Fr. Gordon Thomas Walker
July 23, 2015

Fr. Gordon was born to a Southern Baptist family in Alabama and was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1951. While working for Campus Crusade for Christ, he and several other men such as Peter Gillquist, Jack Sparks, and John Braun became dissatisfied with the state of contemporary church life and vowed to search for authentic, apostolic Christianity. As a result of their study, they formed the Evangelical Orthodox Church. “Bishop” Gordon and the members of the Holy Trinity parish in Franklin, TN—a parish Walker had founded—were received into Holy Orthodoxy by Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Archdiocese in 1987, with Fr. Gordon ordained and elevated to the rank of archpriest. The parish name was changed to St. Ignatius, in honor of the saint of Antioch who had played such a pivotal role in the EOC’s journey to canonical Orthodoxy. Thanks to the efforts of Fr. Gordon, St Ignatius remains one of the largest and most dynamic parishes in the Southeast. Fr. Gordon reposed in the Lord on July 23, 2015. His helpmate and beloved wife of 63 years, Mary Sue Henderson Walker, reposed two years later, on August 27, 2017.