The Rev. Antonio Gallardo, rector of St. Luke’s / San Lucas Church in Long Beach, was elected eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Nov. 8. Photo: Diocese of Los Angeles

[Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles] The Rev. Antonio Gallardo, rector of St. Luke’s / San Lucas Church in Long Beach, was elected eighth bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles on Nov. 8 by Diocesan Convention, meeting in Riverside, California.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Gallardo, 58, was elected on the eighth ballot by 134 votes in the clergy order and 187 votes in the lay order. The election required a two-thirds majority from both orders on the same ballot, in accordance with the diocese’s constitution.

“I am grateful for your trust in electing me as your next bishop,” Gallardo told delegates, who welcomed him to the convention podium with a standing ovation. “I promise to do my very best to be a faithful pastor, and a wise steward of the resources that God has given us…. I have heard your desires to be united with a common purpose, to share the good news in Christ with many more people, to be an element of resistance and a source of hope in the country and the world that we live in, and to find ways to finance the great work we do, among other things.”

Rector of St. Luke’s / San Lucas, Long Beach, since 2023, Gallardo is the first Latino to be elected bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles. He was previously vicar of St. Luke’s of the Mountains, La Crescenta, and served on the clergy staff of All Saints, Pasadena. Ordained to the priesthood in 2019 in the Diocese of Los Angeles, he holds a doctorate in business and economics from Lehigh University, as well as degrees from Venezuela’s Universidad Experimental Politécnica and Universidad Centro Occidental Lisandro Alvarado, Claremont School of Theology and Bloy House Episcopal Theological School.

Further biographical information about Gallardo, with statements of his vision for mission, is here.

Other nominees on the ballot were the Rev. Monica Burns Mainwaring, rector of St. Martin in the Fields, Atlanta, Georgia, and the Rev. Melissa McCarthy, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Los Angeles. McCarthy withdrew her name from consideration after the fourth ballot.

The bishop-elect will succeed Bishop John Harvey Taylor, who will retire in 2026 after nine years in office.

Pending the canonically required consent of a majority of the Episcopal Church’s diocesan standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction, Gallardo will be ordained and consecrated as bishop diocesan on July 11, 2026, at All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe is scheduled to officiate.

Established in 1896, the Diocese of Los Angeles encompasses some 40,000 Episcopalians in 133 neighborhood congregations and mission centers, some 29 schools and five other specialized service institutions located in six California counties. Los Angeles historically is one of the most populous and culturally diverse dioceses of The Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Gregory Kimura was elected sixth bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin on Oct. 18, 2025.

[Diocese of San Joaquin] The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin elected the Rev. Gregory Kimura as its sixth bishop during an Oct. 18 special electing convention.

Kimura was elected on the second round of balloting with 58.6% of clergy votes and 65.7% of lay votes. A majority of both clergy and lay votes in the same round was needed for election.

Kimura, who serves as the rector of St. James’ Episcopal Church in South Pasadena in the Diocese of Los Angeles, will succeed the Rt. Rev. David Rice. He will be consecrated and seated by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe on April 18.

In a livestreamed message expressing his gratitude following the vote, Kimura said he was “humbled to the very core” by his election.

“God has planted something very special in the rich and fertile soil of the Diocese of San Joaquin,” he said. “God has great plans ahead for us – growing, blooming, flowering.”

Kimura is a fourth-generation Japanese American and Alaskan and third-generation Episcopalian who got his start serving in the Diocese of Alaska at age 25. In addition to his work in the Alaskan diocese, he has served as vice dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and as rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Ojai, where he started a Spanish-language Mass that grew to be the largest of three Sunday services.

Kimura also has worked in the nonprofit world, previously serving as president and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Japanese American National Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate. He also has been a university chaplain, sheriff’s chaplain, religion professor and department chair at Alaska Pacific University.

The diocesan nominating committee facilitated time for congregations and clergy to engage with laity and clergy, allowing for a Spirit-filled discernment process, leading to an “effortless election process,” said the Rev. Suzy Ward, president of diocese’s standing committee.

