Tim Yeager

Tim Yeager

(Robert) Tim Yeager (died April 2024), served on the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns and the Advocacy Center of The Episcopal Church

He is the husband of Caroline Moores, an English born professional opera manager and the father of Ayshe Yeager.

He served at St George’s Church, Glenluce Road, London.

Now Associate Priest at St Albans Cathedral.

Background

Yeager was born and raised in Charles City, Iowa. His father was a dentist, his mother a nurse. They met singing in the choir at the First Presbyterian Church at Iowa City. At 14 I campaigned for Barry Goldwater.

Tim Yeager went on to study Russian and History at the University of Iowa. The Vietnam War was raging then, and he became involved in the anti-war movement.

That opened my eyes to a whole host of issues. I moved away from Christianity and became a Unitarian. As time went on, I became a leader in left-wing student activities, and was the Editor of the editorial page of the Daily Iowan, the student-produced daily newspaper on campus. By this time, I had read Karl Marx on Ludwig Feuerbach [a German philosopher and anthropologist], and decided that I had to move away from religion altogether, and became a Marxist.

Early career

Tim Yeager began working in legal services at the H.E.L.P. office in Davenport, Iowa in 1977. In 1978, he became an attorney for the program, and worked in several offices of the Legal Services Corporation of Iowa (LSCI) over the next 11 years. While at LSCI, he served as vice-chair of his unit, the Legal Services Workers in Iowa. In 1991, he joined the staff of NOLSW/UAW Local 2320 as an organizer. In 1998, he became Recording Secretary, and in 2001 was elected Financial-Secretary/Treasurer.

Davis connection

CPUSA member

In June 2014 more than 300 Communist Party USA members came to celebrate the party's 95th anniversary at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Tim Yeager, who juggles three roles: United Auto Workers union organizer, Communist official and Episcopal priest was there.

"Everyone in our movement is stained by what was done by the Soviet Union and American communists' failure to see Stalin for what he was," Yeager said. He added that despite those failings, communism has played a key, if unexpected, role in his life.

Raised a Christian, he drifted away from the church, which seemed too worldly. Instead, he became a communist through opposition to the Vietnam War. He was ordained a couple of years ago. "I realized that Jesus preached the same values as communism does — equality and social justice," said Yeager, senior priest at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on the West Side.

Friday morning, Yeager led a bus tour of some party history. The first stop was at the Haymarket statue on Desplaines Street just north of Randolph Street, where in 1886 a bomb thrown during a labor rally killed seven police officers and at least one civilian.

Communist and Socialist Friends

Communist and Socialist Friends is a public Facebook group associated with the Communist Party of Britain.

Members include Tim Yeager.

Communist Party

Yeager also became chief organiser of the Communist Party in Iowa, and found himself at the World Youth Festival in East Berlin in July 1973.

I met some wonderful people from Chile in Berlin, but soon after I came back, the President of Chile, Allende, was gunned down in a right wing coup, and a lot of those people I knew disappeared. All that strengthened my resolve to become more active in the struggle against the Nixon Administration and imperialism in general...

Moving towards the priesthood

According to Yeager;

I never really lost my connection to my home church in Iowa. It was part of my family. And then I met a wonderful man named Gil Dawes. He was a Methodist minister and liberation theologian who showed me what I had not really taken on board, that Christianity and socialism had much in common and so I joined his church:nthe organist left in protest, and so I then became the organist. It was a wonderful congregation, but I have to admit that I had not yet become a Christian again in my heart.

And then in 1998 I fell in love with an English woman, Caroline Wood , a member of the Episcopal Church (like your Church of England).

I went with her to a service in her church, and in the recessional hymn, with the choir marching down the aisle, I heard the words “awake my soul and sing” and, you know, I burst into tears and Caroline looked up, wondering why raindrops were falling on her head. I suddenly felt I had come home.

Supported Communist Party call

In May 1992 the Communist Party USA newspaper Peoples Weekly World published a May Day supplement which included a call to "support our continuing struggle for justice and dignity"

Endorsers of the call included Tim Yeager, Organizer, Local 65, UAW.

Church activism

Tim Yeager is a member of Grace Church in Oak Park, Illinois, where he serves as assistant organist. Tim Yeager is the Chair of the Peace & Justice Committee of the Diocese of Chicago.

Tim has served one three-year term on the NEC where he has been a member of the human resources committee and an EPF representative to the Consultation. He is concerned that the Church finds and uses its prophetic voice to advocate for a more just and peaceful socioeconomic order, and feels that there has never been a greater need for all people of good will to join together in the struggle against poverty, violence and fear.

In 2011, Tim Yeager was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church, and in 2012 he took on responsibiilty for serving a small inner-city church on the West Side of Chicago. In order to free up time and energy for that assignment, he requested to be relieved of his duties as NOLSW Financial Secretary/Treasurer, and so in October of 2012 returned to his previous position as Regional Organizer. Pam Smith was elected as his successor in the national officer position.

UAW

He is the Financial Secretary/Treasurer of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, UAW Local Union 2320, which represents nearly 4,000 lawyers, support staff, social workers and other employees working in legal and human services agencies across the country.

Communist Party's May Day Salute

In 1995 the Communist Party USA newspaper People's Weekly World, published a "May Day salute" to the "heroes in the class war zone". More than 100 unionists/activists endorsed the call, mostly known affiliates, or members of the Communist Party.

Tim Yeager, UAW Local 2320 Chicago, was one of those listed.

Chicago Communist Party banquet

According to the Peoples Weekly World October 3 1998, Congressman Danny K. Davis interrupted his campaign work for United States Senate candidate Carol Moseley Braun and gubernatorial candidate Glenn Poshard to present an award at the 1998 Chicago Peoples Weekly World banquet. Davis praised Communist Party USA member and Hani-Lozano Award winner Harry Gaynor's "active role in tearing city's segregated walls and working for peace".

