PENNSYLVANIA: Rodney Michel named assisting bishop
Episcopal News Service. February 23, 2009 [022309-05]
Jerry Hames
Bishop Rodney R. Michel, who retired in 2007 after serving for 10 years as suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Long Island, will become the new assisting bishop in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, the diocesan Standing Committee announced February 23.
Bishop Michel, 66, whose term is expected to last three years, said he would begin his new ministry full-time on April 1, after working alongside Bishop Allen Bartlett on a part-time basis throughout March. Bishop Bartlett, diocesan bishop of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1998, has acted as the assisting bishop for the past year. The Standing Committee continues to be the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese.
A native of Nebraska and a graduate of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Bishop Michel said he looks forward to his new ministry with enthusiasm. “I’m excited about this opportunity. I wasn’t ready to sit on the porch in my rocking chair.’ he said, acknowledging that he sees much work to accomplish and bridges to rebuild among people. “I have done a lot of that throughout my ministry and in my time as a bishop in Long Island.”
The bishop said that he and his wife, Marie, who have four grown children, would move from their home in Ephrata, Pa., to an apartment in Philadelphia. Since retirement from full-time ministry, he has served as assisting bishop in two other dioceses – the Diocese of Georgia for four months in 2007/2008 and for a brief term last year in the Diocese of Maryland. In 2003 he was a nominee for bishop in the Diocese of New Jersey.
Bishop Michel said his duties will be both administrative and pastoral. He will work from the diocesan office four days a week, do Sunday parish visitations, be present for meetings of committees and commissions that his predecessor traditionally attended and be a pastoral resource for clergy, their families and congregations. “We’ll get back to business as normal,” he said.
Throughout his career, Bishop Michel served parishes in the dioceses of Nebraska, North Dakota and Long Island. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in 1998, where during his student days he was curator of the seminary’s rare book collection.
The Rev. Glenn Matis, president of the Standing Committee, expressed his gratitude to Bishop Bartlett for the time he served when the diocese recalled him from retirement. He said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who met with members of the Standing Committee last year, said the diocese has much to offer the larger Episcopal Church and encouraged them to move ahead with rebuilding its diocesan life and mission to the wider church.
“We look forward to the quality of ministry and experience Bishop Michel brings to us,” he said. “We are eager to move ahead under his pastoral and spiritual guidance.”
Bishop Bartlett became assisting bishop in February, 2008, when the presiding bishop inhibited Bishop Charles Bennison after he was charged with two counts of misconduct. He was found guilty on both charges by an ecclesiastical court that recommended deposition. It recently rejected the bishop’s appeal to modify that sentence. The bishop’s legal counsel has now taken the case to a Court of Appeal, a panel of bishops provided for by the national church’s canons on discipline.