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Thompson Elected Bishop on First Ballot

Episcopal News Service. June 23, 1988 [88134]

Mike Barwell, Director of Communications, Diocese of Southern Ohio

CINCINNATI (DPS, June 23) -- The Rev. Canon Herbert Thompson, Jr., was elected Bishop Coadjutor of Southern Ohio on the first ballot on June 11, in Christ Church, Cincinnati, amidst thunderous applause and cheers.

He will become the eighth bishop of Southern Ohio. Diocesan Bishop William G. Black has announced his intention to retire at the mandatory age of 72 in April 1992. Thompson will be the first black bishop of Southern Ohio and one of six currently seated black bishops in the United States and the Virgin Islands.

Bishop-elect Thompson, currently rector of Grace Church, Jamaica, N.Y., was the clear front-runner of the four candidates. Delegates from throughout the diocese cited Thompson's maturity, spiritual depth and pastoral concern as the main reasons for his election.

The other candidates were the Rev. Walter H. Taylor, rector of St. Luke's, Darien, Conn.; the Rev. Almus M. Thorp, Jr., of Christ Church, Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; and the Rev. Franklin Turner, assistant to the bishop for congregations in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

Of the 117 clergy and 297 lay delegates, Thompson received 78 clergy and 167 lay votes on the first ballot. A simple majority of 59 clergy and 149 lay votes was needed to elect on the same ballot.

Taylor received 16 clergy and 56 lay votes; Thorp received 17 clergy and 50 lay votes; and Turner, who is a candidate Suffragan Bishop of Pennsylvania, received six clergy and 24 lay votes.

Thompson will be consecrated bishop coadjutor on Sept. 24 in Cincinnati. Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning will be the principal consecrator. "We hope to have him settled here by Labor Day, prior to the Consecration," said the Rev. James Hanisisian, chairman of the Standing Committee.

Thompson is a graduate of Lincoln University, cum laude, and the General Theological Seminary. He also had done graduate studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in comparative literature, and at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1965 and was made an honorary canon of the Diocese of Long Island in 1985. He serves as a trustee of the diocese and is president of the Standing Committee. He is also member of the Racial Audit Committee and the Partners in Mission Commission.

On the national level, Thompson has been a deputy to provincial synod for the past three years, was a deputy to General Convention in 1985, and is a deputy and will be chaplain to the House of Deputies at the 1988 General Convention in Detroit. He has been a reader of General Ordination Examinations and a member of the Presiding Bishop's Commission on Black Ministries and the Coalition for Human Needs. He serves on the Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements for the General Convention and on the Council of Advice to the President of the House of Deputies.

His 1,600-member parish is involved in a number of social action ministries, including operating a shelter for homeless men, tutorial programs and three programs that feed needy families and individuals. Last year the parish received a $4.5 million federal Housing and Urban Development grant to build housing for elderly and handicapped persons. The predominantly black parish currently is sponsoring four persons to the ordained ministry.

Thompson and his wife, Russelle, have been married for 20 years and are the parents of three children: Herbert, 18, a pre-med student; Owen, 17, who aspires to the priesthood; and a daughter, Kyrie, age 9.