John Allin


John Maury Allin was an American Episcopal bishop. He was the 23rd presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. He was married to Ann and the couple had one son and three daughters.

Early Life

Allin was born in Helena, Arkansas. He graduated from the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, and its divinity school, then called St. Luke's Seminary, in 1945. He received a Master of Education degree in 1962 from Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. He was ordained deacon on June 6, 1944 and priest on May 10, 1945. He served churches in Arkansas and Louisiana before becoming rector of All Saints' Junior College in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1958, a post he retained till 1961.

Bishop of Mississippi

He was bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Mississippi, with his consecration taking place at St. James Church in Jackson, Mississippi, from 1961 to 1966. He was elected bishop in 1966 and would serve until 1974. He was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, helping to create the Committee of Concern, an alliance of ecumenical and civic leaders that helped rebuild more than 100 black churches that had been bombed by white suprematists in Mississippi.

Presiding Bishop

He served until he was elected Presiding Bishop in 1974. In 1978, he offered to resign because of his opposition as a theological conservative to women's ordination, but he was persuaded to remain in office. He was the last Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church to have opposed women's ordination and to have been pro-life on abortion. He retired in 1985.

Retirement

After his term as Presiding Bishop, he was vicar at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Kennebunkport, Maine, where his friend George H. W. Bush was on the vestry.