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Bishop Chester Talton, retired suffragan of Los Angeles,
dies at 84
Former Harlem rector later led Fresno-based Diocese of San Joaquin
by Bob Williams
The Rt. Rev. Chester Lovelle Talton, retired bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles who later provisionally led the Fresno-based Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin – died the evening of Nov. 20 at his Altadena home with loved ones at his side. He was 84 and had been in declining health after recent spinal surgery and subsequent hospitalization.
Survivors include his wife, April Grayson Talton, and his daughters, Kathy Talton-Wilson (Ray Wilson) and Linda Talton, and sons, Fred (Tamu Talton) and Ben (Janai Nelson), and eight grandchildren: Noemi, Quinton, Jacob, Kimathi, Jendaya, Karryne, Nandi, and Osei Talton. Bishop Talton is predeceased by his first wife, Karen Warren Talton, whom he married in 1963 and who died in 2003.
Memorial service arrangements are pending. Condolences may be sent to family members in care of the Bishop’s Office, 840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026, or bishopsoffice@ladiocese.org.
“Chet Talton was a pioneer, a prophet, and a pastor for the ages,” Los Angeles Bishop Diocesan John Harvey Taylor, said the evening of Nov. 20, having visited Talton and administered last rites that morning. “Being elected bishop was an act of justice; but he lived his whole life that way. Traveling around the diocese, I encounter so many who describe their pride at having been confirmed by Chet — the warm voice, the loving smile, the gentlest of old-school slaps," added Taylor, whom Talton ordained to the priesthood in 2004.
"With April at his side, he navigated a rough year with calm and courage, first kept from their home by the wildfires, then a succession of health challenges," Taylor said. "Thanks to April, his passing was as gentle as it possibly could have been. As his friend Michael Curry wrote when he heard the news, “As the indigenous saying goes, a great oak has fallen.”
The Episcopal Church’s first African-American bishop in the western United States, Talton was from 1991 to 2010 bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles, having been elected June 9, 1990, to this office, which serves to assist the ministries of a bishop diocesan. Thereafter, Talton served from 2011 to 2014 as bishop provisional of the Fresno-based Diocese of San Joaquin as it continued to reorganize following an effort to lead the jurisdiction out of The Episcopal Church.
“Chet Talton Day” was celebrated in the Diocese of Los Angeles on May 18, 2024, with Eucharist at L.A.’s St. John’s Cathedral, co-sponsored by the diocesan Program Group on Black Ministries and the H. Belfield Hannibal Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians, highlighting his many gifts and ministries.
These include pastoral care and advocacy, especially after the 1992 Rodney King uprisings when Talton helped establish the Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union to provide loans to small businesses and others recovering from the crisis without access to traditional banking. He also oversaw diaconal ministries in the diocese for many years, guiding numerous deacons from discernment for ordination through placement in local ministries.
Talton co-edited the 2003 book Race and Prayer: Collected Voices, Many Dreams with the Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd, the late writer/poet-in-residence in the Diocese of Los Angeles, who died in 2015. The book is a collection of prayers and reflections from writers within the Diocese of Los Angeles and beyond.
Churchwide, Talton chaired the House of Bishops program committee during the adminstrations of Presiding Bishops Edmond L. Browning and Frank T. Griswold.
Elected bishop suffragan of Los Angeles by Diocesan Convention meeting at St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church north of USC, Talton, then age 48, was ordained and consecrated to the episcopate on Jan. 26, 1991, in Pasadena’s Lake Avenue Congregational Church. Both sanctuaries were loaned for the occasions because no local Episcopal church was large enough to accommodate all attending, 1,200 for the election and more than 3,000 for the consecration.
“I am a little stunned, yet I am very pleased,” Talton told The Episcopal News in a telephone interview immediately after his election. “I feel a real nudging toward the diocese from the Holy Spirit. I am looking forward to working with laity and clergy to address the many issues the church faces today.”
Browning presided at Talton's consecration. Co-consecrators were the late Bishops Diocesan Robert M. Anderson of Minnesota, Frederick H. Borsch of Los Angeles, Richard Grein of New York, and Orris “Jay” Walker of Long Island. The homily was preached by the late Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, bishop suffragan of Massachusetts and the first woman to be ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion.
Also in the altar party were the late Rt. Rev. Oliver B. Garver Jr., retired bishop suffragan of Los Angeles, and L.A.’s future Bishop J. Jon Bruno, as well as Boyd with the Rev. Canon Paul Lawson and the Rev. Josephine “Phina” Borgeson, deacon. Others present included the Rev. Canon Jamesetta Hammons prior to her ordination as a deacon, and the arrangements committee was led by Canon Mari Mitchel. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and State Senator Diane Watson were among civic leaders attending.
Talton was at the time of his election to the episcopate rector of historic St. Philip’s Church in Harlem, New York City, where he began ministry in 1985 serving the 900-member congregation with numerous community-outreach programs and a full-time staff of some 50 members. Notable members of the parish include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall who served as a vestry member.
Previously Talton was mission officer of Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York City (1981-1985), and as Thanksgiving Day approaches, it is fitting to note that he was founder of Trinity Church’s annual Thanksgiving meal as part of wider outreach to the unhoused. He assisted in establishing a shelter and a feeding program that served 150 lunches daily. He helped open drop-in centers for teens residing in two housing developments in lower Manhattan, and, during his tenure, day-care centers for infants and preschoolers were started on Wall Street to serve clerical workers paid low wages and in need of daycare for their small children.
Before coming to New York, Talton was rector of St. Philip’s Church, St. Paul, Minn. (1976-1981); vicar of Holy Cross Church, Chicago (1973-1976); vicar of St. Matthias Mission and curate of All Saints Church, Carmel, Calif. (1971-1973); and vicar of Good Shepherd Church, Berkeley, Calif. (1970-1971).
Ordained to the diaconate in 1970 and the priesthood in 1971 in the San Francisco-based Diocese of California, Talton received a master of divinity degree in 1970 from Berkeley's Church Divinity School of the Pacific, which later awarded him an honorary doctorate of divinity. In 1965 he earned a bachelor of science degree from California State University, Hayward.
Talton was born Sept. 22, 1941, in Eldorado, Arkansas to Mae Ola and Chester Talton, and grew up in Oakland, Calif.
In Oakland, Talton met a mentor who changed his life, the Rev. Lewis Baskervill, rector of St. Augustine’s Church there, who is the focus of a reflection that Talton wrote to conclude the book Race and Prayer.
“His name will not last through the ages,” Talton writes. “Soon everyone who knew him will be gone. The few who now occasionally speak his name will die. I try to say his name when I can, I tell what I know of his story. When I was a boy of 11, he embraced me as a person. He acknowledged me as adults seldom do with children. He gave me focus – he made me centered in something larger than myself. He gave me regard for myself. A black man, he made me want to be like him. ‘I want to help people the way he has helped me. I want to be like him. I want to be a priest like Lewis. I want to be ‘present’ to others. I want to acknowledge people – to see people. I want to make life more human. That is what I will do. I will be like him. Lord, help me every day to be like him. Soon I will be gone too, but he will be remembered even if his name is forgotten, because he will live through the ages in others who live.”
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