Q How did this all come about?
A I’ve been teaching here at the Episcopal Divinity School for 22 years. I love the vocation of teaching and I’ve been very pleased with the community and colleagues I’ve been blessed with here at EDS. I’m from Massachusetts, my wife’s family is from Massachusetts ”” from Belmont ”” so it wasn’t as if I was looking to go and switch vocations and locations. But as a Christian and someone who is ordained in the Episcopal Church, I felt like I always needed to be open to see what God and the community, known as the church, might be calling me to do and be next. I’m 51. Our third and final child is graduating from high school. My wife’s vocation as a midwife is changing because of the medical insurance realities in Massachusetts. So it was a good time for us as a family and me professionally to imagine taking on some new challenges and some new possibilities. The question of timing, the question of how can I best serve God and God’s church in the wider world were questions before me.
Q When you applied for the job, did you think you had a shot?
A When it was first recommended I look at Connecticut because they were beginning a search process, my response was, “Yeah, that’s nice, but I’m not from Connecticut.” The reason why I said that is because Connecticut itself in 225 years ”¦ has never elected someone from outside the state. I thought, “It’s a great place, it’s a great diocese, but it’s futile to put my name in because they’ll never elect me.” When the job description came out, many of the things they were looking for I felt very much fit my gifts, my capabilities and experiences. And so I went ahead and allowed my name to stand and went through an application process. There was an ongoing winnowing with paper application review, telephone interview, site visit where people from Connecticut came and heard me preach. I’ve been an associate priest at St. James’ in Porter Square for 22 years. In June I was invited to be one of the finalists and ultimately one of the nominees.
As a parishioner in Connecticut, I am looking forward to Fr. Douglas becoming our new bishop. His experience with global missions will be a good expansion of our focus.