Bishop Search 2025
The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts
Collect for the Discernment & Election of Our Next Bishop
Gracious God, we give you thanks for the ministry we share in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. In this season of discernment, we ask your blessing and the guidance of your Holy Spirit as we prepare to call our next Bishop. Guide us in this important work, that your mission may be furthered, and your Gospel proclaimed. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Letter from the Search Committee
Dear Sibling in Christ,
Our hope in putting together this profile is that we can share who we are and how we sense God is leading us at this time. We pray that we can be honest and transparent in our articulation, believing that discernment is best based on realities, rather than solely on aspirations. If we can be selfreflective and honest about who we are and you can be self-reflective and honest about who you are, then together we can discern God’s call.
Over Bishop Fisher’s tenure we have been grown into a diocese that is not afraid of things, that experiments, and that is creative and deeply committed to social justice. As we look to our future, we hope to build on these strengths, undergirding them with the adaptive and strategic thinking and skills that can lead us to continued success in our ministry.
Our diocese is both known as a place where the clergy are connected and collegial, and at the same time a place where many of our parishioners report feeling “distant” from other churches, disconnection between the corridors, and disconnection from the diocesan staff. Our churches each have their own personality, and we are bound together by the fact that every one of our churches is known in their local community for Jesus’ ministry of justice and mercy.
In this profile you will journey through our history with us, as we believe it is important to explore our past in order to understand our present and live into our future. We will share with you who we are today, sharing some of the ministries we are committed to as a diocese. Building on who we are today, we will move into our shared vision for the future, looking honestly at our strengths and weaknesses and listening to how the Spirit is leading us. And finally, we have done our best to articulate qualities and skills for the leader we are seeking, with open hearts and minds to how we are all being led.
This profile was put together by our Search Committee, which is made up of twelve people, six lay and six clergy, from across our diocese. We conducted more than 20 listening sessions with laypeople and clergy, and we heard from an additional 50 people through an online survey. We also ensured that there were sessions in both English and Spanish and that all of our materials were likewise presented bilingually. While the Listening Subcommittee sought input from all areas and
demographics of our diocese, we paid special attention to those who have been historically marginalized within these conversations in order to more clearly hear the voice of God through a diverse group of people.
Our prayer is that you join us in a process of discernment, prayerfully engaging with the words and stories we have gathered here, as we together discover who is called to be our 10th bishop.
With prayerful hope,
The Search Committee, on behalf of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts
Understanding Our Past
When the North American and European continental plates collided around 360 million years ago, the core landscape of our diocese—the Connecticut River Valley—began forming. Over the next several million years, erosion, volcanoes, and ice ages slowly changed the shape of the mountains. Pocumtuc tradition describes how a giant beaver helped create Lake Hitchcock, a temporary blockage of the Connecticut River caused by accumulation of glacial ice melt, possibly representing the action of retreating glaciers approximately 14,000-15,000 years ago. Ktsi Amiskw (Mount Sugarloaf), standing watch in South Deerfield over the Connecticut River as it winds through the center of our diocese, symbolizes the remains of the Great Beaver.
Western Massachusetts has a rich history of Native American presence, particularly along the fertile soils of the Connecticut River Valley. As the glaciers scraped and retreated across the landscape, the first Indigenous inhabitants of what settler-colonists would later name the Commonwealth of Massachusetts migrated into the area. Around 1000 CE, the Indigenous descendants of these first peoples began organizing into more recent tribes. Before English colonists began the violent and extractive process of settler colonialism, these Algonkian-speaking communities called this region home, including the Agawam (low-lying marshy lands), Woronco (river or lands that are “turning about”), Nonotuck (the midst of the river), Pocumtuc (narrow swift stream), and Sokoki (south or the broken away land). These Indigenous peoples developed practices that engaged with and transformed local ecosystems, including seasonal hunting, fishing, and agriculture.
Understanding Our Past
The first European settlercolonists to reach Western Massachusetts were English Puritans, who traveled to the Connecticut River Valley in the 1630s. In 1634, a plague likely induced by settler-colonists, probably smallpox, reduced the Native American population to a small percentage of its previous size. English settler-colonists seized Indigenous peoples’ land through various methods, including fraudulent purchases, debt, and disease.
With the active removal of Indigenous peoples came the expansion of settler-colonial society into Western Massachusetts over the next century. The Anglican Church was active in the region long before the official Diocese of Massachusetts was founded. Anglican parishes began to organize into dioceses after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the parishes within Massachusetts were at that time part of the Diocese of Connecticut. In 1784, the Diocese of Massachusetts came into being.
