Frank Allan

Frank Kellogg Allan (May 9, 1935 – May 24, 2019) was the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta from 1989 till 2000.

Background

Allan was born in Hammond, Indiana. He graduated from Emory University in 1956, and in 1959 he received his Master of Divinity from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.

Allan was ordained as deacon and later as priest by Bishop Randolph R. Claiborne Jr. in 1959, and served at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Dalton, Georgia, for eight years. In 1967 Allan became rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Macon, Georgia, where he served until 1977. Allan's time at St. Paul's coincided with rising political consciousness: he once delivered a sermon on women's rights that was interrupted and denounced by a woman in the congregation for its progressive stand; he later said that from that time on he never began a sermon without expecting to be interrupted. From St. Paul's, Allan went to St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Atlanta.

In 1987 Bishop C. Judson Child consecrated Allan as Bishop Coadjutor for the Diocese of Atlanta. When Bishop Child retired, Bishop Allan became Bishop of Atlanta per the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church (1989). He was consecrated as Coadjutor Bishop on February 7, 1987, and became diocesan bishop on January 1, 1989.

After retiring, Bishop Allan taught at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He also began a ministry called the Work of Our Hands to provide arts and crafts to under-served communities. Bishop Allan is remembered for his supportive role in the ordination of women in the diocese.

Consecrators Edmond Lee Browning, 24th Presiding Bishop Charles Judson Child, Jr., 7th Bishop of Atlanta William Evan Sanders, 1st Bishop of East Tennessee Bennett Jones Sims, 6th Bishop of Atlanta Frank K. Allan was the 818th bishop consecrated in the Episcopal Church.