Ralph William Franklin (born January 3, 1947) was the eleventh Bishop of Western New York in the Episcopal Church between 2011 and 2019."Our Bishop The Rt. Rev. R. William Franklin Eleventh Bishop of Western New York", Diocese of Western New York. Retrieved on 05 December 2018. In retirement, he is Assisting Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island and an adjunct professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Biography Franklin was born in on January 3, 1947, in Brookhaven, Mississippi. He graduated with a B.A. from Northwestern University and a PhD in Church History from Harvard University. Prior to ordination, Franklin served as Dean of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University and professor at the General Theological Seminary and St John's in Minnesota.
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale The Board of Trustees of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale elected Franklin as its dean effective January 5, 1998. He announced his resignation on December 18, 2001 after an "audit showed that Dr. Franklin used school funds for expenses that included tuition for his daughter at Harvard Medical School." "Amid the controversy, Yale [...] rescinded permission for Berkeley to build a chapel on the main campus of the Yale Divinity School, which may require Berkeley to return $3 million in pledges and gifts to donors." According to the Hartford Courant, Franklin left "his prestigious post for a newly created job with no salary at the Episcopal Diocese of New York, [and] expose[d] Berkeley’s bookkeeping to an attorney general’s investigation." Then-Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, whose office oversaw charitable funds granted to Yale, "said the University responded to Berkeley’s dubious finance procedures by taking matters into its own hands." In 2003, Berkeley Divinity School's finance director filed a suit "charging the Divinity School with breach of contract and slandering her reputation" alleging that "she was following orders from Franklin."
Ordained Ministry Franklin was made deacon on March 19, 2005 and ordained to the priesthood on September 17, 2005, on both occasions by Mark Sisk, Bishop of New York. After ordination, Franklin also served some time in Italy as associate priest at St Paul's Within the Walls in Rome, associate director of the American Academy in Rome, associate priest of the Anglican Centre in Rome and vicar of the Church of the Resurrection in Orvieto. He returned to the United States and was appointed senior associate priest at St Mark's Church in Philadelphia in July 2010. A few months later without having served as the rector of any church, Franklin was elected Bishop of Western New York on November 20, 2010. He was consecrated on April 30, 2011, by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.Wozniak, Laurie "Diocese of Western New York elects R. William Franklin as bishop", Episcopal Church, 20 November 2010. Retrieved on 10 May 2020.
Franklin retired as Bishop of Western New York in April 2019."Bp. Franklin to Retire in 2019", The Living Church. Retrieved on 10 May 2020.Dewey, C. "Buffalo Episcopal diocese's bishop retiring; it will share new leader with Pa. diocese", The Buffalo News, Buffalo, NY, 7 April 2019. Retrieved on 10 May 2020. Following retirement, he received the inaugural Racial Healing and Transformation Award of the Union of Black Episcopalians.
Bibliography (dissertation) Nineteenth-century Churches: The History of a New Catholicism in Württemberg, England, and France (Harvard, 1975) (co-author), Virgil Michel: American Catholic (Liturgical Press, 1988) (editor) The Case for Christian Humanism (Eerdmans, 1991) (contributor) Receiving the Vision: The Anglican-Roman Catholic Reality Today: A Study by the Third Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (Liturgical Press, 1995) (editor) Anglican Orders: Essays on the Centenary of Apostolicae curae, 1896-1996 (Mowbray, 1996) (contributor) Episcopate: The Role of Bishops in a Shared Future (Church Publishing, 2022) (contributor) The Crisis of Christian Nationalism: Report from the House of Bishops Theology Committee (Church Publishing, 2024)
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