The bishops of America’s Episcopal Church will elect a new Presiding Bishop next July. Western Washington’s Bishop Greg Rickel is being sounded out as candidate for a top job that requires the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job.
Rickel, 51, is an Arkansas native, a onetime hospital administrator who successfully built a multiethnic, multilingual congregation in fast-growing Austin, Texas, before being elected Episcopal Bishop of Olympia in 2007.
Rickel indicates he is willing to have his name put in nomination.
[blockquote]The property of St. Stephen’s Church in Oak Harbor has been reclaimed from traditionalist dissidents, with still-loyal Episcopalians rebuilding the congregation.[/blockquote]
Sounds like he has the right experience for the job.
Wasn’t there some wierd stuff going on at his cathedral in Olympia, and isn’t it where the Muslim lady priest used to hang out?
Mind you, even +Rickel as I recollect couldn’t stomach approving KJS’s friend, the Genpo Lama [Kevin Thew-Forrester] as Bishop of Northern Michigan, not because he would be TEC’s first Buddhist Bishop, nor because of his heretical sermons, but because he rewrote TEC’s Baptism Service without permission and made up his own daily collects, contrary to the Canons of TEC [peace and blessings be upon them].
RE: “rebuilding the congregation.”
Mmm hmmm. The ASA for St. Stephens in Oak Harbor in 2005 was around 130.
In 2008 it was around 35.
And in 2012 [drum roll] . . . ASA was at 20.
So.
There are some 20 “still-loyal” Episcopalians “rebuilding” the congregation.
Maybe they could “rebuild” a bit faster?
The good news about this is that the Diocese of Olympia is stuck with a building that now maintains 20 parishioners.
The rebuilding is acceptable by TEC standards. He is qualified in all areas and will probably be the next PB.
If Rickel has indeed stabilized St. Mark’s Cathedral, I tip my hat to him. Once one of the largest Episcopal congregations in attendance, former Dean Robert Taylor presided over a sudden decline from nearly 1,600 ASA to just over 400 ASA in only three years. It does appear the congregation has slightly rebounded to about 500 ASA, although plate-and-pledge continues on a downward trajectory.
I recall Taylor’s installation when I attended college in Seattle – he was hailed as the first openly gay cathedral dean and met with much fanfare. What a disaster he turned out to be, decimating the cathedral’s finances, laying off staff and ultimately dumped — with a golden parachute of several hundred thousand dollars.