Black Priest Consecrated Bishop in Chicago
Diocesan Press Service. October 16, 1972 [72153]
CHICAGO, Ill. -- The Very Rev. Quintin E. Primo, Jr., of Detroit, Michigan, was ordained and consecrated Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Chicago by the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, in the Cathedral Church of St. James, Chicago, on Saturday, September 30. Bishop Primo was the first black priest to be consecrated a bishop of the Chicago Diocese and was only the fifth black bishop to be elected to a domestic jurisdiction in the Episcopal Church.
Assisting the Presiding Bishop as co-consecrators were the Rt. Rev. James W. Montgomery, Diocesan Bishop of Chicago, the Rt. Rev. Richard S. Emerich, Bishop of Michigan, and the Rt. Rev. John T. Walker, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Washington.
Attending the new bishop were the Rt. Rev. Richard B. Martin, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Long Island, and the Rt. Rev. George Leslie Cadigan, Bishop of Missouri. He was presented by the Rev. W. James Walker, vicar of the Church of the Holy Cross, Chicago, and Mr. Ernest N. Robinson, St. Richard's Church, Chicago. The Rt. Rev. Gerald Francis Burrill, retired Bishop of Chicago, returned to the Diocese for the first time since his retirement to assist in the examination of the new bishop. The Rev. Canon Theodore R. Gibson, rector of Christ Church, Miami, Florida, preached the sermon.
Bishop Primo comes to Chicago after a long and successful ministry in Florida, North Carolina, New York, Delaware, and Michigan. At the time of his election he was rector of St. Matthew's and St. Joseph's Parish, Detroit, and for several years he was also dean of the Woodward Convocation in the Diocese of Michigan.
Born in Liberty County, Georgia, in 1913, Bishop Primo was educated in schools in Georgia and Pennsylvania. He received his divinity degree from Bishop Payne Divinity School.
Over a thousand persons attended the service in which more than 15 bishops of the Episcopal Church took part. The overflow of the congregation attending the service took their part in the adjacent John B. Murphy auditorium of the Chicago College of Surgeons, where they could observe all that occurred on three closed-circuit color television monitors. The service was taped in color by the WGN-Continental Broadcasting Company, and after editing it will be broadcast on the Chicagoland Church Hour, Channel 9, on Sunday, October 8, at 8:45 a.m., Central Daylight Time.
Bishop Primo was consecrated using the new rite contained in Services for Trial Use, and immediately after his consecration he concelebrated the Eucharist employing the second service for Holy Communion in the new rite. Everyone in attendance was communicated at several stations in the Cathedral and at a station which served the overflow in the Murphy auditorium.
Bishop Primo's consecration produces an historical coincidence in his relationship with Bishop Montgomery, the Diocesan. It was during the episcopate of Bishop Montgomery's grandfather, the Rt. Rev. James R. Winchester, late Bishop of Arkansas, that the first black bishop, the Rt. Rev. Edward Thomas Demby, was elected from and for a domestic jurisdiction (diocese). Both Bishop Demby and Bishop Primo were consecrated as suffragan bishops, assistant bishops who do not automatically succeed to the office of chief pastor upon the death or retirement of the diocesan.
The new bishop assumed his duties immediately, confirming new communicants into the Church at St. Paul's Church, DeKalb, on the Sunday morning following his consecration. In addition to the usual tasks of assisting Bishop Montgomery in the pastoral care and administration of the Diocese, Bishop Primo assumes the chairmanship of the Advisory Commission on Metropolitan Affairs, the Chicago Diocese's arm which oversees its work in the inner city and among racial minorities.
An ecumenical note was added to the service by the presence of a number of leaders of the major Christian denominations. Present were John Cardinal Cody, Archbishop of the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese, the Rt. Rev. Timotheus, Titular Bishop of Rodostolon of the Green Archdiocese of North and South America, the Rt. Rev. Francis Carl Rowinski, Bishop of the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church, the Rev. Dr. Luke Mingo, president of the National Baptist State Convention, and the Most Rev. G. Duncan Hinkson, of the African Orthodox Church.
Music for the service was provided by the Diocesan Choir, church members from parishes throughout the Diocese, under the direction of B. Lynn Hebert, organist-choirmaster of the Cathedral Church.