John McKee Sloan elected 11th bishop of Alabama
Episcopal News Service. July 17, 2011 [071711-01]
ENS staff
The Rt. Rev. John McKee "Kee" Sloan was elected July 16 as the 11th bishop of the Diocese of Alabama. He currently is Alabama's suffragan bishop.
Sloan was elected from a field of four nominees on the first ballot. He received 145 of 270 votes cast in the lay order and 68 of 118 cast in the clergy order. An election required 136 votes in the lay order and 60 in the clergy order.
Pending a successful consent process, Sloan will succeed the Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley Jr., who will retire in January. The investiture is planned for January 7, 2012, at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham.
Under the canons of the Episcopal Church, a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to the bishop-elect's ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of the election.
The other nominees were:
- The Rev. Kenneth L. Chumbley, rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Springfield, Missouri;
- The Rev. Clare Fischer-Davies, rector of St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Providence, Rhode Island;
- The Rev. William Charles "Chuck" Treadwell III, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Waco, Texas.
"Thanks be to God who has brought us to this place together. I thank you for trusting in him," Sloan told convention delegates in the nave of the Cathedral Church of the Advent, where the election was held. As he spoke, the cathedral bells rang out over downtown Birmingham.
Speaking after the election, Sloan said, "I am honored and humbled to be elected two times by people who know me and my faults, along with the gifts I've been given. I am grateful to them and to the Spirit of God." (An audio recording of Sloan's post-election remarks is available here.)
Sloan has been Alabama's bishop suffragan since 2008. Before that, he served as rector of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Huntsville, Alabama, for 14 years, and at a number of churches in the Diocese of Mississippi.
Sloan founded the Special Session program in the diocese for summer campers with mental and physical disabilities. He serves as a member of the Standing Commission for Liturgy and Music. He has participated in nearly 20 medical mission trips to Honduras.
Sloan, a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, is married to Tina Brown Sloan. They have two children, McKee and Mary Nell.
The gathering of voting delegates was a reconvening of those who first gathered in February for the 180th annual convention of the diocese. The election was held after a service of Holy Eucharist celebrated by Bishop Parsley.
The Diocese of Alabama covers north and central Alabama, with more than 34,000 members and 92 parishes and worshiping communities.