Bishop Estill is Consecrated in N.C.
Episcopal News Service. March 20, 1980 [80094]
DURHAM, N.C. -- The Rev. Robert Whitridge Estill was ordained and consecrated Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina on March 15 in a service at Duke University Chapel here before a congregation of more than 1,800.
The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop, was chief consecrator of the 52-year-old Dallas rector who had been elected to his post on the second ballot last November.
Co-consecrators were Diocesan Bishops Thomas A. Fraser of North Carolina and A. Donald Davies of Dallas, and retired Bishops C. Gresham Marmion of Kentucky, William R. Moody of Lexington, and William F. Creighton of Washington. Thirty-two bishops were present and participated in the two and one half hour service.
The Most Rev. F. Joseph Gossman, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, was one of the episcopal examiners during the service.
The Rev. John C. Harper, rector of St. John's Church, Washington, was the preacher.
As Coadjutor of North Carolina, Bishop Estill will assist and ultimately succeed Bishop Fraser, 64, when he retires. He will have oversight of the 86 congregations in the diocese with 300 or fewer members. There are 116 congregations, with 41,000 members and 30,000 communicants. The diocese, whose see city is Raleigh, is in the central part of the state, flanked by the Dioceses of East Carolina and Western North Carolina.
Bishop Estill, a native of Lexington, Ky., was rector of St. Michael and All Angels in Dallas from 1976 until his election to the episcopate. His previous parish experiences were in Lexington and Louisville, Ky., and Washington, D.C. For three years he was director of continuing education at Virginia Theological Seminary.
In 1950 he married Joyce Haynes and they have three children.