James Thayer Addison

Immediately after graduating from Harvard, Addison went to China where he taught for a year in St. John's University, Shanghai.

[6] After his year in Shanghai, Addison returned to the United States and entered the Episcopal Theological School.

[7] As such, “he held the only professorship of missions in any Episcopal Church seminary.”[9] On December 18, 1917, Addison married Margaret Beecher Crocker (1896-1978).

[citation needed] In 1918, Addison temporarily left the Episcopal Theological School to serve as chaplain of the First Gas Regiment, A.E.F.

[7] After returning from his service as military chaplain, Addison was promoted from lecturer to assistant professor of the History of Religion and Missions.

[citation needed] During the academic year of 1932-33, Addison served “as acting Master of Kirkland House” at Harvard University.

As such, he supervised the Episcopal Church's missionary work in China, Japan, the Philippines, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and other overseas fields.

[1] A 1941 newspaper article called Addison “one of the outstanding present-day authorities on Christian missions in the Episcopal church.” He was also “a leading American authority on Islamic problems.”[9] In February 1944, at the Annual Meeting of the National Council of the Episcopal Church, the question arose whether to use legacies received by the church to pay off debts or for current missionary work.

[15] In 1947, poor health compelled Addison to resign his position as vice president of the National Council and executive of the Overseas Department.

[9] On February 8, 1942, while Addison was serving as vice-president of the National Council of the Episcopal Church in charge of Missions, “he suffered a severe heart attack.” The prognosis was “favorable.”[19] Addison died of a heart attack on February 13, 1953, at his home in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of sixty-five.

[1] His body was cremated with the cremains being placed in the columbarium of Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.

[1] The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Henry Knox Sherrill, wrote, “Dr.

And among all who are commissioned in that Church by baptism there should prevail the sense of urgent mission, the spirit of unresting advance.”Articles