In 1901, the expansive Diocese of Massachusetts voted to divide its area, thus creating the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. The Rev. Alexander Hamilton Vinton, the rector of All Saints Church in Worcester, MA, was elected to serve as our first bishop. Bishop William Lawrence led the Diocese of Massachusetts at the time of the division, and Mr. Francis Hunnewell chaired the fundraising committee appointed by Bishop Lawrence to raise $100,000 in initial funds for the new western diocese.
Generations of elite Massachusetts families’ accumulated resources made our original endowment possible, resources that benefited from the United States’ institution of slavery and a later shift to industries such as railroading and copper mining after emancipation.
The enslavement and brutal labor forced upon Africans and people of African descent not only provided political and social power and direct financial gain to antebellum plantation society, but also led to increased power and money for certain socioeconomic segments of Northern states, thereby commodifying Black bodies across the country. Even though the North’s efforts in the Civil War aided in the abolition of slavery in 1865, Northern textile mills used cotton picked by enslaved hands, and the revenue generated by them and other slavery-connected Northern industries enriched the elite families that helped establish endowments of Northern colleges, universities, parishes, and dioceses.
Understanding Our Past
In 1929 Christ Church in Springfield became our diocesan cathedral. The diocese began increasing its missions and parishes, staying resilient while simultaneously adapting to the dynamic changes and tumultuous events that ensued in the 20th century, including World War I, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War.
In 1976, the General Convention approved the ordination of women to the priesthood. The Rev. Noreen Suriner was the first woman to be ordained in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts in March of 1977 at age 29. In February of 1978, the Rev. Susan Crampton was ordained as priest at Grace Church, Amherst, before becoming the first female rector called in our diocese, serving at St. John’s, Ashfield.
We have been graced by the leadership of many bishops throughout our history, which you can read about in detail online at this link: Our History. In more recent years, we remember the shift in the diocese when Bishop Robert Denig was elected in 1993 and there was excitement around taking the church in a more expansive and progressive direction. In particular, he wanted youth to participate in ministry, churches to be “safe,” and to increase the diocese’s Hispanic ministry. Bishop Denig’s episcopate was cut short due to his unexpected death from brain cancer in 1995.
In a diocese reeling from Bishop Denig’s sudden death and struggling from the lack of leadership during the unexpected transition, Bishop Gordon Scruton was elected from the floor of Diocesan Convention. Though there was a solid slate of candidates, the delegates felt moved to elect someone from within the diocese who was known and trusted to shepherd them through this difficult time.
Understanding Our Past
Bishop Scruton brought his faith and commitment to prayer to the office and led the diocese through a process of healing as well as greater administrative health. He was committed to implementing Safe Church practices in our diocese and bringing accountability and healing where there were abuses of power. During this time we also experienced fractures in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion over the topic of human sexuality. We worked our way through theological differences with hard work, dialogue, and prayer.
During this time there was a focus on parish renewal, and new canons were developed that were aimed at providing some structure in parish interventions. New churches were planted, such as Southwick Community Episcopal, and when continued ministry was no longer viable, such as for Camp Bement, Bishop Scruton helped lead through the endings of ministries.
As Bishop Scruton prepared to retire in 2012, members of our diocese were eager to begin addressing ways the church needed to change to meet our changing and shifting landscape; to address social justice issues; to be creative, resourceful, and try new things; to diversify the clergy; and to approach our work together as a team of clergy, laity, and bishop.
Bishop Douglas Fisher was welcomed as our 9th bishop in 2012 and has provided forward-looking and steady leadership to our diocese over his tenure. He has led us to open our hearts and our churches to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with [y]our God” (Micah 6:8). He has helped us embrace hope and justice, from one of his first acts as bishop in codifying the ability for clergy and churches to bless same-sex unions, to encouraging the starting and supporting of numerous ministries reaching out to those in need in our communities. With the direction of Bishop Fisher, we have planted and nurtured many seeds, developed ministries, and co-partnered with other denominations to live in love to address global, cultural, and societal issues we believe we are called to change by the Holy Spirit. You can learn more about Bishop Fisher’s ministry here.
In the last decade we have joined with the Episcopal Church as a whole to look at our history and particularly the strands where the church and the oppression of people are intertwined. Many of our congregations began participating in Sacred Ground circles when they were first created. During that time, the Beloved Community Commission was born out of our Social Justice Commission in order to guide the diocese in the work of racial justice, reconciliation, and repair.
