Daniel Corrigan was born October 25, 1900 in Rochester, Michigan. He received his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1925 from Nashotah House in Wisconsin, and in May of 1925 he was ordained a priest. Subsequently, Corrigan received a Master of Sacred Theology degree in 1943 and a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1955, also from Nashotah House.
Upon his ordination in 1925, Corrigan served as rector of various churches until 1958, when he made history in the Episcopal Church for simultaneously being elected Bishop of Quincy (Illinois) and Suffragan Bishop of Colorado. He accepted the latter appointment and was consecrated on May 1, 1958. Just two years later, in 1960, he resigned the Colorado ministry and began employment as director of the Home Department of the National (Executive) Council. As a result of his professional involvement in issues of social justice, he became active in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
Upon his resignation from the Home Department in 1968 Corrigan became first a minister to Amherst College in Massachusetts and then dean of Bexley Hall in Rochester, New York. While at Bexley Hall, Corrigan became active in the anti-Vietnam War movement. The culmination of this activity came during the interfaith Mass for Peace held on the steps of the Pentagon where many participants in this service, including Corrigan, were arrested.
In 1974, during his retirement, Corrigan participated in the irregular ordination of 11 women to the priesthood in Philadelphia. Along with four other bishops, Corrigan ordained these women, an act which broke with the tradition and interpretation of the Canons of the Church at that time.
Corrigan died on September 21, 1994.
William White, the first Bishop of Pennsylvania (1787-1836), was born into a wealthy and prominent family in Philadelphia in 1748. He was educated at the College of Philadelphia, where he eventually received his Doctor of Divinity degree. Ordained deacon in 1770 and priest in 1772, White became first assistant minister and then rector of Christ Church and St. Peter’s in Philadelphia, a position in which he served for the remainder of his life. He also served as chaplain of the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War, president of the first and fourth General Conventions, and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America from 1795 until his death in 1836. Additionally, White played a leading role in many civic organizations and educational institutions such as the Philadelphia Bible Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the General Theological Seminary.
Bishop White was a critical figure in the formation of the Protestant Episcopal Church, contributing not only as a talented organizer and a pragmatic reconciler between differing opinions, but also as a proponent of constitutional law and republican forms of government. His accepted recommendations for the Church constitution that included the establishment of The Episcopal Church as a self-governing and independent ecclesiastical body, the inclusion of laity with equal representation as clergy in governing bodies, and the right of dioceses to elect their own bishops. In addition, he proposed a new Prayer Book and planned for obtaining the episcopate from the English bishops that would extend the line of apostolic succession to America without requiring bishops to swear allegiance to the King of England.
