The Rt. Rev. Richard F. Grein, 14th Bishop of New York, announced Jan. 4 that he will retire June 30.

Since 1988, Bishop Grein has served as chief pastor and leader of a diocese that includes more than 200 congregations in an area that includes three of the five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island) and seven counties.

Throughout his episcopacy, Bishop Grein has demonstrated strong support for women's ministries, especially in nurturing leadership capabilities. Of the 88 women priests serving in the diocese when Bishop Grein arrived in 1989, only seven held leadership positions; today that number has swelled to 34 women priests-in-charge of congregations with more than 120 women priests serving in the diocese.

Bishop Grein is also credited with the formation of another innovative arm of the diocese, the Congregational Support Plan, and with establishing a diocesan endowment. When he became bishop, the diocese had no endowment. Today, the endowment is nearly $10 million and the net worth of the diocese (not including congregations) is $36 million, six times the $6 million amount in 1989.

Prior to his election as Bishop of New York, Bishop Grein served as Bishop of Kansas for eight years. From his ordination to the priesthood in 1959, Bishop Grein served in many missions and parishes in the Midwest and was a professor of pastoral theology at Nashotah House, 1973-1974.

The Rt. Rev. Mark S. Sisk, bishop coadjutor, will assume the leadership of the diocese following Bishop Grein's retirement. The date for the installation will be announced at a later date.

Bishop Sisk was elected coadjutor in 1998. Prior to that he was president and dean of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.