Leadership Gallery

Byron Rushing (center) with Leon Page (left), spokesperson for the United Front, and unidentified man at the 63rd General Convention in Houston, Texas, 1970.

Born in New York City, Rushing attended Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a member of the Massachusetts Legislature since 1983, he currently holds the position of Second Assistant Majority Leader in the House of Representatives. Rushing has had a lifelong commitment to the advancement of civil and human rights, housing and universal health care, and economic and housing development. As a sponsor of the gay rights bill and the law to end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in public schools, Rushing has expanded the fight for civil rights.

Not only a leader in government, Rushing is an active Episcopal layman and a member of St. John's, St. James' Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He has been an elected lay deputy to the General Convention since 1973. He was appointed chaplain to the House of Deputies at the 1994 General Convention, the only layperson to hold this position in Church history. Rushing serves on the boards of the Episcopal Women's Caucus, the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice, and the Archives of the Episcopal Church, in addition to being one of the founding members of the Episcopal Urban Caucus. [Sources]