Bishops Elected in Three Dioceses
Episcopal News Service. November 19, 1998 [98-2262]
(ENS) The dioceses of Chicago, East Tennessee and Eau Claire have elected new bishops to lead them into the next millenium.
William D. Persell, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, was elected the 11th bishop of Chicago by 575 clergy and lay delegates meeting November 14 at St. James Cathedral in Chicago. The vote surprised many with its swiftness. Persell was elected over four other candidates in just the fourth round of balloting.
"I am humbled and I am thankful," he said in a telephone interview following the election. Persell was at home when he received news of the election from Bishop Herbert Donovan, Chicago's provisional bishop, who used a cellular phone to call Persell from the floor of the convention. Persell then called his wife, Nancy, who was in California attending her high school reunion. The couple has six children.
Technology was also highlighted through the election results' nearly immediate release on the diocesan web site. Results of each ballot were posted on the site as they happened, a first for an election of a bishop in an Episcopal diocese.
Persell's consecration has been tentatively set for March 13.
Charles vonRosenberg, rector of St. James Church, Wilmington, North Carolina, was elected the third bishop of the Diocese of East Tennessee on October 17. The election came after 15 ballots.
"Thank you, sir. I'm very honored and certainly humbled," he told Bishop Robert Tharp when Tharp called him to tell him of the election.
VonRosenberg has served as rector of St. James since 1994. Before that he was canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina for five years. A graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, he and his wife, Ann, have two sons, Glenn and John.
In the Diocese of Eau Claire, Keith B. Whitmore was elected bishop on October 17.
A native of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Whitmore is dean of Christ Cathedral, Salina, Kansas. Before that, he was associate and then rector of St. Joseph's Church, Joplin, Missouri. He is a graduate of Nashota House. He and his wife, Suzanne, have two children.