wfn.org | [ENS/bios/photos] Nominees for 26th Presiding Bishop named

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Episcopal News Service
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Nominees for 26th Presiding Bishop named

Alexander, Gulick, Jefferts Schori, Parsley on slate

[ENS] The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding
Bishop has today announced the names of those bishops it will place in
nomination for election as 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal
Church.

[Full text of the committee's announcement, including procedures for
nominations from the floor, is posted at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_71136_ENG_HTM.htm. The 29-member
committee is chaired by Bishop Peter J. Lee of Virginia and Diane B.
Pollard
of New York.]

The nominees' names will be formally submitted to the General Convention
at
a joint session on June 18, 2006, the day prior to the day appointed for
the
election of the 26th Presiding Bishop by the House of Bishops.

The bishop elected will succeed the 25th Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev.
Frank T. Griswold III, whose nine-year term concludes later this year.

The 26th Presiding Bishop will be installed November 4, 2006, at
Washington
National Cathedral.

The nominees are:
The Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of Atlanta
The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick, Jr., Bishop of Kentucky
The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada
The Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley, Jr., Bishop of Alabama

Following is biographical information compiled by the Episcopal News
Service. Photographs are posted online at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_71139_ENG_HTM.htm.

The Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of Atlanta

John Neil Alexander, 52, was elected the ninth bishop of the Diocese of
Atlanta on March 31, 2001. He was ordained to the episcopate and
installed
on July 7, 2001, at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. He serves a
diocese of some 55,000 members in 93 congregations.

Alexander has served the wider church as a presenter to the 2005 meeting
of
the Anglican Consultative Council. During the summer of 2005, he visited
the
Diocese of Atlanta's mission personnel who serve in the Dioceses of
Central
Tanganyika and Dar es Salaam in the Anglican Church in Tanzania. He
serves
as chair of the Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Liturgy and
Music,
as a regent of the University of the South (Sewanee), and as a member of
the
board of the Archives of the Episcopal Church. He has also served on the
board of the General Theological Seminary.

He is most recently the author of "This Far by Grace, A Bishop's Journey
Through Questions About Homosexuality," as well a number of publications
in
the fields of liturgics, homiletics, sacramental theology, and pastoral
practice.

At the time of his election as bishop, Alexander was the Norma and Olin
Mills Professor of Divinity at the University of the South School of
Theology and was priest in charge of St. Agnes' Church in Cowan,
Tennessee.
Previously he served as the Trinity Church Professor of Liturgics and
Preaching at the General Theological Seminary in New York, during which
time
he also served in a variety of parish settings. He has also taught at
Yale,
Drew, and Wilfrid Laurier Universities.

He received a B.A. in music from Moravian College (1976), followed by a
master's in music from the University of South Carolina (1979). He
earned an
M. Div. from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (1980); and a Th.D.
in
liturgics from General Theological Seminary (1993).

Formerly a Lutheran pastor, he was ordained in the North Carolina Synod
of
the Lutheran Church in America and served Faith Lutheran Church in
Murray
Hill, New Jersey, and then as professor of Liturgics and Spirituality
and
Dean of Keffer Memorial Chapel at Waterloo (Ontario) Lutheran Seminary.

Alexander was born January 23, 1954, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
and
has been married to Lynn Tesh Alexander, a pediatric nurse practitioner,
since 1976. Their children are John Jr., Kelly and Mary Catherine.

The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick, Jr., Bishop of Kentucky

Edwin Funsten "Ted" Gulick, Jr., 57, was consecrated the seventh bishop
of
the Diocese of Kentucky on April 17, 1994, at St. Stephen Baptist Church
in
Louisville, Kentucky.

As the Diocese of Kentucky's bishop, Gulick is chief pastor to its
clergy,
36 congregations and about 10,600 active members. He has served two
terms on
the SCEIR (Standing Committee on Ecumenical and Inter-Religious
Relations),
co-chaired the Anglican Roman Catholic Dialogue (ARC-USA) from 1997 to
present, and served as one of the Episcopal Church's representatives on
the
Consultation on Church Union (1995-2000). In 2001, he was also appointed
by
Archbishop George Carey to serve on IARCCUM (International Anglican
Roman
Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission), an ongoing commitment.

Gulick was appointed by former Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning to
investigate, along with Bishops Mary Adelia McLeod and Rogers Harris,
issues
of alleged misconduct involving bishops. He also served on Committee 22
of
the General Convention in 2000, which dealt with all questions related
to
human sexuality; co-chaired the General Convention cognate committee on
Ecumenical Concerns; and served on the Member Advisory Committee for the
College of Bishops, the Staff College of Bishops' "The Bishop as
Recruiter"
and the Staff College of Bishops conference for new bishops and
spouses/partners.
 
At the time of his election as bishop, Gulick was rector of St.
Stephen's
Church in Newport News, Virginia, for 11 years. Previously he served as
rector of Grace Church in Elkridge, Maryland, and as assistant at
Trinity
Church in Towson, Maryland. He was ordained deacon in 1973 and priest in
1974.

He received a B.A. from Lynchburg College (1970); an M.Div. from
Virginia
Theological Seminary (1973); and honorary D.D.s from Virginia
Theological
Seminary (1994) and the University of the South (1995).

