JAMES PARKS MORTON (1930–2020) grew up in Iowa City, the son of a professor of theater at the University of Iowa. After his education, which included a scholarship to study theology in Cambridge, England, he was ordained an Episcopal priest. His work with inner-city parishioners in Jersey City and Chicago, where he addressed urban problems of changing populations, was followed by twenty-five years as dean at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City. In addition to establishing the Cathedral as a center for the city to celebrate the role of the arts in religious experience, he also worked to cultivate an informed concern in the church for the crisis of the environment. An interest in other religious traditions was an important part of his ministry, and he founded the Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY), which allowed religious leaders and lay people to collaborate on city-wide issues of justice and peace. ICNY’s work continues today.

After several years suffering from Alzheimer’s, James Morton died on January 4, 2020.