Chicago elects Jeffrey D. Lee as bishop

By Mary Frances Schjonberg and Matthew Davies, November 10, 2007 [Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee was elected November 10 to be the 12th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.

Lee, 50, rector of St. Thomas Church, Medina, Washington, was elected on the second ballot out of a field of eight nominees. He received 203 votes of 345 cast in the lay order and 134 of 241 cast in the clergy order. An election on that ballot required 179 in the lay order and 129 in the clergy order.

The election was held during the diocese's 170th annual convention at the Westin Chicago North Shore Hotel and Conference Center in Wheeling, Illinois.

Lee will succeed Bishop William Persell who is retiring with his wife, Nancy, to Cleveland in December.

Lee was ordained a deacon and priest in the Diocese of Northern Indiana in 1985, after earning the Master of Divinity degree from Nashotah House the same year. He served congregations in Indiana and Wisconsin before coming to St. Thomas in 2000. Lee and his wife, Lisa, are parents to two children.

Under the canons the Episcopal Church (III.16.4 (a)), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to Lee's election and ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving the consent request.

The consecration is due to take place February 2 at the House of Hope, a 10,000 seat multi-purpose entertainment complex in Chicago that was founded by Illinois State Senator and Baptist minister James T. Meeks.

The other nominees were:

• the Rev. Jane S. Gould, 51, rector, St. Stephen's Memorial Episcopal Church, Lynn, Massachusetts;
• the Rev. Alvin C. Johnson Jr., 54, rector of St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Barrington, Illinois;
• the Rev. Canon Robert K. Koomson, 66, pastor-in-residence at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois (in the Chicago diocese) and canon of St. Cyprian's Anglican Cathedral in the Diocese of Kumasi, Ghana;
• the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, 53, dean, Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio;
• the Rev. Margaret R. Rose, 53, director of women's ministries, the Episcopal Church;
• the Very Rev. Petero Sabune, 55, chaplain at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, and associate at Trinity Episcopal Church in Ossining; and
• the Rev. Timothy B. Safford, 48, rector, Christ Church, Philadelphia.

Biographical profiles and the nominees' answers to the search committee's essay questions are posted here.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service. Matthew Davies is editor of Episcopal Life Online.

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