as ordaining women, same-sex marriages, and the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy, died Nov. 11 at his home on the Virginia Theological Seminary campus in Alexandria.
The Right Rev. Mark Dyer, 84, an Episcopal bishop who was best known for his work in the church community to address such divisive issues as ordaining women, same-sex marriages, and the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy, died Nov. 11 at his home on the Virginia Theological Seminary campus in Alexandria.
The cause was multiple myeloma, said his wife, Amelia Gearey Dyer.
A former bishop of the diocese of Bethlehem, Pa., Mr. Dyer joined the Virginia Theological Seminary faculty in 1996 and retired as a theology professor in 2008.
During the last 30 years, he had served on ecclesiastical boards and commissions seeking a consensus of opinion and policy on issues involving sexual orientation, marriage, and female priests.
Mr. Dyer served in the Navy during the Korean War, studied contemporary philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, and received a degree in theology at New Hampshire's St. Anselm College in 1959.
In 1963, he was ordained a Catholic priest but left the church in 1969 for the Anglican Church of Canada. Two years later, he was received as a priest in the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts, where he served before becoming bishop of Bethlehem in 1982. - Washington Post