The College for Bishops

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Bishops, Episcopal, photography

Tree at the Virginia Diocesan Center at Roslyn

We spent the past week traveling to, participating in, and returning from the first session of The College for Bishops. During the first session, bishops elected during the previous year, along with their spouses, are introduced to each other and what one can expect as a bishop and spouse in the Episcopal Church. These people become your “class” and we will see a lot of each other in the coming years.

The Chapel at the Roslyn Center overlooking the Kanawha Canal and James River.

Our class consists of 13 couples, including 8 female bishops, a lesbian couple, and two gay couples. The Dioceses represented are: Georgia (ours), Missouri, Taiwan, Michigan, Southern Virginia, El Camino Real (California), Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, Northern California, Maine, San Diego (California), and a Suffragan bishop of Texas. A suffragan is an assisting bishop to the diocesan bishop. There are 111 dioceses in the Episcopal Church, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

View from the altar in the chapel at Roslyn.

Frank’s election comes at an exciting time as we will be able to attend the 15th Lambeth Conference in Canterbury England. The Lambeth Conference is a decennial assembly of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place in 1867. Because of complications, the 2018 conference was postponed until this year. Lucky for us! We are really looking forward to meeting bishops and their spouses from all over the world.

Finally, we also had an article featured on the Grow Christians blog this week. You can see that here: When Spiritual Practices Become Springs in the Desert.