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Meet our Interim Canon to the Ordinary
Meet our Interim Canon to the Ordinary
The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, IX Bishop of Western Massachusetts
The Rev. Steven Wilco has accepted my call to serve as Interim Canon to the Ordinary beginning November 1st.
Steven served as Assistant to the Bishop of the New England Synod ELCA from February 2020 through the end of Bishop Jim Hazelwood’s episcopate. With four years of experience at the judicatory level, Steven has been leading congregations through the process of discernment and call. Among his many contributions to the ministry of the New England Synod, he served as co-chair of the Synod Stewardship Task Force and as a trained facilitator on the Synod Listening & Reconciliation Team. He has worked at the national level on worship planning with the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and the Institute of Liturgical Studies.
Before joining the Bishop’s staff, Steven was Pastor of Immanuel Lutheran, Amherst from 2011 - 2018.
Following, he was Pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church, Windsor, CT. A graduate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary), Steven was ordained by Bishop Margaret Payne on Feb. 5, 2011.
I have known Steven for some time as he and Canon Rich Simpson negotiated clergy calls for our many collaborating congregations. After Pastor Lauren Holm retired, Steven joined our Social Justice Commission. He is faithful and centered, and at ease with the hard questions facing our lay and ordained leaders. I am confident he will be the perfect interim for this critical role in our diocese. Twenty-five years after our branches of the Jesus movement entered full-communion, the Spirit continues to lead us to new and deeper engagement. Steven may be the first Lutheran Interim Canon to the Ordinary in The Episcopal Church. I ask your prayers for him and for his family as they prepare for this new chapter of mission. ♦
