Episcopal News Service November 15, 2006
New chief operating officer is former U.S. ambassador to Panama
Executive Council confirms Presiding Bishop's appointment of Linda Watt to key churchwide post
By Bob Williams
[ENS] Bringing 30 years of diplomatic and management skills proven most recently as U.S. ambassador to Panama, Linda E. Watt of Utah has been named new chief operating officer of the Episcopal Church.
The Church's Executive Council, meeting in Chicago November 15, confirmed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's appointment of Watt to this position, officially known as executive director of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS).
In this capacity, Watt, 55, succeeds Patricia C. Mordecai as vice president of the DFMS, the principal management corporation of the Episcopal Church and its chief legislative body, the General Convention. Mordecai will retire at year-end after more than eight years in this role.
Set to begin work officially in January, Watt will serve as chief operating officer at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City, where she will assist in overseeing the 200-member staff based in newly renovated offices located two blocks west of the United Nations.
"My sense is that Linda is going to be an ambassador of Good News we are all called to share," Jefferts Schori said, citing Watt's "enormous skill in managing operations and personnel in challenging locations around the world."
The Presiding Bishop further underscored Watt's "culturally bilingual" skills including fluency in Spanish and "her strong interest in social justice" consonant with the Episcopal Church's current top ministry priority of peace and justice work framed by the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. Full story and photograph: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_79712_ENG_HTM.htm
- - - - - - - - -
To SUBSCRIBE to Episcopal News Service, send a blank email message, from the address which you wish subscribed, to join-enslist@epicom.org and include "subscribe" in the subject line.
Send QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS to news@episcopalchurch.org
ENS provides information and resources which we consider to be of interest to our readers. However, statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein, are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of ENS or the Episcopal Church.