Albert R. Stuart

Albert Rhett Stuart (January 20, 1906 - April 17, 1973), born in Washington, DC, was the Sixth Bishop of Georgia. He was the 532nd bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA).

Education Stuart was educated at the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. He was a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary.

Episcopacy Albert Rhett Stuart was consecrated as the sixth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia on October 20, 1954, in St. Pauls, Augusta. He had been elected during the diocesan convention of 1954 when seventeen persons were nominated to succeed Bishop Barnwell. Even with the large field of candidates, Stuart was elected on the second ballot. He was then serving as the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans, and had previously served as rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Greenwood, South Carolina and as rector of St. Michael's, Charleston. He went on to tell that Diocesan Convention that there were six steps needed for the Diocese to "fulfill her responsibility in this generation and improve her evangelistic witness." He named these as: A renewal of confidence and conviction that it is the mission of the Church "to proclaim her Lord as the Way, the Truth, and the Life for all Mankind." For this he recommended year-round use of Church Schools. The diocese should appreciate the magnitude of her present opportunity. He encouraged direct evangelistic effort saying, "It is high time the Episcopal Church rose from her dignified posture of waiting to be discovered...and went out into the byways and hedges seeking souls for whom her Lord died." New congregations should be established in areas where the Church had no work and in newly developing urban communities. Accelerated support for the Church's University of the South at Sewanee. Consideration of the sanctity of the Christian marriage partnership as a basic factor in the problem of human relationships. Finally, he expressed concern over the racial problem, urging Churchmen to be vigilant "lest the fear and prejudice surrounding us infiltrate our thinking and confuse us as to our clear duty." He reminded those gathered of the many years in which white and colored Churchmen had "known their unity in Christ and have labored together in one fold under one shepherd."