“The diocese is looking forward to the eventual ordination and consecration of the Rev. Greg Kimura in the spring of 2026,” Ward said. “Then we can say that our work has come to an end, but our new bishop’s work will just be beginning.”

Kimura was elected from a slate of four nominees. The others were:

• The Rev. Anna Carmichael – canon to the ordinary, Diocese of San Joaquin;
• The Rev. Robert Keim – rector of St. Barnabas, Arroyo Grande, Diocese of El Camino Real;
• The Rev. Shawn Wamsley – canon to the ordinary, Diocese of Pennsylvania.

The Diocese of San Joaquin has 18 active congregations, offering vibrant ministries that address the unique needs of their respective communities. These include feeding ministries, services for the unhoused, and outreach to Latinos and members of the LGBTQ+ community. In addition, the diocese has commissions with lay and ordained members that focus on migrant justice, racial justice and creation care.

Rice has served as bishop diocesan since 2017, after serving as provisional bishop starting in 2014. He had previously served as the diocesan bishop in the Diocese of Waiapu in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

“It has been my absolute honor and pleasure to serve the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin these 12 years. And I look forward to watching from afar [New Zealand], to see how this wonderful faith community called EDSJ moves into the next season of faithful service under the Episcopal leadership of the Rev. Dr. Greg Kimura,” Rice said.

The diocese has worked hard to heal and rebuild since 2007, when former Bishop John David Schofield led many congregations out of The Episcopal Church. Those who remained have moved out of isolation into re-engagement with the wider church under the leadership of Rice and former provisional bishops the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb and Rt. Rev. Chet Talton.

Rivera’s ordination marks a significant step toward self-determination for the Havana-based church in Cuba, which formally reunified with The Episcopal Church in 2020 after five years of efforts that included approval by the 79th General Convention in 2018 in Austin, Texas. The diocese is now part of Province II, which also includes the Spanish-speaking Diocese of Puerto Rico.

In a Sept. 14 interview with Episcopal News Service, Rivera, who’d previously served as a priest in Puerto Rico, described the Diocese of Cuba as “very special.”

“This diocese is like none other. The people are beautiful and happy with a lot of energy, lots of charisma, many gifts,” Rivera said. “The people sing with such immense joy and live their experiences through Christ despite the difficult economic situation in the country.”

As bishop, Rivera succeeds Puerto Rico Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado, who had been serving as bishop provisional since 2023 following the resignation of former Cuba Bishop Griselda del Carpio. She had served as bishop diocesan since 2010, including during the diocese’s reunification with The Episcopal Church.

Rivera – who previously served as rector of Parroquia Ayudada San José in the Rio Piedras district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, said he estimates that at least 2,000 Episcopalians live in Cuba as of 2025 – with some congregations reporting hundreds of members. The diocese has 47 churches and more than 30 missions.

“If it is also God’s plan, my goal as bishop is to help double or triple the number of churches,” Rivera said. “Cubans share a great love and commitment to God, and they have faith that everything will work out.”

The service took place three days after the House of Bishops concluded its Sept. 10-15 meeting in the Diocese of the Dominican Republic, where Rivera also was present.

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe was the chief consecrator for Rivera’s ordination service.

“The ordination of Angel Rivera is another milestone in our journey to strengthen the Anglican presence in Cuba that began in 1871,” Rowe told ENS in a Sept. 15 written statement. “Together, we are witnessing to the world that divisions among governments mean nothing to citizens of God’s kingdom who follow the Risen Christ.”

The church in Cuba became a missionary district of The Episcopal Church in 1901, but the two churches separated in the 1960s, after Fidel Castro seized power and diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States disintegrated.

For much of that time, Cuban bishops were appointed by a church body known as the Metropolitan Council of Cuba, which allowed the diocese to remain connected to the wider Anglican Communion. Rivera is the first bishop of Cuba in more than four decades to be chosen by election rather than by appointment.

