A man drawn to places and situations where contrasts converge has been called to one following a special convention to elect a bishop Nov. 3 in the Diocese of Missouri.

Meeting at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, clergy and lay delegates elected the Rev. G. Wayne Smith on the third ballot. Fr. Smith currently serves as rector of St. Andrew's Church, Des Moines, Iowa. He was notified of his election in Missouri while attending diocesan convention in Iowa.

In his personal profile, prior to the election, Fr. Smith noted that by virtue of geography and demographics, the Diocese of Missouri appealed to him as a place of contrasts: urban and rural, conservative and liberal, Southern and Midwestern. Fr. Smith said his ministry has been enlarged, enriched and challenged by similar experiences of contrast.

A graduate of Nashotah House seminary, Fr. Smith was ordained in 1981 in the Diocese of Northwest Texas, serving first as curate at St. Christopher's in Lubbock and vicar of Church of the Good Shepherd in Brownfield until 1983. He was rector of Emmanuel, Hastings, Mich., from 1983 to 1989, when he moved to Des Moines.

Fr. Smith is expected to arrive in Missouri in January and will be consecrated March 2, pending approval of a majority of standing committees and bishops. He will succeed the Rt. Rev. Hays Rockwell as diocesan when the latter retires June 6.

Others on the ballot were the Rev. Andrew J. MacBeth, rector of Eastern Shore Chapel, Virginia Beach, Va.; the Rt. Rev. Rodney Michel, Bishop Suffragan of Long Island; and the Rev. W. Raymond Webster, Jr., rector of St. Chrysostom's, Chicago.