Attendees included;

• John Randolph, actor
• Johnnie Jackson, Chicago Coalition of Labor Union Women and also an Hani-Lozano Award winner
• Lupe Lozano
• Alma Washington, event chair, Actors Equity member
• Scott Marshall, Illinois Communist Party organizer
• Tim Yeager, lead the singing
• Alyssa Coiley, Young Communist League

This event raised $10,000 towards keeping the Communist Party paper afloat..

Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee

In 1998 Tim Yeager was listed as a volunteer and intern of Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee.

Richard Criley Memorial

In 2000, Tim Yeager served on the welcoming committee for the Chicago Memorial Service for Richard Criley, a long-time activist with the Communist Party USA and a leader of the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights.

Honoring Frank Wilkinson

Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights organized a "Celebration of the The Dynamic Life of Frank Wilkinson (1914-2006)" on Sunday October 29, 2006. Wilkinson had been a leader of the Communist Party USA, the New American Movement and Democratic Socialists of America.

Honoring Committee members included Tim Yeager.

Supporting the People's World

The Chicago Communist Party USA 22nd Annual Peoples World Banquet Dec. 6 2009, at the Parthenon Restaurant. Several thousand dollars was raised for the PW Fund Drive from "supporters who dug deep despite the hard economic times".

The attendees, a rainbow crowd of labor, community and religious activists, entered the festive room to the sounds of the jazz trio, Lovers in Arms and a running slide show of photos from struggles over the past year.

The program included a performance of Mescolanza, a new performance group of movement veterans Terry Davis, James Thindwa, Sijisfredo Aviles and Bob Huston who "hope to carry multi-cultural social justice song to the picket line, rallies and events". Tim Yeager with his accordion joined them at the end for Solidarity Forever and the International.

CPUSA Religion Commission

In 2010, Tim Yeager was Chairperson of the Religion Commission of the Communist Party USA..

Ordained

Yeager was ordained in 2011.

By that time I had a track record as an active layperson in the church, and the Commission on Ordained Ministry advised me that I would not have to go to seminary. That was pretty unusual! I was advised to “read for Holy Orders”, which is basically individual study with some over- sight by a mentor. And before long I found myself a priest in the Diocese of Chicago, and I took on an inner-city parish on the West side, St Andrew's Episcopal Church.

CPUSA conference

Tim Yeager attended the 2014 Communist Party USA conference in Chicago.

Communist Party speaker

Speak Progress is the speakers bureau of the Communist Party USA. Listed speakers, as of October 2014, included Tim Yeager

Tim Yeager, an Episcopal Priest, is the chair of the Communist Party, USA’s Religious Commission. He has served as chair of the Peace & Justice Committee for the Diocese of Chicago, and as a member of the National Executive Council of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.

Yeager also serves as Financial Secretary-Treasurer of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, UAW Local Union 2320, which represents nearly 4,000 lawyers, support staff, social workers and other employees working in legal and human services agencies across the country.

Move to London

Caroline Moores, Tim Yeager

In 2014 Tim Yeager moved to London with his wife Caroline Moores.

According to John Bachtell;

First, I think we should bid farewell to Rev. Tim Yeager who is moving to London with his wife Caroline. Tim is a long time NC member, wonderful comrade, a great friend, a nationally known labor leader, and a pastor his small parish on the West Side will surely miss. As chair of the religious commission, Tim broke new ground as a leading communist and person of faith. Our loss is the Communist Party of Britain's gain.

According to Yeager;

My wife Caroline is a London girl.When she married me, she passed up an opportunity to move back to England for what she considered a dream job. She is a professional operatic stage manager, one of the best in the world at what she does, and she had already applied for the Stage Manager position at Glyndebourne. When she met me, and we fell in love, she withdrew her application, and stayed in the US to help me raise my young daughter, for which I am eternally grateful. I told her that if the time came that she needed to move back to the UK, I would be willing to do that. That time came, and so here we are. Caroline had spent 34 years in my country, so I told her we could spend the next 34 in hers!

UK activism

Yeager was involved in the COEXIST Pilgrimage for Peace in February 2015: we had 150 faith leaders from Britain's major faiths set out on a pilgrimage across London to affirm a shared commitment to freedom, equality, democracy and respect for life. The pilgrimage started at the Regent's Park Mosque, went on to the Central Synagogue in Great Portland Street, followed by Westminster Abbey and Parliament. A number of people from St. George's took part.

CPB member

In 2015, Rev. Tim Yeager was a member of the Communist Party of Britain.

National Party Building Conference

National Party Building Conference Hosted by Communist Party USA and People's World.

Saturday, November 11, 2017 at 12 PM – 6 PM EST

Join Communist Party activists and members in a national conference. You can register here https://tinyurl.com/ycdouk3y

The conference will take place November 11th to 12th to plan our work in the fight against the Trump Administration and its white supremacist ruling class backers. Find information here about how to participate. http://www.cpusa.org/2017-national-party-building-conference-resist-organize-vote-grow/

The conference will be streamed from Chicago to regional meetings in New Haven, Los Angeles, and Orlando. Whether you’re on the East Coast, West Coast, in the MIdwest or the South, you’ll be able to participate.

Those invited on Facebook included Tim Yeager.

Iowa comrades

Joe Henry February 10, 2009 · Circa 1988 picture.

When we were in Chicago for a union conference — with Jacob Joseph Bales-Henry, Tim Yeager, Tim Yeager, David Clark, Elaine Smith, Zachary Bales-Henry, Bamshad Mobasher and Bjorn Stevens.