“I feel so honored that I get to serve the Episcopalians in Cuba,” Rivera said.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

“I will have completed a little more than 10 years as bishop, and will be closing in on the age of 71 (in my 51st year of church work),” Sumner said. “At that time, Stephanie and I will be moving to Boston, Massachusetts, the place of our ancestors.”

Sumner was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Dallas in November 2015 after beginning his ordained ministry as a priest in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts in 1981.

“Stephanie and I are both grateful to God for the surpassing privilege of serving with you in the Diocese of Dallas,” Sumner said. “I have worked with a remarkable family of clergy. I have great confidence in the gifts of Bishop Price, and feel anticipation for the future the Holy Spirit is opening for the diocese.”

The Rt. Rev. Robert Price greets worshipers at the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas, after a Sept. 6 service in which he was ordained and consecrated bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Photo: Kimberley Durnan Davis

[Episcopal News Service] Robert P. Price was consecrated bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas on Sept. 6 in a service  at the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas.

Price was serving as dean of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas when he was elected on the second ballot on May 3.

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe was the chief consecrator for the service, and the preacher was Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt.

The diocese said in advance of the service that more than 30 bishops were to attend, including the secretary general of the Anglican Communion, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, and the Rt. Rev. Felix Annancy, bishop of the Diocese of Koforidua in Ghana.

In his sermon, Bauerschmidt emphasized the Gospel reading for the occasion, John 20:19-23, in which Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon his disciples who, out of fear, were gathered behind locked doors. The central prayer of the service to ordain and consecrate Price as a bishop, Bauerschmidt said, “will invoke upon him … the power of the father’s princely spirit, the same spirit bestowed by Christ himself upon his apostles.”

Price will serve as coadjutor until Dallas Bishop George Sumner retires, at which time Price will take office as the diocesan bishop.

The Rt. Rev. Amy Dafler Meaux was ordained and consecrated on May 3. Photo: Zachary Phillips

[Diocese of West Missouri] The Diocese of West Missouri ordained and consecrated the Rt. Rev. Amy Dafler Meaux as its ninth bishop on May 3 at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City. More than 600 people attended.

Dafler Meaux, the former dean and rector of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock, Arkansas, succeeds the Rt. Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce, who has served the diocese since December 2021 as bishop provisional.

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe was the chief consecrator. He was joined by Bruce, Arkansas Bishop John Harmon, Missouri Bishop Deon Johnson, California Bishop Austin Rios and Bishop Susan Candea of the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The diocese elected Dafler Meaux on Nov. 9, 2024, on the first ballot during its 135th Diocesan Convention, held in Kansas City at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral.

“Over the last 18 months, I have witnessed the enormous capacity of our people to share the good news of Jesus Christ,” Dafler Meaux said. “From north to south and east to west, Episcopalians in this region of Missouri share the Gospel every day through radical acts of hospitality, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and suffering, and bringing the reconciling word of God to our communities. I am excited, honored, and privileged to officially be yoked with them in ministry.”

The Rt. Rev. Angela Maria Cortiñas was ordained and consecrated bishop suffragan of the Diocese of West Texas on March 15, 2025, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in McAllen. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, left, served as chief consecrator, and West Texas Bishop David G. Read, right, preached. Photo: Lauren Vreen

[Diocese of West Texas] The Rt. Rev. Angela Maria Cortiñas was ordained and consecrated bishop suffragan of the Diocese of West Texas on March 15 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in McAllen. Cortiñas will work alongside West Texas Bishop David G. Read. 

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe was the chief consecrator. Co-consecrators were Texas Bishop C. Andrew Doyle; former El Camino Real Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, who now serves as managing director of the College of Bishops; Texas Assistant Bishop Héctor Monterroso; Alabama Assistant Bishop Brian N. Prior; and Texas Bishop Suffragan Kathryn M. Ryan.

