William Paret

William Paret (September 23, 1826 - January 18, 1911) was the 137th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

The Right Reverend William Paret D.D., LL.D.
Bishop of Maryland
Church	Episcopal Church
Diocese	Maryland
Elected	October 28, 1884
In office	1885-1911
Predecessor	William Pinkney
Successor	John Gardner Murray
Orders
Ordination	June 28, 1853 by William H. DeLancey
Consecration	January 8, 1885 by Alfred Lee
Personal details
Born	(1826-09-23)September 23, 1826 Annapolis, Maryland, United States
Died	January 18, 1911(1911-01-18) (aged 84) Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Buried	Rock Creek Cemetery
Nationality	American
Denomination	Anglican
Parents	John Paret & Hester Levi
Spouse	Maria Green Peck (m. 1849) Sarah Elizabeth Hayden (m. 1900)
Children	3

Early life and education

William Paret was born in New York City on September 23, 1826.[1] His parents were John and Hester Paret. His father was a merchant in that city. His paternal grandfather, Stephen Paret, a Frenchman had come to the United States in 1760.[2] Reared in New York City, he attended grammar school until age 14, at which time he began working as a clerk in a wholesale dry good store.[2] He studied for his orders under the Right Reverend William Heathcote DeLancey.[1][2] While pursuing his education at Hobart College he also taught in Syracuse, New York and at the Academy at Moravia, New York.[2] He received his doctorate of divinity degree from Hobart College in 1867.[1] In 1886 Hobart College awarded him his LL.D.[1]

Ministry

William Paret was ordained a deacon on July 2, 1852 in Trinity Church, Geneva, New York by Bishop Carlton Chase.[1][3] He received his priest's orders in Grace Church, Rochester, New York on June 38, 1853 from Bishop DeLancey.[1][3]

He was rector of these churches:[1][3]

• St. John's, Clyde, New York, 1852–1854
• Zion, Pierrepont Manor, New York, 1854–1864
• St. Paul's, East Saginaw, Michigan, 1864–1866
• Trinity Church, Elmira, New York, 1866–1888
• Christ Church, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1868–1876
• Church of the Epiphany, Washington, D.C., 1876–1884

In 1882, Rev. Paret exchanged public letters concerning church practices with Rev. John Habersham Elliott (1832-1906).

In 1884 Paret was elected to succeed Bishop William Pinkney as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, following Bishop Pinkney's death in 1883.[1] Paret was consecrated the sixth Bishop of Maryland on January 8, 1885 at his own Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C.[1][3] At the Maryland Episcopal Diocesan Convention of 1894, Paret denounced - "a stinging philippic fell from his lips"—those parishes that used incense and other ritualstic practices, such as the use of confessionals, which was an attack on high church Anglican parishes such as Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore and St. Andrew's Church in Princess Anne, Maryland. Those parishes were "practically excommunicated" as Paret refused to visit them.[4] In 1895 the Diocese of Maryland was divided to form the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.[1][5]

In 1904, the diocese of Maryland published a collection of his pastoral instructions concerning pastoral use of the prayer book. Two years later, T. Whittaker publishers of New York published his The place and function of the Sunday school in the church. G.W. Jacobs Co. of Philadelphia published Paret's Remniscences in the year of his death.

Death and legacy

Bishop Paret died of pneumonia January 18, 1911 in Baltimore.[6] He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

References

1. Lowndes, Frederic Sawrey, MA (1897). Bishops of the Day: A Biographical Dictionary of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England, and of All Churches in Communion Therewith Throughout the World. London: Grant Richard. pp. 168–9.
2. Men of Mark in Maryland - Biographies of Leading Men of the State. Johnson's Makers of America Series. IV. Baltimore, Washington and Richmond: B. F. Johnson. 1912. p. 94.
3. William Stevens Perry, Bishop of Iowa (1895). Episcopate in America: Sketches, Biographical and Bibliographical, of the Bishops of the American Church, with a preliminary Essay on the Historic Episcopate and Documentary Annals of the introduction of the Anglican line of Succession into America. New York: The Christian Literature Co.
4. New York Times, May 31, 1894, page 5.
5. http://www.ang-md.org/history.php
6. Paret, William, D.D., LL.D. (1911). Reminiscences by the Rt. Rev. William Paret, D.D., LL.D. Sixth Bishop of Maryland. Philadelphia: Geo. W. Jacobs. pp. XIV and 209.

External links

• Bibliographic directory on Paret from Project Canterbury

Episcopal Church (USA) titles
Preceded by William Pinkney	6th Bishop of Maryland 1884-1911	Succeeded by John Gardner Murray