The 27-year legacies of the seventh Bishop of California, William E. Swing, are temporal, spiritual and tangible. Only California’s first two bishops, William Ingraham Kip and William Ford Nichols, served longer terms (Kip, 40 years, and Nichols, 31).

In a recent interview and addresses to the diocese, Swing reviewed his tenure with characteristic humor, candor and humility. “Surprise factors and simple things,” stood out, he said – from making sure that all the diocese’s bishops’ portraits were in place, to seeing that money was in hand for a hugely expanded ministry. The diocese in 2006 supported some $14.5 million in beneficial programs, many under Episcopal Charities.

Most ministries grew out of catastrophes – earthquakes, fires, AIDS epidemics, poverty. In 1979 the bishop was asked by San Francisco’s mayor to help with the problem of homelessness. In 2006 diocesan programs housed more homeless people than any social-service agency in the Bay Area (1,150 in eight locations each night). Two residential facilities for the homeless, models for the nation, had been built. A well-capitalized Community Bank of the Bay, initiated with African-American members in the wake of 1980s’ race riots, provided loans for inner-city mortgages and entrepreneurs. St. Luke’s Hospital continued to serve the needy with modern facilities, rescued from near bankruptcy by partnership with other health-care providers.

The diocese had led the Anglican Communion and the world in sponsoring care and compassion for AIDS victims. Attitudes toward gay and lesbian people took root from a 1980 ministry of reconciliation. Bishop Swing had ordained more women and openly-gay and lesbian priests and deacons than any bishop in church history (as well as a prisoner in state penitentiary). Grace Cathedral was enhanced with welcoming steps, a new Chapter House, labyrinth and plaza. Bay School was established (by 2006 it had a junior class), as were new retirement facilities (San Francisco Towers).

When Swing arrived in California from West Virginia in 1979 with his wife Mary and two children, he had never seen the West. San Francisco had been shaken by the murder of its mayor and social tragedies. The diocese was fractionated. Swing began with a “Dream of California” survey that resulted in 27 new ministries. Bishop’s Ranch was expanded for a retreat where a William and Mary Swing Hospitality Pavilion would be built to honor them. Swing made a concerted effort to get to know his clergy with regular meetings (including dinners at their house that his wife cooked), which “changed the climate of clergy relationships,” he felt, and built a camaraderie with prelates and worshipers alike, as if he were the parish priest that he had been before accepting the call to bishop (he estimated that he had preached more than 4,000 sermons as bishop).

He made a point of thanking each member of the clergy for his or her work once a year, and asked them to communicate with him annually. “I know the clergy well – because I am a pen-pal,” he joked. The diocese in 1995 hosted a 50th anniversary of the chartering of the United Nations, which prompted Swing to conceive an international parallel, United Religions Initiative. URI by 2006 had offices on five continents with 300 cooperation circles in 65 nations.

In 2000 the diocese would celebrate 150 years since its founding in the Gold Rush. Swing presided over a host of events under the banner “Let It Shine.” The sesquicentennial launched a Jubilate Deo “experimentation and exploration” into “fresh approaches to witnessing the power of Jesus’ Resurrection,” as Swing summarized his 25 years in “The Swing Shift.”

Reflecting on accomplishments

Throughout his busy career as bishop, facing often daunting challenges, Swing was “grateful that my body has held up” and that he was able to “see things to fruition.” He was proud of never missing a Sunday service, that construction projects and financial obligations were “all paid for.” Figuring out the diocese, he laughed, was like “taking apart a radio and putting it back together – if you don’t like dealing with churches, you shouldn’t do it.” He cited among his favorite deeds getting 370 couples who had been married at least 50 years together for a special service of tribute, an idea he got from the Roman Catholics. “There was no greater day than that,” he reflected of the presidential greetings, big band and renewed vows that marked the first of those ceremonies. He also chuckled over a St. Francis day service when two San Francisco police officers mounted on horses rode into Grace Cathedral, forcing Mary Swing to leap over the pew to escape what horses are wont to do.

Among other things that Swing admitted being proud of were the ethnic expansion of the diocese. He was pleased to be considered “a civic person” whose “brain politicians want to pick.” Over the years, he had met the Dalai Lama, theologian Hans Kung, Archbishops of Canterbury; he had been to the White House and Camp David to advise U.S. presidents on AIDS programs, to Rome to witness the installation of S.F. Archbishop Levada as cardinal; he was putting into his archives Christmas cards from movie stars, baseball players, authors, cartoonists; he had been invited to Elizabeth Taylor’s 60th birthday party, and visited with Mother Theresa in her humble house in Calcutta. “I play in the traffic,” he acknowledged, “and get lots of Protestants and Catholics and Jews together. It has been a great privilege."

His value of history (he was a history major in college) inspired him to keep a diary of his world travels, and to have his papers catalogued for the diocesan archives. Among his awards have been the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Peace Award, Bishop Parsons Award for Social Justice, American Foundation for AIDS Research Award of Courage – and, not to be omitted, the Huntington, West Virginia, West Junior High School Hall of Fame, and making the finals in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am Golf tournament in 1994, when he hit a hole in one!

In “retirement,” Swing planned to devote time to URI, speaking and traveling to expand its influence. “We’re trying to change world history,” Swing told a business magazine.

Putting it all in perspective, the bishop said, “You have to give your all as bishop. But you have to let others do” their part. “You only have so much to give. It’s been a work out,” he admitted. But “Episcopacy is not a person,” he told the diocesan convention. It “is a dance marathon involving God, the people, and an itinerant overseer."

Thank you, Bishop Swing, for accepting God’s challenge in the land of earthquakes.

Mary Judith Robinson is author of From Gold Rush to Millennium – 150 Years of the Episcopal Diocese of California, 1849-2000, and great-great-granddaughter of the first Bishop of the Diocese, William I. Kip.