Fifteen bishops, including Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, attended the ordination and consecration of West Texas Bishop Suffragan Angela Maria Cortiñas on March 15, 2025. Cortiñas is standing directly left of Rowe, center, in the front row. Photo: Lauren Vreen

A total of 15 bishops were in attendance for the traditional laying-on of hands. Over 450 in-person attendees participated in the service, with more than 1,300 people joining the livestream concurrently from across the diocese and the country. This was the first consecration of an Episcopal bishop to be held in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. The service incorporated Spanish throughout.

In his sermon, Read reflected on living and serving in challenging times:

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is what our nation needs. We have this gift of life from God. We know and have experienced how amazing is the gift of grace,” Read said. “We know and have experienced the power of being forgiven, and the power of forgiving others. We know and have experienced the support of blessed, beloved community. We have all that we need, and today, the Holy Spirit gives to Angela all that she will need to do the ministry she has been called to do in this time.” 

Cortiñas was elected bishop suffragan for the Diocese of West Texas during a special council at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Corpus Christi Oct. 19, 2024. She is the seventh bishop suffragan to serve West Texas. In her role, she will celebrate the sacraments of the new covenant and confirm, receive and reaffirm individuals within the 87 congregations throughout the diocese. Additionally, she will assist Read in the pastoral care of clergy, clergy families, and retired clergy and their families, and the development and on-boarding of new clergy, curates and seminarians. She will oversee the development of lay ministry, Christian formation and discipleship.

“My heart is full of gratitude and love at seeing all the wonderful people who have gathered both near and far to be here for this special day. I am grateful for the God who has called me and the people who have so persuaded me to take on this new ministry. I am particularly grateful for all the people who have formed me as a priest and now as a bishop of God’s church,” Cortiñas said. “I am looking forward to sharing this ministry with Bishop Read and the clergy of the Diocese of West Texas. I have felt the love and the hand of God throughout this entire process and am excited to share God’s redeeming and reconciling love with all of God’s people here in West Texas and beyond.”  

Born to Cuban immigrants, Cortiñas is a Florida-native who grew up in Miami in a family of eight children. 

She was ordained a deacon in the Diocese of Southeast Florida in 2009 and a priest in 2010. From 2010-12, she was associate priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale and then served as associate rector of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton from 2012-2017. She served in the Diocese of Texas as rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in College Station from 2017-2021 and as associate rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin from 2021-2024.

Cortiñas has a 23-year-old daughter, Victoria Fletcher.

The Rt. Rev. Julia E. Whitworth departs from Boston’s Trinity Church after her ordination and consecration Oct. 19 as bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts. Photo: Diocese of Massachusetts/Matthew Cavanaugh

Diocese of Massachusetts] The Rt. Rev. Julia E. Whitworth was ordained and consecrated a bishop in the Diocese of Massachusetts on Oct. 19 at Trinity Church in Boston, surrounded in celebration by an attending congregation of 1,200 and an additional 3,800-plus viewers online via livestream and from seven watch party locations hosted by churches around the diocese.

Whitworth is the 17th bishop diocesan of the Diocese of Massachusetts, which comprises the 180 parishes, missions, chapels, chaplaincies and worshiping communities in eastern Massachusetts. Established in 1784, it is among the Episcopal Church’s oldest and largest, in terms of baptized membership.

The former rector of Trinity Church in Indianapolis, Whitworth succeeds the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, who served as the bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts since 2014 and, in preparation for retirement, resigned his office as of Oct. 19.

While women have served in suffragan and assistant bishop roles in the Diocese of Massachusetts — beginning with the late Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, the Massachusetts bishop suffragan who in 1989 became the Anglican Communion’s first female bishop — Whitworth is the first woman to head the diocese in the role of bishop diocesan.

“I am so honored to be with you to celebrate Julia Whitworth and the great commitment that she makes today with you towards God’s future here in Massachusetts. This diocese is such an important witness to the entire Episcopal Church, to God’s wild, wonderful, hope- and justice-filled future,” the Rev. Winnie Varghese, the rector of St. Luke’s Church in Atlanta, said in her sermon.

