NORTHERN MICHIGAN: Diocese to celebrate Tom Ray's ministry as assisting bishop
Episcopal News Service. October 7, 2009 [100709-01]
ENS staff
Retired Diocese of Northern Michigan Bishop Tom Ray has become the assisting bishop of the diocese.
The diocese will celebrate its relationship with Ray during the diocese's 114th annual diocesan convention October 30-31 when it meets at St. Stephen's Church in Escanaba.
Northern Michigan has been without a bishop since the Rt. Rev. James Kelsey died in June 2007.
On July 27, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori notified the diocesan Standing Committee that the necessary consents to the ordination and consecration of the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester as bishop of the diocese were not received within the prescribed time period and therefore his election was "null and void."
The Standing Committee has said that "the time has come to look to the future. Since it is our practice and our conviction that we always work together in a collaborative manner, our next steps will be the result of our corporate deliberation. We see that the upcoming diocesan convention will play a pivotal role in setting our course, just as the last two conventions have."
On October 31, the convention plans to "celebrate and affirm who we are, reminding ourselves of what we have named as values and characteristics of this diocese" and the standing committee will offer its recommendations for moving into the next bishop election process.
Ray has been providing what the diocesan newspaper called "apostolic sacramental care and wise counsel to the leadership of the diocese" since Kelsey's death. The Standing Committee continues as the ecclesiastical authority in the diocese.