EL CAMINO REAL: Diocese to celebrate consecration of its first woman bishop
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 2007 [110807-04]
The Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves will be ordained as the third bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real on November 10.
Representatives from each of 50 parishes in the diocese will be in attendance and more than 20 bishops from around the Episcopal Church will participate in the ordination and consecration.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preside and be the chief consecrator.
Gray-Reeves, 45, was elected bishop on the second ballot June 16 during at an electing convention York School in Monterey, California.
Gray-Reeves was serving as archdeacon for deployment in Diocese of Southeast Florida at the time of her election. She graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a degree in history, and earned the Master of Divinity degree from the College of St. John the Evangelist in New Zealand. The bishop-elect and her husband, Michael, have two children, Katie and Dorian. The family has relocated to the Monterey area.
This liturgy marks several milestones for the diocese, the state of California, and the Episcopal Church. Gray-Reeves will be the first female Episcopal diocesan bishop in the state and she will be among the five youngest bishops in the House of Bishops. She becomes the 15th woman elected as a bishop of the Episcopal Church and will be the first female diocesan bishop to be ordained since Jefferts Schori was ordained as Bishop of Nevada in 2001, where she served prior to being elected Presiding Bishop in June 2006. Gray-Reeves’ ordination is also the first time a female will be ordained as a diocesan bishop by a female primate of the Anglican Communion.
“We are thrilled by Mary’s presence among us,” said Ann Wright, former president of the El Camino Real Standing Committee. “The church faces many challenges in how we address the changing needs of our members and our communities. As we move into the next phase of our diocesan life and ministry, we look forward to her leadership and vision on the many issues that confront today’s church ranging from poverty to diversity to spiritual growth and relevance.”
The ordination and consecration begins at 10:30 a.m. (PST) at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Saratoga, California.
The Diocese of El Camino Real covers approximately the middle third of the California coast, an area no more than 50 miles wide but 250 miles long, extending from Palo Alto to Arroyo Grande. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by the San Francisco Bay area and the Diocese of California, on the east by the central Valley and the Sierra mountain range and the Diocese of San Joaquin, and on the south by Santa Barbara and the Diocese of Los Angeles.
The diocese was formed in 1980 out of the Diocese of California. Trinity Cathedral in San Jose serves as the diocesan see while the diocesan offices are located in Seaside on the Monterey Peninsula. Congregations worship in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Laotian, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Sudanese dialects and Lakota. About 14,330 Episcopalians worship in the diocese's 50 congregations.