Philadelphia Priest Tapped To Be Ohio Coadjutor
Episcopal News Service. December 16, 1982 [82263]
CLEVELAND (DPS, Dec. 16) -- The Rev. James R. Moodey, rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, has been elected as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio.
Moodey, 50, was elected on the eighth ballot of a special convention held Dec.11. After all the canonical requirements have been fulfilled, he will be consecrated and will be the automatic successor to Bishop John H. Burt when he retires as diocesan.
Although Burt,64, has announced no retirement plans, he asked the diocesan convention in January, 1982, to begin the process of selecting a bishop coadjutor.
Moodey was one of four men nominated by the selection committee after an extensive screening process. Three other priests were nominated from the floor. He won the necessary majority of votes of lay delegates fairly early in the election, but did not gain the clergy majority until the eighth ballot.
A native of New York City, the bishop-elect is a graduate of Hamilton College and the Episcopal Theological School (now the Episcopal Divinity School) in Cambridge, Mass. He served his first cure -- after ordination in 1957 -- as assistant in Christ Church, Cincinnati in the neighboring diocese of Southern Ohio.
He then spent five years in New Castle, Del., before becoming rector of St. Luke's Church in Scranton, Penna. which he served from 1965 until his call to Philadelphia in 1976.
The bishop-elect is very active in urban and church affairs, serving on national and diocesan Episcopal Urban Caucus boards and as a deputy to five General Conventions.
He will take up ministry in a diocese that contains about 112 congregations served by more than 200 clergy in situations that range from extreme wealth to the despair of regions dying of industrial neglect.
Concern for those areas -- and for the traditional inner city areas -- has been a major focus of Burt's 14-year episcopacy. Also active in the Urban Caucus (and in the Urban Bishops Coalition) ,Burt has played a key role in ecumenical efforts to revitalize and bring hope to cities in his diocese that have suffered from steel industry reversals.
Other candidates in the election were: Bishop Otis Charles of Utah; the Rev. Joseph Pelham, director of the diocesan City Mission; and the Rev. John C. Sanders, rector of Christ Church, Shaker Heights in the diocese. The Rev. Ebert Hobbs of the Anglican Church of Canada staff, the Rev. Roderic Pierce of Elyria, Ohio and the Rev. L.F. Stelk were nominated from the floor.