Bishop of Long Island Episcopal Diocese Has Died

From the Cathedral of the Incarnation:

The Right Reverend Orris G. Walker, Jr., died on February 28 at the age of 72. He was the seventh diocesan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, serving from 1991 to 2009.

Bishop Walker was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his early education in Baltimore public schools, graduating from Baltimore City College in 1960.

In 1964, he graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Political Science and Philosophy. In 1968 he received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree from the General Theological Seminary.

In 1980 he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Drew University and in 1984 a Master of Arts in Religious Studies degree from the University of Windsor. In 1993 he received an MBA in Church Administration from the Graduate Theological Foundation in Berkeley, California.

Honorary doctorates in Canon Law and Divinity were conferred by the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University and the General Theological Seminary, respectively, in the fall of 1988. An honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree was conferred by St. Paul’s College, Lawrenceville, Virginia, in 2000.

Bishop Walker was ordained to the diaconate in 1968 by the Rt. Rev. Harry Lee Doll. Later that year, Bishop Walker was called to serve in St. Mark’s Ecumenical Church in Kansas City, Missouri as director of program and education.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1969 by the Rt. Rev. Edward R. Welles on the Vigil of Pentecost. In 1971, he was invited to serve as associate rector of the newly merged churches of St. Matthew’s and St. Joseph’s Detroit. After the election of its rector, Quintin E. Primo, as Bishop Suffragan of Chicago, Bishop Walker was elected rector, at age 29.

While in the Diocese of Michigan, Bishop Walker served as a member of Executive Council, the Trustees, the Urban Affairs Committee, Dean of Convocation, as a board member and associate professor of Contemporary Society at the Whitaker School of Theology. He represented the Diocese at the Provincial Synod for ten years, serving as chair of the Urban Task Force and a member of the Court of Review. He was elected five times to serve as a deputy to General Convention.

Bishop Walker has chaired the national Committee on Canons and was a member of the Presiding Bishop’s Council of Advice. He also served as Chair of the Episcopal Commission on Black Ministries and as a member of the Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons.

In other churchwide service, he chaired the Committee on Canons in the House of Bishops, was a member of the Joint Committee on Nominations, and served as Vice President of the Second Province. In addition, he chaired the Task Force for the Recruitment, Training and Deployment of Black Clergy for the National Church’s Commission on Black Ministries.

In Detroit, Bishop Walker was a member of the Executive Committee of the NAACP, President of the Cathedral Terrace, a senior citizen housing complex, the Highland Park Community Relations Board and the Black Family Development Board.

As bishop of Long Island, Bishop Walker served as Chairman of the Board of Managers of Episcopal Health Services and Board Chairman of the Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn. He was President of the Trustees of the Estate belonging to the Diocese of Long Island. In addition, he served as President of Episcopal Charities of Long Island and the George Mercer Memorial School of Theology.

He taught Canon Law and Theology & Contemporary Society at The Mercer School and at the General Theological Seminary. And, he also served as president of the Cathedral Chapter of the Cathedral of the Incarnation.

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