[Scott] Hayashi, rector at Ogden’s Good Shepherd church from 1989 to 1998 before leaving to become a diocesan administrator in Chicago, emerged as the choice to lead an estimated 5,200 Episcopalians in the state after only two rounds of balloting at a special convention attended by priests, deacons and lay members.
Hayashi received 73 of 138 lay delegate votes and 20 of 38 clergy votes, a simple majority and all that was needed to be elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese, which covers all of Utah and includes Page, Ariz. It took five ballots to reach that threshold during Irish’s election in 1996, according to the diocese.
“I was very honored and surprised in many ways that it happened on the second ballot,” Hayashi said in a telephone interview from Chicago. “One doesn’t believe it until it happens. I’m still trying to take it all in.”