Education and career

Allison was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina. He attended the University of the South and, after having his studies briefly interrupted by service in the United States Army during World War II after which he was discharged with the rank of Master Sergeant, he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1949. He then studied at Virginia Theological Seminary, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1952. He was ordained deacon in June 1952 and priest in May 1953 by Bishop John J. Gravatt. Allison later studied at Oxford University and received the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1956. He then taught church history at the School of Theology at the University of the South and at Virginia Theological Seminary.

He served as rector of Grace Episcopal Church in New York City before being elected as a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. He was consecrated a bishop on 25 September 1980 by Bishop John Allin and was appointed coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina in 1980, becoming the twelfth diocesan bishop on January 2, 1982. He retired in 1990 but has continued preaching, speaking, and writing.

Anglican realignment

Starting from the 1980s, Bishop Allison grew increasingly critical of the liberal tendencies inside the Episcopal Church. In 1990, during a meeting of the House of Bishops at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, he openly attacked liberals in the Church, accusing them of apostasy. After the clash, a Holy Eucharist was celebrated, during which Allison refused to share the consecrated bread and wine with the rest of the House of Bishops, in a sign of broken communion.^[2]