Retired Bishop Moodey of Ohio and Maine Dies of Cancer
Episcopal News Service. September 6, 2005 [090605-01]
The Right Reverend James Russell Moodey, 72, died Sept. 5 at his home in Damariscotta, Maine. The cause of death was metastatic kidney cancer.
Bishop Moodey was born Dec. 9, 1932 in Brooklyn, N.Y. the younger son of the late Matil Cochran Moodey and Rev. John Reginald Moodey. Educated in the Long Island public schools, he was a 1954 graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and in 1957 was graduated from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While in seminary, he served one summer in Haiti. The profound impact of this experience contributed to a lifelong devotion to the causes of social and racial equality. He was ordained to the diaconate of the Episcopal Church in 1957 and to the priesthood in 1958. he received two honorary doctorate degrees, one from Kenyon College, where he served as a trustee from 1984-1994, and one from Hamilton College in 1988.
Bishop Moodey spent both his career and his life in ministry to others. In 1993 he retired as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, a position in which he served for ten years. Prior to his consecration as a bishop, he served for 26 years in parish ministry, beginning in 1958 as an assistant to the rector at Christ Church, Cincinnati, Ohio where he met and married Penelope Hall. In 1960 he was called to be the rector of the Church of the Nativity in New Castle, Delaware, and helped steer that parish through the turbulent social issues of the early 60s. His enthusiasm for urban ministry, kindled in Cincinnati, was fed in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he served from 1965-1976 as rector of St. Luke's Church. In 1976, he was called to St. Paul's Church in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were he served for seven years.
During his ten years as bishop, Bishop Moodey focused his considerable energy on pastoral care, both for the clergy and the people of the Diocese of Ohio. Among his achievements was the formation of the Episcopal Community Services Foundation, providing funds for community ministry. He retired in 1993, but following his retirement served 18 months as visiting bishop of Maine, an opportunity that drew him back to the place he most loved.
Bishop Moodey had many passions in life, time with his family being foremost, particularly at their camp in Maine. He read voraciously and was a compendium of historical information. He loved words, choosing his carefully, and wasting few. He was a natural and gifted athlete, participation enthusiastically in ice hockey, baseball, basketball, tennis, and golf, at various stages in his life. He shared these talents generously, coaching Little League baseball and Boys Club basketball when his children were young. He was a lifelong and enthusiastic baseball fan, and never stopped pulling for the Cleveland Indians.
For the last 14 years, Bishop Moodey lived deeply and richly with cancer in his life. The disease robbed him of little, repaying him with the knowledge that life is not endless, and that opportunities for time with family and friends, trips to unknown places, and glorious Maine days were to be seized and celebrated. He was committed to living with, rather than struggling against, cancer.
"Jim was a man of deep faith, tender compassion and profound wisdom," said Bishop Chilton Knudsen of Maine, where Moodey served as assistant bishop from 1996-1997. "People of every circumstance felt the blessing of his graceful courtesy. When you were with Jim, you knew that he gave you his full and loving attention, as if nothing else were more important than those moments together.
"His spiritual leadership of the Diocese of Maine as Assistant Bishop brought healing and gentleness into our diocesan life.... I was blessed to have Jim as a supportive advisor and friend, always empathic and insightful about the joys and challenges of a bishop's ministry."
Bishop Moodey is survived by his wife, Penelope Hall Moodey, with whom he shared 46 joyous years of marriage; three children, Meredith Moodey Poole and her husband Joe of Williamsburg, Virginia, Tucker Moodey and his wife Dana of Seattle, Washington, and Tia Moodey Hamilton and her husband Tom of Falmouth, Maine; nine grandchildren, Lily Moodey, James Hamilton, Amelia Poole, Jack Moodey, Mac Hamilton, Drummond Poole, Lytle Hamilton, Hope Moodey, and Tess Hamilton.
A Requiem will be held on Friday, September 9, at 2 p.m. at St Andrew's, Newcastle, Maine. A memorial service will be held at a later date at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, in the Diocese of Ohio, where +Jim served as Bishop from 1984 until 1993.
Memorial gifts may be sent to:_The Moodey Funds_The Maine Community Foundation
245 Main Street_Ellsworth, Maine 04605