The Rev. Paul V. Marshall was consecrated eighth bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem, in a three-hour service June 29 at St. Stephen' Church, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. More than 1,100 people representing 67 congregations participated.

Principal consecrator was the Rt. Rev. Robert D. Rowley, Jr., Bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania, who had served on the diocesan staff in Bethlehem staff in the 1980s.

Co-consecrators were the Rt. Rev. J. Mark Dyer, seventh bishop of Bethlehem and now professor at Virginia Theological Seminary; the Rt. Rev. Lloyd E. Gressle, sixth Bishop of Bethlehem, retired; the Rt. Rev. Andrew D. Smith, Bishop Suffragan, Diocese of Connecticut; and the Most Rev. Walton Empey, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland. For the past five years, the Diocese of Meath and Kildare has been in partnership with Bethlehem.

The new bishop is a former Lutheran pastor, and Bishop Harold Weiss of the Northeast Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America joined in the laying on of hands.

Concelebrants included the Rt. Rev. Walter Righter, retired Bishop of Iowa, and the Rt. Rev. Franklin D. Turner, Suffragan Bishop of Pennsylvania. The Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam, Suffragan Bishop of New York, preached.

Following the service, Bishop Marshall presented his wife, Diana, an attorney and registered nurse, and his children, Nicholas and Hilary, to the congregation.

Bishop Marshall had been acting director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, as well as professor at Yale Divinity School. Service music, under the direction of Mark Laubach, included an anthem commissioned by Bishop Marshall, How Shall I Repay the Lord?, composed by Robert Sirota.

An overflow crowd viewed the ceremony via closed-circuit video on a large screen set up in the parish hall.

The new bishop intends to visit each of the 67 congregations of the diocese at least annually. "One of the chief roles of a bishop ... is to be present, to be with God's people, and to lead them in acknowledging and following Jesus Christ," he said.