Leonel Mitchell

Leonel L. Mitchell (July 23, 1930 - May 23, 2012) was an influential scholar of liturgy in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and a major reviser of its 1979 Book of Common Prayer. He was the author of multiple books in the field of liturgics.^[1]

Education

Mitchell was born in New York. He graduated from Trinity School (New York City) in 1947 and Trinity College (Connecticut) in Hartford in 1951. For his basic theological studies, Mitchell attended Berkeley Divinity School, graduating with a master's degree in sacred theology in 1954. (Before his retirement, Berkeley awarded Mitchell an honorary doctorate.) Shortly, after graduation, he was ordained as a Deacon and then as a Priest of the Episcopal Church.^[2])

In the fall of 1956, Mitchell entered the General Theological Seminary as a doctoral student in church history. However, when the seminary called H. Boone Porter, Jr. to be professor of liturgics, Mitchell switched his major to liturgics and completed his doctoral dissertation in December 1963. When he received his doctorate in 1964, Mitchell had earned the first doctor’s degree in liturgics awarded by an Episcopal seminary.^[3]

Parish priest

Between his student and his teaching careers, Mitchell served as a parish priest: first at Christ Church, Warwick, NY, then at St Luke’s, Beacon, NY. During his years at St. Luke’s, Mitchell served as chaplain for many area organizations including Goodwill Industries, Hook and Ladder Fire Department, and the Boy Scouts. He joined young people in protesting against the war in Vietnam and he worked to unite black and white parishioners.^[4]

In 1971, Mitchell and his family moved to South Bend, IN so that he could pursue a full-time teaching career.^[5]

Teaching career

From 1971 to 1978, Mitchell served as an assistant professor in the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Theology and as director of its master’s program from 1974 to 1978.^[7] He was the first Episcopal priest to serve as a full-time faculty member at Notre Dame.^[8]

From 1978 to 1995, Mitchell was professor of liturgics at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and lecturer in Church history and liturgy at Seabury-Western from 1978 to 2005, after which he became a professor emeritus. In 1978, Mitchell was made an honorary canon and in 2008, he became canon theologian at the Cathedral of St. James in South Bend, Indiana.^[9]

Death

Mitchell, 81, died on May 23, 2012 at Hospice House in South Bend. He was survived by his wife, Beverly (Mills), whom he married on December 19, 1953 in Hartford, Connecticut, and their two children, Anne (Marni) of West Hartford, CT and David (Vicky) of Elmhurst, IL and their four grandchildren, Amika, Kirina, Andrea and Chad.^[10]

Bibliography

• Baptismal Anointing (S.P.C.K., 1966)
• Change: How Much Do We Need? (Seabury, 1975)
• The Way We Pray (Forward Movement Publications, 1984)
• The Meaning of Ritual (Paulist/Morehouse, 1988)
• Praying Shapes Believing (Morehouse, 1991)
• Planning the Church Year (Winston/Morehouse, 1991)
• Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and the Great Fifty Days: A Ceremonial Guide (Rowman & Littlefield, 1996)
• The Way We Pray: an Introduction to the Book of Common Prayer (Forward Movement Publications, rev 1997)
• Pastoral and Occasional Offerings (Cowley, 1998)
• Pastoral and Occasional Liturgies: A Ceremonial Guide (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998)

In addition to his writings, Mitchell discussed his liturgical work at length in the video series Claiming the Vision: Baptismal Identity in the Episcopal Church available on YouTube as follows:

• Leonel Mitchell, “Claiming the Vision: Baptism and the Sacramental Life”
• Leonel Mitchell, “Claiming the Vision: The History and Theology of the Baptism Rite in the 1979 Prayer Book”
• Leonel Mitchell, “Claiming the Vision: Understanding the Baptismal Ecclesiology of the Episcopal Church”

External links

• Obituary from The Living Church
• Episcopal News Service obituary
• Obituary

References