| Type: | Bishop |
| Honorific Prefix: | The Right Reverend |
| Albert Rhett Stuart | |
| Honorific Suffix: | D.D. |
| Bishop of Georgia | |
| Elected: | May 12, 1954 |
| Term: | 1954–1971 |
| Retired: | --> |
| Predecessor: | Middleton S. Barnwell |
| Successor: | Paul Reeves |
| Ordination: | December 21, 1931 |
| Ordained By: | Kirkman G. Finlay |
| Consecration: | October 20, 1954 |
| Consecrated By: | Henry Knox Sherrill |
| Birth Date: | 20 January 1906 |
| Death Place: | Savannah, Georgia, United States |
| Buried: | St. Michael's Churchyard |
| Parents: | Garden Clarkson Stuart & Florence Holcombe Beale |
| Spouse: | Isabella Clemence Alston (m. Sep. 25, 1945) |
| Children: | 2 |
| Previous Post: | --> |
| Alma Mater: | University of Virginia |
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).
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 was a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary.[1]
Eighteen months after becoming the diocesan bishop, Stuart told the convention meeting May 8–9, 1956 at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Thomasville,
People are discovering that a life full of gadgets is no satisfactory substitute for a life lived in the power and presence of God.[2]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:
Henry Louttit, recalls in his booklet, Saints of the Diocese of Georgia how Bishop Stuart was often the only white voice for integration in Savannah willing to speak on TV. In 1965, he confronted St. John's Church over its refusal to integrate. He remembers him speaking up for integration on a visit to Trinity Episcopal Church in Stateboro saying,
This is a free country. You can belong to any kind of church you wish, but the Episcopal Church has never asked anyone why they were coming to the church. We are not starting asking people now. This church is open to anyone who wishes to worship.He also told a Diocesan Convention that,
The solution of the problem of our society lies not in the realm of law but in the realm of faith and grace.
In 1957, Stuart dedicated a newly acquired Diocesan House on East Bay Street in Savannah as the diocesan headquarters. At that time, there were 9,976 communicants in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.
He served as diocesan bishop through 1971. He died two years later and was buried on Holy Saturday of that year, April 21, 1973.
In 1940, he received an honorary degree in Doctor of Divinity from Oglethorpe University.[3]