Paul Reeves (Bishop of Georgia)

Life

Paul Reeves was born October 14, 1918 in Roanoke, Virginia. He was a 1940 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Randolph-Macon College and received a Bachelor in Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 1943. On December 18, 1943, he married Adele Ethel Beer. He was ordained as a deacon on May 6, 1948 and to the priesthood on All Saints Day (November 1) of the same year. He served as Navy chaplain aboard the USS Piedmont during World War II. After three years serving as a chaplain at Ruge Hall Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida, Reeves became the rector of All Saints Church in Winter Park, Florida. He also served as the Rector of Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota, Florida from 1959 to 1965. He served 15 years—the last eight as president—on the standing committee of the Diocese of Central Florida and was a deputy to three General Conventions. In parish ministry, he last served as the rector of St. Stephen's Church in Miami, from which post he was elected bishop coadjutor of Georgia in 1969.

He died April 15, 2010, in Asheville, North Carolina. A Requiem Eucharist was held at St. Johns Episcopal Church, Savannah.

Episcopacy

G. Paul Reeves was consecrated as the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia at Christ Church, Savannah on September 30, 1969. He had been elected as a bishop coadjutor to succeed Albert R. Stuart on Bishop Stuart's retirement. He stood in opposition to the 1979 revisions to the Book of Common Prayer and the ordination of women in The Episcopal Church. Bishop Reeves served as diocesan bishop from 1972 through 1985. He was succeeded by Harry W. Shipps, who in recalling his predecessor in a Savannah Morning News article at the time of Reeves' death remembered both the bishop's strong views and his sense of humor, "I greatly valued his wisdom, and recall his strong commitment to the historic traditions of the Church. He had an ironic sense of humor that always amused."