Understanding Our Past
On January 25, 2020, the commissions and the bishop’s office hosted the first of what would become a yearly event titled “Bending Towards Justice” to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Speakers and workshops focused on various aspects of justice and brought people from across the diocese together to learn and activate. A number of initiatives grew out of these gatherings, such as a diocesan resolution that led to a subsequent study on reparations that was presented to the Diocesan Convention in 2024. This research has helped us to tell a truer story of our relationship to the slave economy. This resolution also lays the foundation for individual parishes to engage in the work of reparations and sets the stage for the continued work of the diocese on this same topic.
In focusing on building connection and collaboration with our siblings in Christ in the Diocese of Massachusetts, there are a number of ways that we are reckoning with our past for the sake of our collective future. One such example of our shared commitment to recognizing and learning from the past is the Province I Indigenous Peoples Justice Network, with both dioceses in the Commonwealth rotating leadership for a shared annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day event since 2022. Over the course of the past decade, we have been learning together and discovering how we are being called to shape the next season of our shared history.
As the church at large is changing, we have been changing with it. Bishop Fisher and his team have led some of our smaller congregations through mergers, consolidation, and other forms of cooperative collaboration over the years. Instead of merely lamenting the areas of the church that are shrinking and changing, we have found ways to look for what is there and come together to see and share God’s blessings with others. One of Bishop Fisher’s favorite biblical stories is that of Jesus and the loaves and fishes. It reminds us of how God is providing, and how often that provision is right there in front of us, if we all pitch in and share together. We are in this together, and with God’s blessing and one another, anything is possible.
Understanding Our Past
In 2020, with the whole world, we began adapting ministry to the constraints of a global pandemic. Diocesan guidelines were helpful in the early days, and as the world reopened, individual congregations moved forward judiciously and with the common good in mind. Bishop Fisher led us with a calm and pastoral presence through this impossible time and we found opportunities to come together more collectively (through Zoom!), strengthening our bonds and collaboration within our deaneries and finding creative ways to share resources and care with one another and our broader community.
As we move into the endemic phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and the social tumult in our nation and world continues, we are grateful for our diocese as we care for one another and are encouraged to deepen our spiritual lives and to go out into the world and build relationships with our neighborhood. If any one of our churches were to close today, their local community would feel the loss as a result of how mission- and justice-oriented we have become. As we look toward our future and the discerning of who will lead us into our next season, we first look back and give thanks to all who have come before and how we have been, and continue to be, formed by their faithful leadership.
Who We Are Today
We are blessed to follow Jesus’ mission of mercy, compassion, and hope in this beautiful part of the Commonwealth. Our diocese starts just west of the Boston suburbs and encompasses central and western Massachusetts as it stretches to the New York border. (To learn more about our region: livewesternmass.com) We are 50 congregations and community-based ministries serving God’s people in three corridors: Worcester County, the Pioneer Valley, and the Berkshires. Our diocese is further delineated through our five deaneries, with clericus groups within our deaneries that regularly gather for connection and collaboration, as does our Community of Deacons. We have a mixture of small, medium, and larger parishes, both rural and urban. Our churches are experiencing the same joys and challenges of churches across the denomination.
Who We Are Today
We could go on for pages about all our different parishes and the ministry they are doing. Instead, we are going to highlight a few...
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church - Historically Black Church
St. Peter’s in Springfield is a multiracial and multicultural congregation that worships in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. The community seeks to embody and witness to our shared belief in the dignity of all human beings through their rich outreach programs, including Girls’ Friendly Society, which organizes fundraising and outreach ministries such as Toiletries for Homeless; Mothers’ Union, who organize special events and activities that foster community, including their presence at the Annual Caribbean Festival each year; and the Bishop’s Charter of Daughters of the King, which comprises women from nearby parishes. These members have made vows of prayer, service, and evangelism, and carry out their vows with individual daily prayer, regular meetings, and service projects.
Ministerios Hispanos / Latino/Hispanic Ministries
Over the last decade our Ministerios Hispanos, or Latino/Hispanic ministries, have grown leaps and bounds. Our Misionero para Ministerios Latinos/Hispanos has led our diocese through the process of planting and strengthening three new communities, each being led by committed Latino clergy and lay leaders. Most recently, the former Misionero has been called to serve as the new Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, and the Misionero position will continue under new leadership. The Latino community in Worcester found a home at St. Mark’s and the community became one, St. Mark’s / San Marcos. This “marriage made in heaven”, as one parishioner put it, has brought a breath of fresh air and new energy to the community, allowing them to more thoroughly engage in outreach ministries in
the neighborhood. The Hispanic community at St. Paul’s in Holyoke has and continues to breathe new life into the parish and the Holyoke community and strengthen neighborhood connections. The parish has grown and added an additional Sunday evening Misa en Español and hosts a Hispanic Heritage festival each year that is beloved by the community.