“You have elected one with a directness and moral clarity that matches your history. I don’t know if you know that about her yet,” Varghese said. “In standing here I feel the close presence of some who have served this diocese and also marked my life and yours, Barbara Harris, Tom Shaw, Ed Rodman. We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses this morning.”

“How in this time are we to be a light to the nations?” Varghese asked.  She named predominating evils, ills and anxieties — natural disasters, war and genocide, racism and violence, the impending and, for many, fear-inducing presidential election — and reflected on them, and on a bishop’s role at such a time, in the light of the day’s Gospel reading from John 4 and the living water of new life in Christ that the Samaritan woman receives through her encounter with Jesus at the well.

“Julia, I wonder if your call includes to believe in us so that we may have the courage to find words and ways to love our neighbors, the truthful ways, possibly the healing ways, the institutional, the systemic and the personally healing ways, to build vessels for healing waters,” she said.

The diversity of the Episcopal Church in eastern Massachusetts was evident through the many voices, languages and musicians taking part in the three-hour service. Along with a brass ensemble, some 20 parish choirs joined the choirs of Trinity Church to perform music for the service. Members of the diocese’s African Clergy Caucus and their families led singing during the celebration of Holy Eucharist. The service was also the debut of a new hymn, “From the first word of creation,” written by Susan Palo Cherwien and Jason Roberts for the new bishop and her family, in thanksgiving for their ministry at Trinity Church in Indianapolis.

A highlight of the service was the sacred and solemn moment when the 30 bishops participating from around the country placed their hands on Whitworth’s head during the prayer of consecration — a passing on of episcopal authority in what is believed to be an unbroken line from Christ’s apostles.

Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry served as the chief consecrator at what was his final consecration service as presiding bishop, as his nine-year term concludes Nov. 1 ahead of his retirement.

Co-consecrators were retiring Massachusetts Bishop Alan M. Gates and Massachusetts Assistant Bishop Carol J. Gallagher; Western Massachusetts Bishop Douglas J. Fisher; Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer L. Baskerville-Burrows; New York Bishop Matthew F. Heyd; retired Maine Bishop Chilton R. Knudsen; and Bishop Nathan D. Pipho of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Whitworth was seated the following day, Oct. 20, during Evensong at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston. The cathedral church presented the service together with Old North Church in Boston — both known as “peculiars” in that they are not parishes but institutions under the direct authority of the bishop.

“This day you have seated me in this chair, in this place, and there are chairs all over this diocese like this where I will be privileged to sit, so that we all might be reminded together that we are called to this work together,” Whitworth said in her sermon. “So let’s be peculiar, let’s be peculiar together, be an organization that is meant not for its members but for those just outside our doors to whom we say: All are welcome. Thanks be to God.”

Whitworth was ordained to the priesthood in September 2010 and served as the assistant rector of St. James’s Church in West Hartford, Conn., from 2010 to 2012, and then as the canon for liturgy and the arts at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, from 2013 to 2016. She was the rector of Trinity Church in Indianapolis from 2016 until her election as bishop in May.

While in the Diocese of Indianapolis, she was a General Convention deputy and a member of the Executive Council and the Committee for Canons and Constitution. She also served on the Board of Trustees of St. Richard’s Episcopal School; the Board of Directors of Trinity Haven, the first dedicated residence for LGBTQ+ youth in Indiana; and the LGBTQ+ youth advocacy organization Shelly’s Voice.  She is a former member of the Governing Board of the National Association of Episcopal Schools.

She is a 1993 graduate of Dartmouth College, where she majored in drama and English, with minors in women’s studies and education. She holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University/Tisch School of the Arts, in performance studies, and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary.

Whitworth is married to artist-designer Ray Neufeld. They have three children: Liam, Gregory and Grace.

— Tracy J. Sukraw is director of communications for the Diocese of Massachusetts.

