The Washington Post’s obituary on Verna Dozier appeared in this morning’s editions, along with this nice photograph by her friend Dee Hahn Rollis (the second item on this page.) The obit was prepared by Bart Barnes, former head of the Post’s obit desk. He is a parishioner at St. Mark’s, Capitol Hill, just as Verna was.
An excerpt:
“She taught us to understand the ministry of the laity,” the Very Rev. Martha Horne, dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary, wrote about Ms. Dozier in a 1999 article in the Living Church magazine. “In her speaking and writing, she challenged people to accept the authority they received in baptism, and to live out their faith in their homes and offices.”
With a beautiful speaking voice, imbued with the cadences of the Bible and Shakespeare, and a vivid personality, she was able to express then-radical thoughts with tact, said friend Dee Hahn-Rollins. She said Ms. Dozier insisted that “what we did from Monday to Saturday was most important and we come to our Sunday experience to be refueled.”