Who We Are Today
Outdoor Worshipping Communities
Our diocese has a strong record of meeting the most vulnerable in our communities in a variety of outdoor worship services and gatherings. In our diocese there are four outdoor ministries that regularly gather, and others that our congregations engage with and support. Like traditional congregations, each one of these ministries has unique ways of being, while the core tenet remains: to be present and come alongside those who are experiencing homelessness or find themselves on the margins of society. These communities meet basic needs and provide vital companionship to many who lack other networks of support. Shared ecumenically, these ministries embody the very best of what it looks like when we honor the dignity of every human being and love our neighbors as One Body. Weekly embodiments of our churches’ public witness, they proclaim a theology of love, radical welcome, and grace that all passersby can hear.
Lutheran/ Episcopal Churches
Three of our churches are combined Lutheran/Episcopal Churches, and we are grateful for the growing mutuality between our denominations. We also regularly partner with the United Church of Christ (UCC) churches and Interfaith Councils in our communities. One such example is Christ Trinity, an Episcopal and Lutheran worshipping congregation in Sheffield, which partners with the local UCC church to offer an Appalachian Trail ministry. Their rector also serves as the Officer for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for our diocese.
Who We Are Today
Saints James and Andrew Greenfield
The Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew is located in Greenfield, MA. We are a faith community that strives to provide physical, intellectual, and spiritual nourishment to our members and to our surrounding community. Jesus is our model for a life of faith, compassion, hospitality, and service.
St. Stephen’s Westborough
St. Stephen’s is a loving, caring community currently in collaboration with a neighboring parish in the Diocese of Massachusetts. We have a strong outreach program, operate an onsite thrift shop, and are strong supporters of the local food pantry. Our liturgy is important to us and is reinforced by strong, inspiring clergy leadership, a faithful choir, and regular scripture study. We are slowly growing in Sunday attendance as we encourage others to “Walk with Christ and share the journey.”
St. Phillip’s Easthampton
In the last three years, as a sign of post-Covid resilience, St. Philip’s, Easthampton, has broken through its history of simply surviving to enter into a capacity for “new life”. The challenge of this transition requires learning how to move beyond the habit of “surviving” to accept the invitation and responsibilities to “thrive.”
Christ Trinity Sheffield
Christ Trinity is a Lutherpalian congregation that takes the gospel, kindness, compassion, and service very seriously even while taking ourselves not so seriously at all. We plant “corners of kindness” in creative and often unexpected places. We laugh easily, embrace joy, and deeply care for one another and our neighbors.
Who We Are Today
Ministries of our Diocese
Commission on Ministry
The Commission on Ministry (COM) is made up of deacons, priests, and laity. They assist the bishop in determining present and future needs for ministry in the diocese and in enlisting and selecting persons for Holy Orders. COM interviews people who are feeling called to a specific ministry. Each member is assigned as a shepherd to a person as they make their way through the discernment process, offering prayer and encouragement and answering any questions that may arise. The COM also affirms lay ministries and offers resources for training purposes.
Loving the Questions Discernment Experience
Loving the Questions discernment experience is one of our primary tools for helping people in discernment, and is now being utilized by some of our neighboring dioceses. This is a community of contemplation and discernment that honors the Spirit’s unique call from God to each person. Each year new gatherings come together and learn to prayerfully listen to God in the presence of and through community, gain clarity about our unique calling and gifts, and identify support in terms of people and tools necessary for fulfilling our calling. For those discerning Holy Orders, an additional 4-5 meetings are held with the diocesan sponsored discernment group.
Community of Deacons
One of Bishop Fisher’s commitments was to grow the diaconal ministry in our diocese, and that has happened in powerful and beautiful ways. The Community of Deacons is a group of prayerful, Spiritled, hard-working people answering God’s call to a ministry of service. We now have 15 vocational deacons, including an archdeacon. Our deacons serve in a variety of ministries, such as: outdoor churches, mental health, suicide prevention, daily online reflections, Laundry Love, ministry to people without housing, refugee resettlement, drop-in centers for the housing-insecure, hospice chaplaincy, leading Spanish worship, feeding the hungry, LGBTQ+ youth, prison ministry, and more.
