Big challenges ahead for new boss of Episcopal diocese

Big challenges ahead for new boss of Episcopal diocese
Seattle Times

More than 2,000 people, including a procession of 200 local clergy, are expected at Meydenbauer Center to attend the ordination and consecration of the Rev. Gregory Rickel as the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia.

Rickel, 44, who was most recently rector of a church in Austin, Texas, succeeds Bishop Vincent Warner, who is retiring after 18 years as head of the Episcopal Church in Western Washington.

"This whole thing is nothing you train for or plan for — you can't," Rickel said in an interview earlier this month. "This mantle — it's daunting."

Indeed, beyond the grandeur of the ordination ceremony, there are big challenges ahead for Rickel.

He faces declining membership numbers, a region that is known for being "unchurched," and some ongoing debates over biblical interpretation on issues such as homosexuality that have led to two congregations pulling out of the diocese.

In addition, the diocese's cathedral, St. Mark's, is undergoing some turmoil: Two priests were laid off this year for budget reasons and a third is taking early retirement. And a local priest recently made headlines announcing she was both Christian and Muslim.

On top of it, laypeople and parishioners in the diocese want someone who can reach younger people, who can make parishes in this far-flung geographic diocese feel connected, who knows how to be part of a multicultural church, and who is a good manager in addition to being a good pastoral leader, said the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, co-chair of the bishop-search committee.

"Everybody under age 35" is a priority, said Rickel, who has an 11-year-old son, Austin, with his wife of 23 years, Marti, a psychiatric nurse. "If we can't master or figure out what to do with that age group, the church is dead."

It's a big concern in a diocese where membership has declined from about 38,000 in 1985 to 31,000 in 2005. "We have to change," said Rickel.

Rickel wants to see firsthand the arrangement that has two churches aligned with a conservative Brazilian bishop meeting on properties in Poulsbo and Oak Harbor that the Olympia diocese owns.

"What's on the paper looks great to me," he said. "But I want to know how it's working on the ground. I think the property issue is key."