Community Corner

Memorial for Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon Saturday

Memorial for the Rt. Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, the second woman bishop in the Episcopal Church, will be 10 a.m. Saturday at the Washington National Cathedral.

Saturday, the Washington National Cathedral will host a memorial service for retired Rt. Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, who died Dec. 25 of heart disease.

Bishop Dixon was the second woman bishop in the Episcopal Church and served as the Bishop of Washington pro tempore.

The service at 10 a.m. at the Washington National Cathedral will also be broadcast via a live webcast on the cathedral's website.

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"We are heartbroken at the death of retired Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon, who passed away early Christmas morning," according to a message posted on the website of St. John's Episcopal Church in Georgetown.

Dixon is suvived by her husband David McFarland Dixon, Sr., her three children, David, Jr., Edward and Mary, and her beloved grandchildren, Ed, Emma, Madeline, Mack, Rosalie, and Lucy, according to a notice about the memorial on St. John's website.

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"Bishop Dixon was seen as a warm, empathetic mentor, particularly to female lay leaders and clergy in the Episcopal Church, which has wrestled in recent decades with rifts over gender roles, sexuality and biblical literacy," according to The Washington Post.

During her 17 months serving as Bishop of Washington pro tempore, Dixon faced opposition from some area churches that refused to acknowledge her authority. Yet it was she who officiated the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance service at Washington National Cathedral following the tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001.

Dixon's rise within the Anglican and Episcopal Church is detailed on the cathedral's website:

"The Rt. Rev. Janes Holmes Dixon was consecrated in 1992 as Suffragan Bishop of he Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She is the second woman to take the office of bishop in the Episcopal Church, and the third in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

On January 1, 2001, she assumed ecclesiastical authority for the diocese when Bishop Ronald H. Haines retired. She became the Bishop of Washington pro tempore. In that capacity, Bishop Dixon oversees the 94 congregations of the diocese, which includes the District of Columbia and four counties in Maryland. She is chair, president, and CEO of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation."


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