Jones Elected Bishop Coadjutor of Indianapolis
Episcopal News Service. March 31, 1977 [77111]
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The Rev. Edward Witker Jones of Lancaster, Pa., was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis in a special meeting of the diocesan convention at Christ Church Cathedral here on March 26.
Fr. Jones defeated three other candidates -- the Rev. Thomas H. Carson, Jr., Greenville, S. C.; the Rev. Robert D. Gerhard, Terrace Park, Ohio; and the Rev. Richard C. Wyatt, Evansville, Ind. -- on the third ballot, with 82 votes in the lay order (68 needed for election) and 48 in the clerical order (38 needed for election).
Bishop-elect Jones -- if he accepts his election and if he receives the consents of the majority of diocesan bishops and standing committees -- will succeed Bishop John P. Craine, 65, when he retires.
A native of Toledo, Ohio, Fr. Jones, 48, is a graduate of Williams College and Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va. He has been rector of St. James Church, Lancaster, since 1971. He was ordained a deacon in 1954 and a priest in 1955.
Bishop-elect Jones was assistant at Grace Church, Sandusky, Ohio, and rector of Christ Church, Oberlin, Ohio, before going to St. Luke's in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. He has also been lecturer in homiletics at Oberlin and at Bexley Hall, as well as chaplain at Oberlin. He was executive assistant to the Bishop of Ohio and the long range planning officer of that diocese.
He was deputy to the General Convention in 1973 and 1976.
He married Martha Anne Shelburne in 1963 and they have three children.