Robyn Arnold

The Reverend Dr. Robyn Arnold (born August 22, 1963, Mt Vernon, Kentucky, died July 5, 2022, Birmingham) was rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Woodlawn from 2012 to 2022.

Robyn was born on August 22, 1963, in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky, to Jimmy & Hilda Arnold. She spent her childhood in Kentucky, singing, thinking, and exploring the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. She was baptized as an adult at Easter Vigil service at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Birmingham, AL, on April 12, She received her bachelor’s degree from Cumberland College in Williamsburg, KY, her master's degree from Mississippi State (1997) in Physiology, and her Ph.D. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Physiology (2002) While at UAB she attended St Andrew's Episcopal Church and was baptized at the Easter Vigil in 1998. She established and chaired the first environmental commission for the Diocese of Alabama.

She discerned a call to the priesthood and attended the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California while working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley’s Children's Environmental Health Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow. She graduated with a Master of Divinity in 2008 and was ordained by Bishop Henry Parsley the same year. She served for several years at the Church of the Advent of Christ the King in San Francisco before returning to Birmingham in 2012 to serve as rector at Grace Episcopal in Woodlawn

She enjoyed the Anglo-Catholic traditions of providing beautiful, safe, sacred space for High Church liturgy in an urban environment, while working with other community leaders to combat food insecurity and fight for the rights of the homeless, the poor, and the marginalized. In 2013, during her rectorship, Grace Church began the GraceWorks ministry for children offering a five-day a week summer camp for most of the summer.

She died on July 5, 2022, after being diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease.

References

Robyn Elizabeth Arnold obituary (July 2022) My Gather App