The Rev. Robert Patterson (right) with Bishop Frank Murphy.
The Reverend Robert Patterson died on October 23, 2023 surrounded by his family. He is best known in Maryland for his leadership at the Church of the Redeemer where he served as the rector from 1965 until he retired to Maine in 1993. He distinguished himself as a brilliant preacher and a devoted pastor. His many talents earned him the Bishop’s award in 1990.
When Bob first moved to Baltimore, there were racial and religious lines that were rarely crossed. He lived in a divided city where the boundaries were clearly demarcated. There was no need to build walls. Bob however was not one to be fenced into a safe and cozy enclave. In his quiet and unassuming way, he forged friendships and built relationships that broke down barriers and helped to change the Baltimore landscape.
Two of his closest friends shared his passion for social justice and good trouble. Bishop Frank Murphy, a champion of the poor and an outspoken advocate for women rights, and Rabbi Mark Loeb, a brilliant defender of the vulnerable who challenged injustice in his hometown as well as in Israel—these mavericks were Bob’s partners. And the three of them became founding fathers of the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies, now the Institute for Islamic, Christian, Jewish Studies.
To confront the prejudices that are deeply embedded within our religious traditions and tear down the walls of distrust that surround us on every side—this requires considerable fortitude and a thick skin. Bob stood resolutely with his friends on the front lines and did not hesitate to puncture pretensions and expose the delusions of the not-so-silent majority. These three provided the intellectual, moral, and spiritual foundation of this educational venture. From their perspective any community that refuses to confront its transgressions and arrogantly builds its affirmations on the negation of its neighbors amounts to a betrayal of the divine, a massive failure to trust that God shows up in people and places routinely overlooked or actively avoided.
Bob was passionately committed to the ICJS until the day he died. He insisted that we must take bold risks in befriending the stranger and discovering the goodness of neighbors near and far with whom we share this wondrous and fragile world.
Christoper M. Leighton, who retired in 2018, was executive director of ICJS from its founding in 1987 until 2016. He is the author of the forthcoming book, A Sacred Argument: Dispatches from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim Encounter.