NEW YORK: Diocesan bishop, suffragan announce future plans
Episcopal News Service. November 15, 2010 [111510-04]
ENS staff
Episcopal Diocese of New York Bishop Mark S. Sisk called Nov. 13 for the election of a bishop coadjutor who will eventually succeed him.
Speaking during the New York diocese's 234th annual convention at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Sisk said the election will take place Oct 29, 2011.
New York Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam also told the convention that she will retire on Jan. 1, 2012.
"The time has come in the life of the diocese to look further along the journey that stretches so promisingly before us, further than I can travel with you," Sisk said.
He told the convention that "in the meanwhile I am not going anywhere."
Sisk served as bishop coadjutor from 1998 until Sept. 29, 2001, when he succeed Bishop Richard F. Grein.
According to the Episcopal Church's constitution (Article II, Sec. 1), a bishop diocesan must retire within three years of the consecration of a bishop coadjutor. The mandatory retirement age for Episcopal clergy is 72. Sisk, 68, would reach that age limit on Aug. 18, 2014.
Roskam will celebrate the 15th anniversary of her consecration in 2011. As bishop suffragan she has oversight of the 66 Episcopal congregations of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties. She has focused on congregational development, clergy care and leadership training; she was also closely involved in the foundation of the Global Women's Defense Fund of the diocese. Roskam has also been a driving force behind Carpenter's Kids, a program of parish-to-parish links with Diocese of Central Tanganyika.