Weston Stewart

{{Short description|British Anglican bishop}}Image:Weston Henry Stewart.jpg

Weston Henry Stewart CBE (15 March 1887{{snd}}30 July 1969) was a British Anglican bishop who served as Archdeacon for Palestine, Syria and Trans-Jordan between 1926 and 1943 and then Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem until 1957.[http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=48605 Stewart on Palestine: Information with Provenance]

Stewart was born in 1887 in Bakewell in Derbyshire, the sixth child of Lucy Penelope ({{née}} Nesfield; 1850–1939) and Ravenscroft Stewart (1845–1921, priest). He was made a deacon in Advent 1910 (18 December){{Church Times | title = Ordinations on Sunday Last | archive = 1910_12_23_874 | issue = 2500 | date = 23 December 1910 | page = 874 | accessed = 4 December 2019 }} and ordained a priest the following Advent (24 December 1911) — both times by Arthur Winnington-Ingram, Bishop of London, at St Paul's Cathedral.{{Church Times | title = Advent ordinations | archive = 1911_12_29_892 | issue = 2553 | date = 29 December 1911 | page = 892 | accessed = 4 December 2019 }} In 1916 he was appointed Incumbent of Chelsea Old Church.[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=99964 'Rectors and Incumbents of the Old Church — British history Online] In 1932 he married Margaret A. Clapham at Cambridge. In 1933 Stewart suggested acquiring land together with the British Mandate government for a new municipal cemetery on Mount Scopus next to the British Jerusalem War Cemetery, allowing each different Christian congregation to use a specific section for its burials.Ernst Rhein in a letter of 23 May 1933 to the Board of Trustees of the Evangelical Jerusalem's Foundation From 1938 to 1943 he was the Honorary Chaplain to the Palestine Police Force.

In 1943 he was appointed the seventh Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem[http://www.j-diocese.org/print.php?page=1296660002563&lang=en Website of The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem] and Dean of the Collegiate Church of St George the Martyr in Jerusalem following the sudden death of Francis Graham Brown in a car accident in November 1942.Collegiate Church of St. George the Martyr (Jerusalem), 'Order of Service for the Enthronement of Weston Henry Stewart as Bishop of the Church of England in Jerusalem and His Installation as Dean of the Collegiate Church - November 8th, 1943' Beyt-ul-Makdes Press (1943) Because of World War II he found it difficult to travel to London for his consecration by William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, on St Matthew's Day 1943 (21 September), at Westminster Abbey.{{Church Times | title = Abbey Resplendent: A Memorable Consecration | archive = 1943_09_24_492 | issue = 4209 | date = 24 September 1943 | page = 492 | accessed = 4 December 2019 }} He laid the cornerstone of the Church of the Redeemer, Amman in 1949. In 1952, assisted by the former diplomat Stewart Perowne, he was involved in designing and organising model villages for Palestinian Arabs who had been made refugees as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. On 16 November 1956 Stewart consecrated and dedicated the newly built St Paul's Anglican Church in Kuwait.[http://www.stpaulskuwait.com/history.html Website of St Paul's Anglican Church in Kuwait]

On his return to England in 1957, Stewart became Rector of Cottesmore with Barrow, Rutland until 1964, and an Assistant Bishop of Peterborough and honorary canon of Peterborough Cathedral until his death{{Who's Who | id= U47621 | title=Stewart, Weston Henry }} in 1969 at Exton near Oakham, Rutland.