William Henry Burt

Burt was born in Padstow (Cornwall), on October 23, 1852, to William Burt (1828–1858), and Mary Ann nee Hellyar.

In 1869 (according to his later passport application) Burt emigrated with his family to the United States on the SS Batavia, taking on labouring work before studying theology at Wesleyan University and at Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey. Naturalized in 1879, and ordained in 1881, he pastored the St. Paul's Church and De Kalb Avenue Church in Brooklyn, where he demonstrated the organizational skills for which he became well known.

In 1886 he was sent to Italy to support Leroy M. Vernon, president of the Italian Episcopal Methodist Church, following the decision of the 1886 Annual Conference to divide the mission into two districts. Vernon continued to oversee the southern district while Burt took over responsibility for the North. "In reality the two areas proved to be two distinct and competing missions and the absence of a guide soon had consequences." (Tourn, DBPI). Vernon was forced to resign in June 1888.

Together with ES Stackpole, Burt opened a theological school (directed by Stackpole) with the aim of producing a pastoral body more aligned the disciplines of American Methodism.

After the resignation of Giovanni Battista Gattuso di Brancaccio, who took over from Vernon, he also assumed the superintendency of the southern district, finding himself directing the entire Italian Episcopal missionary work in the face of popular backwardness in illiteracy, customs and communication. He faced these problems with a constitutional optimism, convinced that most Italians were "already potentially Protestant". (Tourn, DBPI)

His energetic direction however created division, and numbers of those who had become pastors under Vernon resigned (including Alceste Lanna, Teofilo Gay, Enrico Caporali, Bartolomeo Malan, Abele Gay and Raffaele Wigley). Burt's more 'aligned' and American perspective entailed profound changes in the Italian Episcopal Methodist Church, which served local cultures quite distinct from the great economic development and progressivism of their American cousins. The mission in Italy was, to Americans, a struggle at the heart of "papism", the attempt to lead Italians to "true civilization".

Under Burt the Italian Episcopal Methodist Church was led into alliances with secular forces and in particular with Freemasonry, a common aspect of Western Protestants which carried a different meaning in Italy. Burt therefore turned mainly to the Italian ruling class, opening schools and colleges to educate children of politicians, officers and professionals - the creation of institutes and schools for poor children was more limited.

Alongside these prestigious institutes, his tireless action extended to the publishing activity, with the periodical L'Evangelista and the start of a printing company that produced brochures on evangelization, theology, and periodicals for the religious education of children (such as L'Aurora and Vita Gioconda). This positioned Burt's work in competition with the other Italian evangelical publishing house, Claudiana. In 1899 he also opened a home-refuge for ex-priests, the Savonarola Institute, born from the collaboration of Wesleyan, Anglican, Baptist and Waldensians.

Burt's greatest project, however, was the large complex built between 1893-1895 on Via XX Settembre, Rome, to house worship in Italian and English, the Theological School, a Male boarding school and teachers' apartments, and the La Speranza publishing house. It became the centre of Italian Episcopal Methodism.

In 1904 Burt was elected Bishop and awarded the Cross of Saints Maurice and Lazarus by King Vittorio Emanuele III, the highest civilian honor for merit.

After this, Burt was increasingly taken up with Methodist work outside Italy. While in charge of the work in Europe, he organized the France Mission Conference, the Austria- Hungary Mission Conference, the Russian Mission Conference, and the Denmark and Finland Annual Conferences. In 1910 he organized all the Methodist work in Europe into the European Central Annual Conference. In 1906 he was Fraternal delegate to the British and Irish Wesleyan Conference, and in that same year made the Quadrennial visit to Methodist missions in Africa. In 1917 he visited the Methodist work in the Orient including China, Japan, the Philippines, India, Korea, and the Malay Peninsula. Finally in 1919 Burt was called upon to study post-war conditions in Europe with the purpose of rebuilding Methodist Episcopal churches.

He continued to follow Italian affairs until 1912, however, when he returned to the United States to oversee Buffalo, New York. He would, until retirement in 1924, continue to take care of Methodist services in Italian throughout this region. Over his life, he received honorary doctorates from Grant, Wesleyan, and Syracuse Universities and Dickinson and Allegheny Colleges. He wrote ten books and translated the Discipline into Italian. Burt died at Clifton Springs, New York on April 9, 1936. He is buried in Lynn, Massachusetts.

In 1884, Burt had married Helen Bartlett Graves (born April 14, 1856) on April 14, 1881. They had five children (Carrie, Viola, William, Edith, and Paul).

Sources:

• Ancestry
• Shenise, Mark C., Robert D. Simpson, and Aaron Smith, 'Electronic Guide to the Bishop William Burt Collection', United Methodist Archives and History Center, http://catalog.gcah.org/publicdata/gcah1563.htm.
• Tourn, Sarah, "William Burt", Dizionario Biografico dei Protestanti in Italia (DBPI), http://www.studivaldesi.org/dizionario/evan_det.php?evan_id=128