Stephen Fielding Bayne Jr. (May 21, 1908 – January 18, 1974) was bishop of the Diocese of Olympia in The Episcopal Church between 1947 and 1959 and the first Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion from 1960 until 1964.
[4] On December 9, 1946, he was elected bishop of the Diocese of Olympia on the fourth ballot as a surprise nomination from the floor.
[5] He served until 1959, when he resigned to accept an appointment by the Archbishop of Canterbury as the first Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion;[3] he took up the role on January 1, 1960, and held simultaneous responsibility for the American Episcopal churches of Europe.
There, delegates approved a document drafted primarily by Bayne titled “Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ.” MRI called for new patterns of being Anglican marked by “the birth of entirely new relationships” and declared “our unity in Christ… is the most profound bond among us, in all our political and racial and cultural diversity.” MRI — and Bayne —w as widely hailed as a break with an outdated Anglican past, even appearing on the front page of The New York Times.
[10] He narrowly lost the election for presiding bishop that year but still accepted a position at the Episcopal Church Center in New York.