We have an annual “Deacon Crawl” Sunday where each deacon visits a different church than their usual one. Special attention is given to parishes that don’t have a deacon or who haven’t had a deacon in a long time. With the invitation of the priest, they preach or lead an adult formation session explaining the diaconate.
Who We Are Today
The Province I School for Deacons educates and forms deacons in New England. It is a robust twoyear program led by a priest and a deacon. Much of the study is online with professors who are experts in their field, with four in-person weekends each year. When asked what the best parts of the school are, students answered, “high-quality professors,” as well as the community connections that are formed, which last a lifetime.
Young Adult & Campus Ministry
Our diocese has an active and committed Young Adult Ministry Network. This ministry is a collaboration of young adults aged 18-40 and those who minister alongside them. Members gather regularly to build community through prayer, board games, day trips, and an annual Lenten retreat day.
All Saints’ in South Hadley sponsors an Episcopal Service Corps experience, the Lawrence House Service Corps. This faith-based residential internship program for young adults aged 21-31 is an intentional, progressive Christian community. Interns are assigned placements working with inner-city youth, addressing housing insecurity, ministering in an interfaith campus context, supporting immigrants seeking sanctuary, and more.
With approximately 30 colleges and universities within the diocese, there is a strong desire from many young Episcopalians and parishes to engage more fully in campus ministry. There are a few parishes engaging with neighboring schools, but there is not currently a focused effort at the diocesan level.
Who We Are Today
Liturgical Commission
This commission seeks to bring inclusive and expansive language into our liturgy, giving special attention to racial reconciliation, creation care, and other areas of opportunity for theological inclusivity and expansiveness. The commission hopes to inform and provide worship leaders with the most current materials available and authorized for use through a quarterly publication. They equip congregational leaders to engage more fully with the liturgical tradition of our church, such as through their recent Morning Prayer and Lay Preacher trainings.
Passion for Mission: Fruits of our Holy Experiments
In the profile for our last bishop search, we wrote that we wanted “a bishop who is willing to attempt 50 new goals and fail at every one of them, rather than attempt nothing.” During Bishop Fisher’s leadership over the past decade, he has taken that charge very seriously. And while inevitably some of these experiments did not come to fruition, our diocese is filled with committed people doing ministry in a variety of ways. Many of these ministries fall under the umbrella of our Social Justice Commission. Our congregations have gathered together in various configurations and summits to address their own unique concerns, such as Small Church Summit and Big Buildings, Big Questions, to name a couple. During the last twelve years, we have deepened ministries that were already in place, while also planting and expanding many more. Here are some that we think it’s important for you to know about as you discern a call to a life in our diocese.
Our Social Justice Commission brings people together from across our diocese to follow Jesus’ call to discipleship and to live into our baptismal promise. The Social Justice Commission strives, with our congregations, to create new ways to heal injustice, challenge violence, pursue peace, and care for creation. Through a monthly communication which delivers resources and opportunities for advocacy, resources are made available for all to learn and become involved in some way. In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and in keeping with our baptismal covenant, we join with others to study, speak up, stand up, and show up in order to bring the Beloved Community closer to realization in our time and place. Recently our Beloved Community Commission reconvened under the umbrella of the Social Justice Commission to continue the vital work of racial justice and reconciliation.
Who We Are Today
Creation Care
Our diocese has passionately pursued God’s call for creation care and climate justice. Leaders within our diocese created Season of Creation - A Guide for Episcopal Parishes, which has since been authorized for use in over 50 dioceses. An Episcopal Path to Creation Justice began in our diocese and is now a ministry of Province I. Many parishes have Green Teams who lead environmental efforts at the local level and have started Good News Gardens collaborations in outdoor spaces.
Ending Gun Violence
Bishop Fisher has been a passionate voice against the public health crisis of gun violence both within our diocese and in the wider church as a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence. We have come together to demonstrate at local gun manufacturers, hosted Swords to Plowshares events that turn guns into garden tools, and engaged in education and witness in a variety of ways. Some of our congregations have given witness through liturgy and prayer, including Trinity, Lenox, which has been holding a monthly Requiem for Victims of Gun Violence since 2019.
Who We Are Today
Human to Human
In response to the desire to address direct ministries of mercy on the ground, in 2019 we launched Human to Human as a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts. This organization is committed to resourcing emerging frontline ministries within and beyond the walls of our churches. This organization supports a number of diocesan efforts, such as our prison chaplaincy program, Building Bridges, Laundry Love, Lydia’s Closet, and Marie’s Mission.
