Episcopate: The Role of Bishops in a Shared Future

Top voices highlight important changes in the role of bishop.

Compelling essays, written by bishops, other clergy, and academics from across the Episcopal Church, reflect the breadth of thinking on the history, current state, and future of the role of leadership within the denomination and the wider Anglican Communion.

Topics include the transformation of the role over the last fifty years, a review of historic documents on the episcopacy, issues of race and gender, and the definition of ministry and leadership. This volume will be of interest to leaders across denominations as well as scholars.

C. Andrew Doyle, the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, summarizes his autobiography in six words: "Met Jesus on pilgrimage; still walking." He is author of Vocātiō, Unabashedly Episcopalian, Orgullosamente Episcopal, A Generous Community, and The Jesus Heist. He lives in Houston, Texas.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry is the Episcopal Church’s 27th Presiding Bishop. He was the Bishop of North Carolina from 2000 to 2015. Bishop Curry has a national preaching and teaching ministry and is a regular on TV and radio and a frequent speaker at conferences around the country. His books include Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus; Following the Way of Jesus: Church’s Teachings for a Changing World; and Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times.

The Rt. Rev. George Sumner was elected as the Seventh bishop for the Diocese of Dallas during a Special Convention in May 2015. Sumner has served in a variety of capacities: youth minister, missionary teacher in east Africa, curate in an inner-city Anglo-Catholic parish, vicar on a native American reservation in New Mexico and Arizona, and rector in a small town. He has a Ph.D. in theology and an M.Div. from Yale and a B.A. from Harvard College. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

Robert W. Prichard has been teaching liturgy at Virginia Theological Seminary since 1979. While his primary publications have been in church history, he has contributed occasional articles to journals and collections about the liturgy. Prichard has been a General Convention deputy since 2006 and has twice served on the General Convention's Joint Committee on Liturgy and Music. At the convention of 2015, he served as one of the two secretaries of that body. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

R. William Franklin is Assisting Bishop of Long Island and the author or editor of seven books. He lives in New York City.