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Oct 10, 2011

Seminary of the Southwest Celebrates Founder, John Hines

John HinesJohn E. Hines (1910-1997), former dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, diocesan bishop and builder of congregations, founder of Seminary of the Southwest, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, husband, father and prophetic preacher was remembered and celebrated at the seminary on Thursday, October 6 by members of the Hines family, alumni and friends, seminary trustees and campus community.

 

In his sermon, the Rt. Rev. David Reed, bishop suffragan in the diocese of West Texas, spoke of Bishop Hines’ commitment to the poor and oppressed. “The bishop’s passion and prophetic leadership grew out of, of all things, his love for Jesus. He could not imagine that following Jesus could lead anywhere else but to the poor, the overlooked, the alienated, the oppressed—to lead him to stand against segregation, apartheid and poverty. The Incarnation illumined his life and his ministry, and in the crucified, dead and risen Christ, he found the grace, the strength and the stubbornness to enter into and stand with those who suffer. And not just stand there, gawking like a turista, but to talk about it boldly, to call and recall the comfortable and secure Church of his day to pay attention to Jesus.”

 

As diocesan bishop of Texas, Hines preached in 1963: “A bishop’s job is to keep his church family on the firing line of the world’s most desperate needs and to learn to accept the exquisite penalty of such an exposed position.”  He kept his word throughout his leadership of the Episcopal Church, especially while he was Presiding Bishop during particularly violent years of the civil rights movement.

 

Holy Eucharist, including a commissioning of new trustees, began the day’s festivities. The Rev. Micah Jackson, who holds the Hines chair of preaching at Southwest, was the celebrant. The Rt. Rev. Dena Harrison, chair of the board, commissioned four new trustees for the seminary: namely, the Rev. Chris Jambor, rector of All Saints’, Fort Worth; the Rt. Rev. Scott Mayer, bishop diocesan in Northwest Texas; the Rev. Patrick Miller, rector, St. Mark’s, Houston; and Ron Ogden, founding member of Flahive, Ogden & Latson Attorneys at Law, Austin, now residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico.