William Palmer Ladd

William Palmer Ladd (1870–1941) was an American Episcopal priest, liturgical scholar, and seminary dean.

The Reverend William Palmer Ladd
Passport application, 1916
Born	(1870-05-13)May 13, 1870 Lancaster, New Hampshire, US
Died	July 1, 1941(1941-07-01) (aged 71)
Title	Dean of Berkeley Divinity School (1918–1941)
Spouse	Ailsie Tayor ​ (m. 1915)​
Ecclesiastical career
Religion	Christianity (Anglican)
Church	Episcopal Church (United States)
Ordained	1897 (deacon) 1898 (priest)
Academic background
Alma mater	Dartmouth College General Theological Seminary Harvard University
Academic work
Discipline	History theology
Sub-discipline	Ecclesiastical history liturgics
School or tradition	Liturgical Movement Social Gospel
Institutions	Berkeley Divinity School
Notable works	Prayer Book Interleaves (1943)
Influenced	Massey H. Shepherd

Biography

Ladd was born on May 13, 1870, in Lancaster, New Hampshire. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1891 and a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the General Theological Seminary in 1897. Ladd was ordained deacon on June 11, 1897, and priest on June 11, 1898.

After work as a parish priest in the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, he served as professor of church history (1904–1941) at Berkeley Divinity School, of which he later became dean (1918–1941). The school had been founded in Middletown, Connecticut, but Ladd worked to move it to New Haven, home of Yale University, believing connection with a major university and presence in an urban center were better suited to training of clergy.

As Dean of Berkeley, Ladd was seen as an inspiring if sometimes controversial figure. Socialist in sympathies, he chaired a major review of child welfare for the state of Connecticut. He was responsible for bringing to the USA a number of sympathetic Anglican thinkers as visiting professors including Percy Dearmer and Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy.

Ladd died on July 1, 1941, in New Haven.

Influence

Ladd was active in the dissemination of Liturgical Movement principles in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. His book Prayer Book Interleaves, published only after his death, was based on columns that had appeared in the Episcopal Church magazine The Witness. It was reprinted in 1957 with a new introduction by his student Massey H. Shepherd and then again in the centenary year of his appointment as Dean of Berkeley.

Shepherd himself and others including Urban T. Holmes III viewed Ladd as the instigator of the processes of reform that ultimately led to the adoption of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

See also

• Social Gospel

Bibliography

• Prayer Book Interleaves: Some Reflections on How the Book of Common Prayer Might Be Made More Influential (1943)

References

Works cited

• Armentrout, Donald S.; Slocum, Robert Boak, eds. (2000). "Ladd, William Palmer". An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. New York: Church Publishing. p. 291. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
• Moriarty, Michael (1995a). "Associated Parishes and the 1979 Prayer Book". Anglican and Episcopal History. 64 (2): 195–227. ISSN 0896-8039. JSTOR 42611697.
•  ———  (1995b). "William Palmer Ladd and the Origins of the Episcopal Liturgical Movement". Church History. 64 (3): 438–451. doi:10.2307/3168949. ISSN 1755-2613. JSTOR 3168949.

External links

• Works by or about William Palmer Ladd at the Internet Archive