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Hopkins to Take Pastoral Office

Episcopal News Service. March 31, 1988 [88062]

David Skidmore

FARGO, N. Dak. (DPS, Mar. 31) -- The Rt. Rev. Harold A. Hopkins, Jr., bishop of the Diocese of North Dakota, has accepted Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning's offer to become executive director of the Office of Pastoral Development. Hopkins, 57, will succeed retiring Bishop David E. Richards who has held the office since its creation in 1969. Hopkins' resignation is to be effective Oct. 31, pending approval by the House of Bishops. He will begin his new duties Jan. 1.

In a March 11 letter to North Dakota diocesan clergy and lay leaders, Hopkins said he was "both excited and humbled" by the opportunity to work on the staff of the Presiding Bishop.

Before accepting the appointment, he carefully considered the impact of his resignation on the operations of the 2,372-member diocese. Among the factors supporting his decision, said Hopkins, were the diocese's strong clerical and lay leadership, financial stability, and completion of a three-year diocesan planning study.

"There is a very real sense in which virtually everything now happening can continue on its own momentum without the risk of collapse or reversal," he said in his letter.

"We see this happening over and over again in our congregations during a time of change in clerical leadership. The same is true for a diocese that is as blessed as this one is in its human resources."

Hopkins first received word of his selection in a phone call from the Presiding Bishop Feb. 1. On Feb. 18 Hopkins and his wife flew to Miami to meet with the Presiding Bishop. They discussed Browning's expectations for the position, a recent revision of the job description and salary, and office location, he said.

At the end of the month Hopkins wrote to Browning, formally accepting the appointment. On March 3 Browning sent a letter to the Standing Committee informing them of Hopkins' selection.

Browning praised Hopkins for "his pastoral integrity, compassion, quiet and resolute leadership, good humor and his deep sense of the ministry of our Church..."

Hopkins was elected the ninth bishop of the Diocese of North Dakota in October 1979 and was consecrated bishop the following February. Prior to his election he served ten years as assistant to the bishop of the Diocese of Maine. During the 1960's he was rector of churches in Millinocket and Bar Harbor, Maine.

He is currently the president of Province VI which covers the northern plains states and Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. He is also a member of the Church's Standing Commission on the Church in Small Communities and the Presiding Bishop's Commission on Indian Affairs.

In North Dakota he is president of the Fargo-Moorhead Ecumenical Indian Ministry and a member of the North Dakota Conference of Churches.

As director of the Office of Pastoral Development, Hopkins will provide career and crisis counseling to clergy and their spouses referred to him by diocesan bishops. He will also assist dioceses which are preparing for the election of a new bishop and will help new bishops as they adjust to their new ministries.

His duties aimed specifically at bishops include establishing peer consultation partnerships and assisting with continuing education and retirement planning. He will also be assigned research projects and consultations by the Presiding Bishop.

Hopkins plans to set up his office in Minneapolis. He chose the Twin Cities area, he said, because of its central location, the variety of available medical and social services, and the vitality of the local Episcopal Church.

In fact, he added, the office has been physically separated from the Church Center since the pastoral development post was created.

"The office has always been located separately from the national church because of the nature of the ministry that's exercised from it. There's a fair amount of confidentiality that's necessary."

During his remaining months as bishop, Hopkins said he wants to focus his energies on assisting congregations to fill clerical and lay leadership vacancies and on putting into play the recommendations from the diocesan self-study. One of the recommendations calls for an evaluation and job description of the office of bishop. Hopkins ranks that high on his priority list as the data will be used in the search for his successor.

Though assisting dioceses searching for bishops is a significant part of his new job, Hopkins said he will not be directly involved in the North Dakota search. That role will be filled by Richards, who will be meeting with the standing committee April 14.

In his nine years as bishop of the diocese, Hopkins has emphasized the need for a more comprehensive view of ministry, one in which lay members take greater responsibility for ministry in the diocese. The success of his policy is evident in the expansion of the Bishop's Academy for the Development of Ministry from a handful of members to over 30 now, in the revitalization of the diocesan youth program, in the call of local church members to the diaconate or priesthood and in the growth of the lay-led regional councils.