The Rt. Rev. Philip LaBelle was ordained and consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Olympia on Sept. 14 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry served as the chief consecrator. Photo: Courtesy of the Diocese of Olympia

[Diocese of Olympia] The Rt. Rev. Philip N. LaBelle was ordained and consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Olympia on Sept. 14 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. LaBelle leads nearly 26,000 Episcopalians in more than 100 worshiping communities across Western Washington.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry served as the chief consecrator. Co-consecrators were the Most Rev. Melissa Skelton, from the Anglican Church of Canada, who serves as bishop provisional of the Diocese of Olympia; former Western Massachusetts Bishop Gordon P. Scruton; Diocese of Massachusetts Assistant Bishop Carol J.W.T. Gallagher; Western Oregon Bishop Diana Akiyama; Maine Bishop Thomas J. Brown; the Rev. Richard E. Jaech, bishop of the Southwestern Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and the Rev. Shelley M. Bryan Wee, bishop of the Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Eighteen other bishops attended the service, as did over 125 priests and deacons from Western Washington and the wider Episcopal Church.

Olivia LaBelle, LaBelle’s daughter, and Liberato Arellano, of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Renton, read the lessons. The Rev. Lynette Poulton Kamakura, a deacon at St. Luke’s – San Lucas Episcopal Church in Vancouver, read the Gospel. LeBelle’s wife, Melissa, and his children, Noah and Olivia, presented him with a stole, chasuble, pectoral cross and episcopal ring. The Rev. Michael Hamilton, a deacon at Christ the King-Epiphany in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, presented LaBelle with a miter. Skelton presented him with the diocesan crozier, and Curry presented him with a Bible.

“Diocese of Olympia, you have a gem of a new bishop,” said the Rev. Pamela Werntz, rector of Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts, during her sermon. “Which is good because you are a gem of a diocese, and I feel sure that you all are going to help each other get shinier as you tumble around being church together in the days and years to come.”

Fred McIlroy, music director of Emmanuel Church in Mercer Island, served as the service’s music director. He gathered a choir of more than 100 singers from churches across the Diocese of Olympia. Roughly 900 Episcopalians eager to celebrate LaBelle’s consecration and ordination attended the service, and more than 300 participated in the service remotely via livestream. The seating of LaBelle took place the following day in a special evensong at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle.

The Rt. Rev. Philip LaBelle was ordained and consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Olympia on Sept. 14 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. Presiding Bishop Michael LaBelle, center-right, is standing with his wife, Melissa, and two children. Photo: Courtesy of the Diocese of Olympia

“My family and I have, in the course of this spiritual journey, seen firsthand the abundant love of Jesus as it has been expressed by the people of the Diocese of Olympia,” LaBelle said after the consecration. “I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to serve with them in ministry in the years ahead as we seek to proclaim that love in Western Washington.”

LaBelle previously served as the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Southborough, Massachusetts. He received his Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary, focusing on Christian spirituality. He was elected bishop diocesan on May 18 and follows Skelton, who has led the diocese since former Bishop Greg Rickel resigned in December 2022.

A recording of the service can be found on the Diocese of Olympia’s YouTube channel. The service leaflet is also available online here.

They are:

• The Rev. Jimmy Abbott, rector, Trinity Episcopal Church in Galveston, Texas;
• The Very Rev. Amy Dafler Meaux, dean and rector, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Little Rock, Arkansas;
• The Rev. Bradley Pace, rector, St. John’s, Lafayette, Indiana;
• The Rev. Molly Payne-Hardin, rector, Trinity Church, Watertown, New York.

The candidates will participate in five meet-and-greet sessions around the diocese from Sept. 16-20. The electing convention is scheduled for Nov. 9 at Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City.

Pending consent, the next bishop will be ordained and consecrated on May 3, 2025, and will succeed Bishop Provisional Diane M. Jardine Bruce.

The release of the slate also marks the beginning of the petition process. That process will close at noon Central time on Aug. 7