The Right Reverend John Thomas Walker was sixth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of

Washington and former dean of the National Cathedral.

 

John Thomas Walker was born on July 27, 1925, in Barnesville, Georgia, and grew up

in Detroit, Michigan, in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. In 1947,

at the age of 22, John joined The Episcopal Church, and upon graduation from

Wayne State University in 1951, accepted God’s callto become an Episcopal priest.

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In the Episcopal Church, he became a trailblazer for many African Americans. He was

the first African American student and graduate from Virginia Theological Seminary

in 1954, the first African American teacher at St. Paul’s School, (Concord, NH), the first

African American canon of the National Cathedral, and the first African American to

be consecrated the Bishop of Washington. Throughout his life, John Walker broke

barriers and blazed the trail for equity and racial justice in the Episcopal Church. Bishop

Walker brought together races, faiths, and nations in the common cause of understanding and brotherhood. 

 

His ministry included service as rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Detroit, MI; teacher and coach at St. Paul’s School; a

seminarian supervisor in Central America; a college teacher at Bishop Tucker Seminary in Uganda; and Bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Washington from 1977 until his death in 1989.

 

He taught and organized the education of the world's elite as well as the nation's most easily forgotten children. As a priest

of the church, he drew on his own challenging life experiences, growing up in Georgia, to explain why he worked

unceasingly to assure that future generations of African American students would find the doors of every educational institution in America open to them. Often working behind the scenes, he shared his radical belief — with presidents, world leaders, and the ordinary people — that our broken world can yet be restored. He always remembered the children and

their role in our world's future.

 

Bishop Walker was a man of God who was straightforward without being intimidating and whose manner was that of a
shepherd gently leading his flock. As bishop, Walker focused the Church’s attention on a wide variety of reconciliation
and social justice issues, including: infant mortality, ordination of women, gays, and lesbians, HIV/AIDS, racism, civil
rights in the United States, and apartheid in South Africa.

Bishop Walker was blessed with a loving wife, Maria, and three wonderful children: Thomas, Ana Maria, and Charles.
Bishop John Thomas Walker was a man of wisdom, courage, and grace.