The first Deaf person who became ordained a priest by the Episcopal Church in the United States was Henry Winter Syle in 1876. In the photo showed two men – Thomas Gallaudet was on the left and Henry W. Syle was on the right.

Note Thomas Gallaudet was the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet who established the school for the Deaf which called West Hartford School for the Deaf (now American School for the Deaf ).

Henry Syle was not only the first deaf person to be ordained in the Episcopal Church but also the first deaf person in any denomination. From from Rev Mitzi Noble

Each year August 27th the parish of Episcopal Church, celebrated “Celebration Day of the Rev. Dr Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle.

Who is Henry Winter Syle?

Henry was born in Shanghai (China), in 1846 and his parents were missionaries while living in China. His father was Dr Rev Edward W Syle. Henry moved to the US at the age of four and contracted with a severe attack of scarlet fever at the age of six. Henry went to several colleges such as Bartlett’s School, Hartford Connecticut, American School for the Deaf, Trinity College in 1863 and the last was St. Johns College in Cambridge, England instead of the National College for the Deaf and Dumb (now Gallaudet University) in 1864. Henry was the first Deaf person to get a degree from the hearing college – St. John’s College in England.

Henry and his wife ‘Maggie’ Margaret joined the church – Dr Thomas Gallaudet’s missions for the Deaf where is called St Anne’s Church for the Deaf-Mutes (now called St Anne’s for the Deaf) in New York before 1876. Henry’s role as a lay reader along with Thomas Gallaudet and he was widely actively involved with the church for the Deaf. Henry studied the Holy Orders while working at the U.S. Mint and he was ordained in 1876 by Bishop Stevens of Philadelphia as a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Chruch.

Then in 1884, Henry was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop WB Stevens at St Stephen’s Church as the first Deaf Priest in the USA. He helped to improve the Church Mission to the Deaf in Delaware and New Jersey. Henry established the All Soul’s Church in Philadelphia two years before his death of pneumonia in January 1890. He left behind his wife ‘Maggie’ and their six hearing children.

Henry was intensely involved with the Deaf community, not just the Church, and he wrote many articles in the American Annals of the Deaf and the DeafMutes’ Journal many years. In Philadelphia, Henry established the Aged and Infirm Deaf there.

Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle dedicated themselves to their faith and to responding to the human need around them. Instead of accepting systems that disadvantaged the deaf, they set up institutions to that pushed back against injustice. Gallaudet and Syle are incredible examples of Christ’s call to serve. From The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia

Here is the link which you can watch Youtube update on the 26th August 2020. Celebrated of Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Syle for their works in the church