In 1947, Donegan was elected
Suffragan Bishop of
New York, the second-highest official of the
diocese. He received his consecration that same year from Presiding Bishop
Henry Knox Sherrill, with Bishops
Charles K. Gilbert and
Norman B. Nash assisting as
co-consecrators. Donegan was the four hundred and seventy-second
bishop of the Episcopal Church. In 1949, he was chosen as
coadjutor bishop of the same diocese by acclamation, the only instance of such an appointment in its history. He became the founder and president of the
Board of Trustees of the
House of the Reedemer, and chaired numerous national boards and committees within the Episcopal Church. Following Gilbert's retirement, Donegan succeeded him as the twelfth
Bishop of New York in 1950. Considered very
liberal and
socially active, Donegan was also an advocate of
civil rights, defending the rights of
African Americans,
women, and the
poor. He once declared in 1954 that the church might have to "sacrifice much that is time-honored" to address the unchanging racial and economic patterns in New York. He once proposed a reduction of the period of
Lent from forty to seven days, for "what was acceptable in the seventeenth century has become unrealistic for men and women catching commuter trains." He condemned
McCarthyism in the United States, which discriminated against numerous artists and entertainers for former political alliances. He also opposed the
South African policy of apartheid, which had been put into effect after World War II. In December 1955, Donegan sponsored an apartment near the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine for a family of
German refugees, helping the husband find work as well. A year later, in 1956, he gave his approval to the election of women as
wardens,
vestry members, and delegates to the National Conventions in his diocese; he later participated in the
ordination of two women,
Carol Anderson and
Julia Sibley, as
deacons in 1971, and of one as priest in 1977. Donegan was active in the creation of what would later become the
American Priory of the Order of St John; he was appointed Sub-Prelate of the Order in 1956. In 1957,
Queen Elizabeth II named him an
honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Also during that year, Donegan initiated a $5 million program for the construction of new
churches in poverty-stricken sections of Manhattan and the
Bronx, which he described as "the most strategic
missionary opportunity that faces the Church." He encouraged Episcopalians to support of
John F. Kennedy in the
1960 presidential election, despite his
Roman Catholic faith. Following
Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, the Bishop said, "I speak for all the clergy and laity of the Diocese when I say that we are numbed with shock at the assassination of the
president. He is now joined with
Lincoln and
McKinley in the ranks of the martyred leaders of our people." In 1965, several parishioners in the Diocese of New York, upset by their Bishop's activism in the civil rights movement, withdrew pledges of $2 million for the completion of St. John the Divine. In response, Donegan said, "I can only hope that the
Cathedral's very unfinished quality will stand as a memorial to a diocese which in the twentieth century tried to do what it believed to be right." In an address to the
Patriotic Societies of New York in 1965, Donegan expressed his incomprehension of young men's refusal to serve in the
Vietnam War, even if they did not support the war. He stated, "Were it in my power, I would fine every person who did not vote, and reward doubly everyone who enlisted in the service of our country, whether as an Episcopalian in the armed forces or as
Quaker in the courageous group who will carry the wounded off the field of battle." In regards to the controversial beliefs of
Bishop James Pike, Donegan once commented in 1966, when the possibility of a
heresy trial was raised, "Of all the methods of dealing with Bishop Pike's views, the very worst is surely a heresy trial! Whatever the result, the good name of the Church will be greatly injured. Should there be a presentment and trial of Bishop Pike (which I hope and pray will not happen) the harm, the divisiveness and the lasting bitterness that will be inflicted on the Church we love and serve will be inevitable." In 1967 he made the stunning announcement that he would be taking the donations for finishing St. John the Divine and put them toward housing and development projects in nearby
Harlem. He once said of St. John, "This unfinished cathedral, towering as it does over this great and suffering metropolis, shall be the prophetic symbol that our society is still as rough-hewn, ragged, broken and incomplete as the building itself." == Retirement ==