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A
large and varied archive of the papers of the Right Reverend Paul
Moore, Jr. (1919-2003), which he donated to The Archives of the
Episcopal Church in 2002, has recently arrived in the Austin research
center. The acquisition represents a major donation by a prominent
American leader, who believed strongly in the Church’s role as a
vehicle of conscience and a moral force in society and civic life.
Moore’s personal papers, which span the years 1937-2003, document a
life of progressive involvement in social justice, civil rights, public
policy, and peace. The researcher will find evidence of the earliest
experiences of a lifelong education, beginning with parish ministry,
through his episcopate, and into an active retirement, when, even in
his last years, he continued to speak on behalf of the oppressed in the
most forgotten places of the globe. Aware of the benefits and limitations of a privileged
upbringing, Paul Moore's world view was dramatically altered by his
combat experiences in World War II, and by his exposure to the
philosophy of the "slum priests" of the Oxford Movement. Of his
activism, Moore said, “I always had at the very guts of my belief that
we are all children of God – that you couldn’t go to church and worship
at Mass, the Eucharist, and ignore Christ’s presence in the poor.” He
was ordained in 1949, and his earliest parish postings in inner-city
neighborhoods laid the groundwork for a life long activism in areas of
racial justice, urban ministry, and political enterprise. Moore became
dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis in 1957, and was
ordained bishop suffragan of Washington, D.C., in 1964. His vocal
support for the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War
in the 1960s brought him national recognition prior to his election as
bishop coadjutor in New York in 1969.
As diocesan bishop from 1972 to 1989 and into his
retirement, Moore continued his activism within the Church and in the
political arena. He also found time to restart construction on the
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, which had ground to a halt in
1941. With Cathedral Dean James P. Morton, Moore’s vision for the
Cathedral gave it new life, and the space became a popular setting for
music, dance, art, and cultural festivals. He was passionately
dedicated to the vibrant life of cities, and was particularly
influential in bringing a new civic attention to the plight of New York
City during the worst of the urban crises of the 1970s. At the time of
his death, he was active in the Timor Project to protect human rights
in East Timor and had spoken out against the war in Iraq.
The Moore archive, which was sought by several
institutions, consists of 46 cubic feet of material touching on the
Bishop’s personal and public life. One will find correspondence with
Moore’s extended network of friends and colleagues, sermons, drafts of
his autobiography and other writings, resource materials on his
involvement in social action, photographs, scrapbooks, and journals.
The collection will be opened upon completion of a survey and appraisal
of the collection, and an inventory, which is expected within the year.
The papers are a fitting memorial to the life of a man who by word and
deed had a talent for making the Gospel come alive in any number of
Christian and non-Christian environments, and who was comfortable with
and accepted by all sorts of humanity. His activism and influence
earned Bishop Moore popular tenure to the title of ‘The Bishop of New
York,’ which stayed with him throughout his retirement as a tribute to
a leader who could make his presence felt in the nation’s center of
power much in the tradition of his predecessors, William Manning and
Horace Donegan. The Moore Papers contribute to the Archives’ preeminent
position as a center for the study of 20th century leadership in issues
of Church and society, social justice, and civil rights, and complement
the recent acquisition of the papers of Walter Righter, John Shelby
Spong, Michael Yasutake, and John Morris. |