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention are growing concerns within our culture, and we have been working on ways for the church to be active in addressing these needs. Bishop Fisher appointed a short-term commission that gathered resources, spread awareness of mental health and substance abuse support, established liturgy to encourage mental health awareness, and laid the foundation for future work. Our diocese is also increasing the number of our clergy and lay people who are trained in mental health first aid and are committed to continuing in the work of wellbeing for all.
Music
Music is a major cornerstone for worship, community, and experiencing the Holy Spirit. Music takes on a diversity of forms in different parishes throughout our diocese, with everything from formal choirs accompanied by professional organists to pick-up ensembles of dedicated community musicians and even unaccompanied monastic and Taizé-style chants. A member of a parish choir in our diocese emphasized that music ministry has “given me some of the most important friendships and communities in my life, who have made me feel safe to be who I am; it has given me a focus for worship in these times of constant distraction and short attention spans; and it has unquestionably brought me closer to the Gospel and to God.”
Who We Are Today
Parish Ministries of Companionship & Mercy
Many of our parishes offer feeding ministries that address food insecurity and build community in their local contexts. Gideon’s Garden in Great Barrington is a youth-operated farm that has been growing fresh produce for food pantries since 2008. Parishes support those who are living outdoors through companioning ministries and donations of tents and sleeping bags, and the Church of the Reconciliation, Webster, offers shelter through a sober house. Parishes also partner with other agencies to support undocumented, refugee, and immigrant neighbors. Many of our parishes actively support transgender and gender-diverse individuals, and continue to support the LGBTQ+ community. To learn more about our many offerings at the local level, please see our Episcopal Asset Map
In 2014, Ashanti Mampong Diocese in Ghana became our companion diocese. Under the leadership of Bishop Fisher and the Rev. Betsy Fisher, our diocese developed a “Change the Babies” ministry to raise money for the Babies Home in Mampong, Ghana. As a parish, Grace Church, Amherst, is part of a companioning relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti. Grace, along with St. James’ Church in Indian Head, Maryland, also supports St. Matthieu’s, a rural primary school in Bayonnais, Haiti.
Global Mission
Who We Are Today
Collaboration
We collaborate with the Diocese of Massachusetts in a number of ways. While we have been two distinct dioceses since 1901, in the last 10+ years we have reaffirmed our desire to collaborate and work together. This desire was formalized in 2022, after a task force consisting of leaders from both dioceses explored our common mission together. After considering a variety of possibilities, including reunion, we agreed we would be better served by remaining two distinct dioceses that find increasing ways to collaborate and partner on mission and ministry.
This shows up in a number of ways. During the pandemic, there was a shared task force drawing from expertise from both dioceses to give guidance and care. Our bishops often join together on joint statements that are particularly relevant to the whole Commonwealth. From the shared Good News Gardens and the Indigenous People’s Justice Network to shared advocacy efforts and events, our dioceses have supported each other in broadening our commitment to the earth.
The Episcopal City Mission (ECM) is another powerful collaboration that continues to grow. ECM was founded when all of Massachusetts was one diocese. For many generations after the dioceses split, ECM was concentrated in Eastern Massachusetts. But in the last five years, there has been a concerted effort to involve Western Massachusetts in the work of ECM, and last year it was officially voted to be in collaboration. By focusing on shrinking the racial wealth gap and bringing more equity to all, ECM is a rich support to our work of reparations and repair.
Our diocese partnered with the Southern New England Conference UCC and the New England Synod ELCA for Together We Thrive, an ecumenical initiative focused on clergy leadership & development, funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment. From 2018 to 2023, the initiative offered four programs that focused on professional coaching, new communities of practice for clergy, retreat series, and affinity groups, as well as additional educational gatherings and events. While the grant has concluded, it has inspired greater judicatory collaboration and sharing of resources across ecumenical lines.
Our ongoing collaboration with our siblings in the Commonwealth and throughout our province energizes us and reminds us that regardless of our size or specific financial resources, we all have something to share and we’re stronger together.
Who We Are Today
Finances
The Trustees for the Diocese of Western Massachusetts
The Trustees were organized in 1902 to receive, manage, and dispose of monies, funds, and real estate not only of the diocese, but also for those parishes that have entrusted funds to their care. Their original gift of $100,000 from the sponsoring Diocese of Massachusetts formed a base which, with many additions from parishes and individual donors, has since grown to a portfolio exceeding seventy million dollars as of December 31, 2024. Approximately 50% of the portfolio’s assets are owned by the diocese, with the other 50% owned by the participating parishes.