Gulick was born July 27, 1948, in Washington, D.C. and has been married
to
Barbara Lichtfuss, who teaches middle school students at the Anchorage
Public School, since 1970. They have three adult children, Jennifer
Gulick
Amos; Robin K. Gulick, a seminarian at Virginia Theological Seminary;
and a
son, John E. Gulick. The Gulicks first grandson, Samuel Joseph Gulick,
was
born on January 12 of this year.

The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada

Katharine Jefferts Schori, 51, was consecrated the ninth Bishop of
Nevada on
February 24, 2001. She serves a diocese of some 6,000 members in 35
congregations. Jefferts Schori is the first woman selected as a nominee
for
Presiding Bishop.

Her service to the wider church includes current membership on the
Special
Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion;
the Board of
Trustees, Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California;
the
CREDO Advisory Board; the House of Bishops peer coaching program; the
General Board of Examining Chaplains; the Board for Church Deployment;
the
House of Bishops' Pastoral Development, Racism, and Planning Committees;
the
Court for Review of a Trial of a Bishop; the Episcopal visitor team for
the
Community of the Holy Spirit; and the Bishops of Small Dioceses group.

> 2001-2003 she was a member of the 20/20 Strategy Group, and served
>as
secretary of the House of Bishops Ministry Committee at the 2003 General
Convention.

She is the author of "When Conflict and Hope Abound," Vestry Papers
(March-April 2005); "Building Bridges/Widening Circles" in Preaching
Through
Holy Days and Holidays: Sermons that Work XI, Roger Alling and David J.
Schlafer, eds. Morehouse (2003); "Multicultural Issues in Preaching" in
Preaching Through the Year of Matthew: Sermons That Work X, Roger Alling
and
David J. Schlafer, eds. Morehouse (2001); and "The Nag" in Preaching
Through
the Year of Luke: Sermons That Work IX, Roger Alling and David J.
Schlafer,
eds. Morehouse (2000). Her Maundy Thursday sermon was included in What
Makes
This Day Different? by David Schlafer, Cowley (1998).

She is an active, instrument-rated pilot with more than 500 hours
logged.

At the time of her election as bishop of Nevada, Jefferts Schori was
assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in
Corvallis,
Oregon, where she also served as pastoral associate, dean of the Good
Samaritan School of Theology, and priest-in-charge, El Buen Samaritano,
Corvallis. She was ordained deacon and priest in 1994. Prior to
ordination,
she was a visiting assistant professor at Oregon State University's
Department of Religious Studies, a visiting scientist at Oregon State
University's Department of Oceanography, and an oceanographer with the
National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle.

She received a B.S. in biology from Stanford University, 1974; an M.S.
in
oceanography from Oregon State University, 1977; a Ph.D. from Oregon
State
University, 1983; an M.Div. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific,
1994; and a D.D. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2001.

Jefferts Schori was born March 26, 1954, in Pensacola, Florida. She has
been
married to Richard Miles Schori, a retired theoretical mathematician
(topologist), since 1979. They have one child, Katharine Johanna, 24,
who is
a second lieutenant and pilot in the US Air Force.

The Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley, Jr., Bishop of Alabama

Henry Nutt Parsley, Jr., 57, was elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese
of
Alabama on January 9, 1996. He was ordained and consecrated on September
28,
1996, in Birmingham, Alabama, and became the tenth Bishop of Alabama in
1999, overseeing 92 churches, eight campus ministries, and several
institutions which serve some 35,000 Episcopalians in the northern part
of
Alabama.

He is the chair of the Theology Committee and a member of the Planning
Committee of the House of Bishops. He has chaired the Standing
Commission on
Stewardship and Development since 1998 and the Church Pension Fund's
Abundance Committee since 2001. He serves as Chancellor of the
University of
the South, Sewanee and as a member of the Board of Regents of the
university. He has been a preacher on the Protestant Hour and active in
many
outreach ministries of the Episcopal Church including serving on the
Board
of the Presiding Bishops Fund for World Relief (now Episcopal Relief and
Development). He served as a deputy to General Convention in 1982, 1985
and
1994.

At the time of his election Parsley had been the rector of Christ
Church,
Charlotte, North Carolina, for 10 years, and served on the Diocesan
Council,
the AIDS Ministry Task Force, the Department of Stewardship, as dean of
the
Charlotte Convocation, a member of the Board of the Thompson Children's
Home
and Vice President for Church Relations of the Alumni Council of the
University of the South. He previously served as rector of St. Paul's
Church, Summerville, and All Saints Church and Day School, Florence, and
as
assistant rector of St. Philip's Church, Charleston, and Trinity Church,
Myrtle Beach. In the Diocese of South Carolina he was president of the
Standing Committee, Chair of the Youth Department and Division of
Stewardship, a Cursillo spiritual director and E.F.M. (Education for
Ministry) mentor, and served two terms on the Diocesan Council, and the
Board of Trustees of the Porter Gaud School. He was an Examining
Chaplain
for nine years.

He received a B.A. (magna cum laude with honors in English) from the
University of the South (1970) and an M.Div. from the General
Theological
Seminary (1973). He was ordained to the diaconate in June 1973 and to
the
priesthood in April 1974. He has studied at Oxford University in the
areas
of spirituality and soteriology, and received an honorary D.D. from the
University of the South (1998).

Parsley was born October 29, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee, and has been
married to the former Rebecca Knox Allison of New Orleans since 1970.
They
have one son, Henry Nutt, III, born in 1974.

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