Bishop Peter Lee celebrates 25 years of ministry in Virginia
Episcopal News Service. September 18, 2009 [091809-02]
The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia will celebrate Bishop Peter James Lee's 25 years of ministry on Saturday, September 19, with a silver jubilee and service of leave-taking at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, at 10:30 a.m.
Lee came to the Diocese of Virginia from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1984. Prior to becoming ordained, Lee was a U.S. Army intelligence officer and a reporter and copy editor in Memphis, Tennessee; Pensacola, Florida; and Richmond, Virginia. He attended Duke Law School before entering Virginia Theological Seminary. Lee served at St. John's Cathedral in Jacksonville, Florida; St. John's Church at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.; and the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill.
Lee was recently elected chairman of the board of trustees of the Church Pension Fund. He is chairman of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral in the United States, which encourages support for the mother church of the Anglican Communion, and is also a member of the Compass Rose Society, an international group that supports special ministries of the Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Anglican Communion Office.
"Bishop Lee's 25 years of ministry have been marked by a gracious wisdom and an ability to help build the church's broad and welcoming center," said Bishop Coadjutor Shannon S. Johnston of Virginia. "This is evident in the strength of our churches, our conference and retreat centers, the diocesan schools, and our clergy, who are marked by their diversity, both in their theological and liturgical dispositions, as well as in the breadth of their range of age and talents."
Beginning October 1, Lee will continue his ministry in the Episcopal Church as interim dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, the largest Episcopal cathedral on the West Coast. He and his wife, Kristy, will move to San Francisco in the coming weeks. Johnston will succeed Lee and become the 13th bishop of Virginia on October 1.