The four were: the Rt. Rev. David Reed (Class of 1983), bishop suffragan of the Diocese of West Texas; the Rt. Rev. Todd Ousley (Class of 1991), bishop of the Diocese of Eastern Michigan; the Rt. Rev. Dena Harrison (Class of 1987), bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Texas; and the Rt. Rev. Gregory Rickel (Class of 1996), bishop of the Diocese of Olympia (Washington).

The Rt. Rev. Gary Lillibridge, bishop of the Diocese of West Texas, preached the service’s sermon. He was recently named a member of the Windsor Continuation Group by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams -- the only American to be included in the panel.

Reed was born in Brownsville, Texas, on March 9, 1957, to William Wesley Reed, Jr. and the late Olive Helen Polley Reed. The third of six children, he was baptized and confirmed at Church of the Advent, Brownsville. He attended elementary school at the Episcopal Day School and graduated from Homer Hanna High School in 1975.

He earned a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1978, and taught school for two years before going to seminary.

Reed graduated from the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin in 1983 with a Master of Divinity degree, and ordained to the diaconate in 1983 and to the priesthood in 1984. He served as assistant rector at St. Alban’s Church, Harlingen, from 1983 to 1987. He was called to be rector of St. Francis Church, Victoria, in 1987, serving there through 1994. He returned to St. Alban’s near the end of 1994, serving as rector until his election as bishop suffragan in 2006.

Reed was married to Patricia Ann (Patti) Kopec in 1988. They have two children.

Ousley became bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan in 2006 and diocesan bishop on January 1, 2007. When elected, he was serving as missioner for Congregational Development and Clergy Deployment for the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan.

Prior to joining the staff of the Diocese of Eastern Michigan, he served in the Diocese of Texas as rector and headmaster of St. Francis Church & School in Temple, Texas; rector and headmaster of Holy Comforter Parish and School in Angleton, Texas; and assistant to the rector at Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, Texas.

A native Texan, Ousley graduated from Baylor University with a degree in business, and earned a Master’s degree in educational psychology at Texas A&M University and a Master of Divinity degree at Seminary of the Southwest. In addition, he earned a Doctor of Ministry in congregational development from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

He has served two terms as trustee for ETSS; as vocational faculty for CREDO, a lay and clergy wellness initiative; and as a member of the Episcopal Transitions Project, a task force charged with revision of the process for diocesan transitions and bishop elections.

Todd and Ann Schumann-Ousley, former director of development at ETSS, are the parents of three sons.

Born in Lufkin, Texas, and reared in Orange, Harrison attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a Bachelor’s degree in business administration. She married Larry Harrison in 1967 and raised a son and a daughter while living in Houston and Austin. They now have four grandchildren: two in San Antonio, and two in Dallas.

After receiving her Master of Divinity degree from the ETSS in 1987, Harrison served as assistant rector at All Saints’ Church, Austin, and as rector of St. James’ Church, La Grange, and St. James the Apostle Church, Conroe. She served the Diocese of Texas as canon to the ordinary from 2000-2003 and as archdeacon and canon for ministry from 2003 until her election as bishop suffragan.

Harrison also served as a deputy to General Convention and as a member of the division of Christian education, the executive board, the standing committee, and the mission funding committee. In addition, she has served as a trustee of the Bishop Quin Foundation and St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities and is currently a trustee of St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital System and of ETSS, where she chairs the search committee for the dean and president position.

Rickel served as rector of St. James’ Church, Austin, “an inclusive, multicultural community,” from 2001 until his election as bishop of Olympia in 2007. His ministry emphasizes youth and young adults, congregational development, stewardship of resources and improving communication and interconnectedness throughout the diocese, both inside and outside the church.

An ardent environmentalist, Rickel is a trained presenter for the Climate Project, and was the Episcopal representative to the Earth Charter discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, in the late 1990s. A consultant for the Stewardship Office of the Episcopal Church Center in New York since 1997, Rickel has worked with Episcopal groups and other denominations in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Michigan, Oregon and Kentucky on topics such as initiating comprehensive stewardship programs, working better as a team, diversity, communications and evangelism.

While in Austin, Rickel chaired both the board of trustees of St. James’ Episcopal School and the Seton Clinical Pastoral Education Advisory Committee, and was a member of the board of trustees of the Quin Foundation Board and the People’s Clinic. He currently serves on ETSS’s board of trustees. He is a past member of the Episcopal Church’s Budgetary Funding Task Force and is active in the work of the Ecumenical Stewardship Center.

Rickel received his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1984. He earned a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration in 1987 and a Master of Arts degree in interpersonal and organizational communication in 1993, both from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 1996 he received a Master of Divinity from ETSS and in 2001 a Doctor of Ministry from the University of the South School of Theology in Sewanee, Tennessee.

Rickel and his wife, Marti, have been married for 23 years and have an 11-year old son.