Origins of the Fund - Realignment for Atonement and Repair
Over the last few years the Beloved Community Commission has been doing important work around the topic of reparations. Our next bishop will have the opportunity to continue to lead us forward in this work of atonement and repair as we discern what our next steps are and how this will guide us to realign our financial priorities.
Big Picture
Our diocese is blessed by the generosity of those who have gone before us, as well as the faithful stewardship of our parishes. Our modest endowment draw allows us to have consistency of ministry. Each year our Convention approves a balanced budget that strives to balance prudent financial management with the work God is calling us to do in Western Massachusetts.
At the same time, there are areas for us to be more strategic, focused, and efficient with our resources. Our next bishop will be committed to organizational budgeting and strategic planning. They will have the opportunity to align our current resources with the ministries we are being called to during this next season in our diocesan life. Congregations in decline or making the decision to close will mean decreased assessments, and economic uncertainty could mean reduced investment values in the near future. Sound financial decisions during this next episcopate will help to ensure this diocese has the resources for continuing its vibrant ministry in the coming decades.
Our next bishop will be committed to organizational budgeting and strategic planning. They will have the opportunity to align our current resources with the ministries we are being called to during this next season in our diocesan life.
Who We Are Today
We asked what words came to mind when people thought of our diocese.
Here is what we heard...
Our Shared Future
Strengths and Challenges
In our listening sessions and in our shared discernment as a Search Committee, we have been striving to listen with open hearts and minds to both our strengths and our challenges as we prepare for our next season together.
Strengths
Collegiality
We are a collegial diocese and, at the risk of sounding corny, we really like each other. We see this particularly among the clergy, who generally look forward to clergy days and retreats, finding solidarity and support with one another. This mutual care is experienced at a diocesan level as well, with the staff at the bishop’s office knowing and caring about the lives of the clergy and our congregations.
Diversity of Leadership
Bishop Fisher’s commitment to diversifying our diocese has helped us to grow in ways we couldn’t have imagined and has fostered a culture of collegiality where we know we’re in this together. During the last episcopate we witnessed and celebrated a noticeable increase in the diversity of our clergy. We have significantly more clergy who are women, as well as an increased number of LGBTQ+ clergy, compared to a decade ago.
Having a more diverse clergy opens the door to engaging with a larger variety of people in our communities. We continue to pay attention to ways that we can expand the diversity of people in our congregations and leading our churches as we long to reflect God’s beloved community.
Our clergy strive to be spiritually grounded and care for each other and are able to be vulnerable with each other. It is a treasure, and we are grateful for diocesan leadership that supports and nurtures this kind of mutuality and care.
Our Shared Future
Collaboration
Our mutual care for one another extends to our congregations and we believe leads to the numerous collaborations that happen within the diocese. Many parishes especially collaborate with other congregations in their local communities, both inside and outside of the Episcopal Church, knowing we can do more together than we can alone.
Committed to Justice
We are a diocese that is actively committed to being part of creating a more just and generous world. While that manifests differently across parishes and on a diocesan level, there is a shared commitment to the church being a place that activates our baptismal covenant to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Faithful
We are a faithful people. The saints of this diocese continue in prayer and we lift each other up in prayer. In each of our parishes you will find dedication to our liturgical and theological traditions as people show up together to share in the Eucharist, singing, prayer, and engaging with the gospel. We are faithful to our enduring God and faithful to one another in our communities.
Creative and Experimental
Under the leadership of Bishop Fisher, the people of our diocese have learned to embrace a culture of experimentation, adaptation, and change. We have become open-minded, curious, and committed to walking Jesus’ Way of Love no matter the challenges before us. There have been many new initiatives, new partnerships, and successful mergers, made not out of necessity but rather because those parishes knew they would be better and more effective together as a renewed body of Christ. Likewise we are not afraid to talk about hard things, and we are learning how to conclude ministries when their season has come to an end. We are resilient, and we seek a bishop who will help us further develop these muscles and lead us forward.
