Nathan D. Baxter

Baxter, a Harrisburg native, was the oldest of three sons, Charles Wayne and Larry of Elder Belgium N. Baxter and Augusta Baxter. He is married to Mary Ellen Baxter (Walker), an educator with degrees from Hampton University and Harvard University. They have two children, two foster children, and nine grandchildren.{{cite web |title=The Rt. Rev. Nathan Baxter |url=https://day1.org/speakers/5d9b820ef71918cdf200237c/the_rt_rev_nathan_baxter |website=day1.org |access-date=17 May 2020}}

He graduated from Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1976 with honors and prizes in homiletics and Christology and earned a Doctor of Ministry there in 1985.[https://www.lancasterseminary.edu/assets/uploads/Nathan_Baxter_c.v._abbreviated_Final-2017.pdf "The Right Reverend Nathan Dwight Baxter"], Lancaster Seminary. Retrieved on 17 May 2020. Baxter has also completed programs at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Warren Deem Management Institute at the Columbia University Executive Center. Baxter has received numerous other honors from colleges, universities and seminaries including being named an honorary alumnus at the Episcopal Divinity School 1991, and receiving eight honorary doctorates Dickinson College, Messiah College, Colgate University, St. Paul's College, York College, Elizabethtown College, Ohio Dominican University, Lincoln University{{cite news | url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/article/bishop-baxter-receives-honorary-degree-lincoln-university | title=Bishop Baxter receives honorary degree from Lincoln University | publisher=The Episcopal Church | work=Episcopal News Service | date=June 20, 2008 | access-date=September 27, 2016 | location=New York, NY}} and the Presidential Medal from Millersville University.

Directly before being elected bishop, Baxter spent two-and-a-half years serving as the rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A third-generation priest, he was dean of Washington National Cathedral from 1991 to 2003 and served as Chief Administrative Officer of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. California Rep. Barbara Lee credits Baxter's sermon at the September 14, 2001 memorial following the September 11 attacks, during which he warned Americans not to "become the evil we deplore," with cementing her decision to vote no on the Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001 (Lee was the only member of Congress to vote no).{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/17/barbara-lee-afghanistan-vote/ |title=She was the only member of Congress to vote against war in Afghanistan. Some called her a traitor |date=2021-08-17 |author1=Gillian Brockell |newspaper=The Washington Post |place=Washington, D.C. |issn=0190-8286 |oclc=1330888409}}

Before becoming dean of the cathedral, Baxter served as the administrative dean and associate professor of pastoral theology at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seminary dean and associate professor of church and ministry at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and chaplain and professor of religious studies at St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville, Virginia. Baxter has also served at other parishes in Pennsylvania and Virginia.Smith, Jessie Carney (2012). Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events, p. 582. Visible Ink Press, Detroit, MI. {{ISBN|1578594243}}.

Baxter is an associate of the Order of the Holy Cross, chaplain of the Most Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Other memberships include Sigma Pi Phi fraternity, the Cosmos Club of Washington, and a life member of the Union of Black Episcopalians and the NAACP. Drafted in 1968, he is also a decorated U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, having received the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm and the Combat Medical Badge.{{Cite web |url=http://www.idvl.org/harrisburglivinglegacy/Bio132.html |title=Biography Page for Nathan Baxter |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913175842/http://www.idvl.org/harrisburglivinglegacy/Bio132.html |archive-date=13 September 2021 |website=Highmark Blue Shield Living Legacy}}

He was selected to deliver the prayer for the nation at the White House Millennium Celebration, which was televised internationally.{{cite web |title=Nathan Baxter, Dean of Washington National Cathedral, To Speak at Amherst College Feb. 2 |date=January 14, 2003 |url=https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2003/01_2003/node/9361 |website=www.amherst.edu}} He was acknowledged by Nancy Reagan for his leadership in planning the funeral of President Ronald Reagan.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Baxter retired in May 2014 after serving as Bishop of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania for eight years. Following Baxter's retirement the Rt. Rev. Robert Gepert was named as provisional bishop of the diocese. On March 14, 2015, the Rev. Canon Audrey Scanlan was elected to become the next bishop of the diocese.{{Citation | date = 2014-03-15| work = Episcopal News Service | title = Central Pennsylvania diocese elects Audrey Cady Scanlan as bishop | publisher = The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society | url = http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2015/03/15/central-pennsylvania-diocese-elects-audrey-cady-scanlan-as-bishop/ | access-date = 2014-03-15}}

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Category:Elizabethtown College alumni

Category:Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania

Category:Episcopal Divinity School alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Episcopal Divinity School faculty

Category:1948 births

Category:African-American Episcopalians

Category:American Episcopalians

Category:Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni

Category:People from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Category:Episcopal bishops of Central Pennsylvania