Rochester elects Prince Singh as eighth bishop
Episcopal News Service. February 2, 2008 [020208-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Rev. Dr. Prince Singh was elected February 2 to be the next bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester.
Singh, 45, rector of St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Oakland/Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, in the Diocese of Newark, was elected on the second ballot from a slate of five candidates. An election on that ballot required 75 votes in the lay order and 33 votes in the clergy order. Singh was elected with 77 lay votes and 35 clergy votes.
Singh will succeed Bishop Jack McKelvey, who has spent the past eight years as bishop of Rochester. Prior to being called to Rochester, McKelvey had spent eight years as bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Newark. McKelvey will retire in this spring and Singh is due to be consecrated May 31 at the Eastman Theater at the University of Rochester.
The election took place at Trinity Episcopal Church, in Geneva, New York.
Under the canons of the Episcopal Church (III.11.4), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan Standing Committees must consent to Singh's election and ordination as bishop.
Singh was ordained a priest in the Church of South India (CSI) in 1990. CSI was inaugurated in 1947 by the union of the South India United Church (itself a union of Congregational and Presbyterian/Reformed traditions), the southern Anglican diocese of the Church of India, Burma, Ceylon, and the Methodist Church in South India. It is one of the four United Churches in the Anglican Communion.
After serving congregations in rural south India, in the Diocese of New Jersey and elsewhere in the Diocese of Newark, Singh was called to St. Alban's in 2000.
He graduated from Madras Christian College, Tambaram, and Union Biblical Seminary, both in India. He also holds degrees from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (1994) and Princeton Theological Seminary (1995). Singh was awarded the doctor of philosophy degree from Drew University in 2005 in the Religion and Society division of its theological school.
He and his wife, Roja, are parents to two sons. She is a tenure-track faculty member in the Women's Studies Department at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey
More information about Singh's life and ministry, as well as his answers to the search committee's questions, is available here.
The other nominees were:
- the Rev. Stephen Fales, 53, rector of St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Carmel, Indiana (Diocese of Indianapolis);
- the Rev. Bruce Gray, 47, rector of St. Matthias Episcopal Church, Whittier, California (Diocese of Los Angeles);
- the Rev. Dr. Richard Murphy. 62, rector of St. Bede's Episcopal Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Diocese of the Rio Grande); and
- the Rev. Dr. Robert "Odie" Odierna, 58, rector of Church of the Good Shepherd, Nashua, New Hampshire (Diocese of New Hampshire).;
The Rochester diocese serves eight counties in the Finger Lakes region of New York in 52 congregations and seven chapels and a membership of 13,000.