KENTUCKY: Terry Allen White becomes diocese's eighth bishop
Episcopal News Service. September 27, 2010 [092710-03]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Very Rev. Terry Allen White on Sept. 25 became the eight bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky.
White, 51, was elected June 5 on the second ballot from a field of four nominees. He succeeds Bishop Edwin "Ted" G. Gulick, 61, who had served since 1994 and who will become assistant bishop in the Diocese of Virginia in January 2011.
As outlined in Canon III.11.4(a), White received the required consents to his ordination and consecration from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction (diocesan bishops only) and a majority of the diocesan standing committees of the church.
White's consecration and ordination took place at The Galt House, a hotel in Louisville. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was the chief consecrator. Joining her as co-consecrators were New Jersey Bishop George E. Councell, San Diego Bishop James R. Mathes, retired Chicago Bishop James W. Montgomery, Western Missouri Bishop Barry R. Howe and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Bishop William O. Gafkjen.
A copy of the order of service is here.
Most recently White was dean of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Rev. Canon Susan Sommer, the cathedral's priest-in-charge, preached at the consecration and ordination.
She said White "has an enormous capacity to listen carefully to the Holy Spirit both at work within the community he leads as well as within his heart through his own rich life of prayer. And this listening to God’s Word always, always leads him to action, though I must admit not always with the immediacy that perhaps his wardens or even his sub-dean might have liked."
White was formally seated Sept. 26, which is his birthday, at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Louisville.
"Know it is with joy and excitement that I accept your invitation to occupy this chair for a season," White said during his sermon. "Whatever gifts I bring to this diocesan community are due in large part to the people of God who have formed me and shown me what it means to love God with all one's being and to love neighbor as oneself."
The Diocese of Kentucky has about 10,000 members in 36 congregations, located in 17 counties across the western half of Kentucky from Shelbyville on the east to Paducah and Hickman on the west.