THE BISHOP ELLIOTT SOCIETY |
Who was Bishop Elliott? |
The Bishop Elliott Society is named for The Rt. Rev. Robert W.B. Elliott, first Missionary Bishop (1874-1887) of what was then the Missionary District of Western Texas. We take him for a model for many sound examples: |
![]() | Missionary Leader — He came from a distinguished southern family and a comfortable eastern | |
rectorship to assume leadership of a new, weak, raw frontier missionary effort. That commitment stood the test of time and cost Elliott his life. |
![]() | Educator — A key to his strategy was provision of excellent schooling for the youth of his | |
jurisdiction, leading him to found schools that continue to this day. |
![]() | Builder — Over more than a decade of exhausting travel and despite delicate health, he more | |
than quadrupled his church in membership and support, founding churches and educational institutions from El Paso to the coastal bend. |
![]() | Evangelist — His passion was to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ by faithful living witness to | |
the Anglican tradition. He articulated and lived a message of practical, energetic and whole- hearted evangelism consecrated for apostolic ministry on a growing frontier. |
![]() | Uncompromising Anglican — For Bishop Elliott, Anglicanism had universal appeal. He | |
addressed the Missionary District Convocation of 1875 in this way: |
It is our mission as brethren banded together for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ to maintain in all of its breadth and fullness a true catholicity, at the same time to repel… any policy which would tend to compromise “the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.” For myself I willingly mean by a true catholicity neither a narrow Protestant Episcopalianism, nor a weak imitation of the Papacy. Our heritage is Anglicanism. –Bishop’s Address, 1875 |
Click here for an 1874 sermon on the missionary martyr Bishop Patteson by Bishop Elliott |
Click here for a link to more wisdom from Bishop Elliott. |
Bishop Gary Lillibridge: "Deny Yourself. Take Up Your Cross. Follow Me." Sermon to the 104th Annual Council 21 February 2008 Click here |