Hopeful
Our people and our parishes are a committed and hopeful group of humans. A few years ago, we adopted a resolution at Convention to name St. Mary Magdalene as the patron of our Diocese because of our shared love for and commitment to the Risen Jesus calling us to new life. As we are intimately connected to the reality of the world around us, the subsequent grief, anger, and exhaustion are also appropriately present. Rather than giving into these feelings of despair, however, our communities lean into the deeper Christian hope and bring the love of Jesus into our communities.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Our Shared Future
Challenges
Post-Pandemic Reactive Mode
There is a sense among some in our diocese that we never quite “recovered” from the pandemic. While this is certainly not a unique feeling, it does add a particular texture to where we are as a diocese and what we are looking for in a leader going forward.
In many ways it feels like the pandemic threw us into reactive mode. And while that is appropriate and needed in a pandemic, it has become a challenge as we attempt to regain coherence of our collective vision moving forward. While there are many good things happening across the diocese, there is a feeling of disconnection and lack of clarity around our shared mission and how we are specifically called to be the body of Christ in this part of the world.
Disconnection
While collaboration and collegiality are strengths of ours, we also are aware of ways that we are sometimes failing in these connections. Some of our smaller parishes who are faithfully following Jesus do not always feel seen and supported in the work they are doing. In our congregations, laypeople have spoken of feeling disconnected from one another and from the diocesan staff. We feel there are opportunities in the future for the bishop and their team to facilitate greater connections between not just the clergy, but the congregations and lay leaders in our communities as well. Our hope is that by the time our next bishop retires, our lay leaders feel the same sense of collegiality, support, and connection with diocesan staff and one another that our clergy do.
Moving from Solely Direct Care to Systemic Change
We need to continue to build on our ministries in the community, to build on the various models of direct care we have been exploring, and to expand into working for systemic change. It is easy for our ministries to become more transactional rather than relational and transformational. We look to Jesus, who emphasized the importance of relationships above all else, as our model. Our deacons, and all leaders in our diocese, can serve as a key bridge to these efforts, as they help us to be part of the transformation that is needed in our communities.
“I love that we are a diocese of compassion, mercy and hope. At the same time, what do those words mean? What efforts do we do around the diocese that fit into each of those attributes of the way of Jesus? What would it look like for our diocese to be formed in a deeper understanding of these words and to practice living them out? These are questions I have wrestled with and it points to what might be helpful as we look to the next bishop. How do we paint a unified whole that continually goes back to the overall mission and the ‘why’ of who we are and the doing that flows from our being?”
Our Shared Future
Restructuring and Resourcing Local Parishes
We have also heard a desire for more grants and funding that can flow down into congregations and community-based ministries, as well as more intentional allocation of funds for parish outreach ministries. We particularly want to grow in our attentiveness to resourcing ministries and parishes that experience more systemic oppression than others and look for ways to bring greater equity and care to all our communities.
The Changing Church
In some listening sessions, ideas came up about possible radical restructuring of our diocesan offices (structure, function, location, etc.) to build more connected relationships with parishes and ministries.
While certainly not unique to Western Massachusetts, the reality looms large that many of our congregations are shrinking and we are struggling to find clergy, with more and more of our parishes having part-time positions for both clerical and lay staff. We celebrate the successful congregational mergers, and in our future we need to collectively come together to proactively and creatively discover how we might continue in our ministry in new ways and explore how we might reorganize and restructure our ministries to strengthen them. We also need to invest more energy in ongoing training, coaching, and support for our lay worship leaders and preachers, as they routinely take on more leadership in worship. There are many seeds planted, and our future bishop will need to be prepared to nurture and care for what comes next.
As part of coming to terms with our reality and looking to our future, we believe that a leader who will bring greater collaboration, strategic vision, the equipping of lay leaders, and the discovery what ministry is going to look like in the next decade will be necessary.
Our Shared Future
A Vision for the Future
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Matthew 4:19
In a world shaped by polycrisis, God is calling us to wake up from survival mode and step into a new ontology of creating the world we long for together.
We believe in the good news of Jesus. We believe in the people who are seeking to follow the way of Jesus here in Western Massachusetts. We believe in a steadfast God who leads and provides for her church. What we believe we need going forward is to come together, under the leadership of our bishop, to clearly discern and name our challenges, gain clarity on our vision for the future, and then equip and resource ourselves in order to live it out.
The Diocese Going Forward
We need our next leader to be a Strategic Integrator
None of us know what the future holds; we live in an uncertain and tumultuous world. As such, we believe we need to find shared clarity on our mission and values, tighten up our processes and systems so they can withstand the shocks that are coming, and become better equipped to respond nimbly to the needs as they arise.
While we are acutely aware that making a firm/concrete 10-year strategic plan is not feasible in this current global context, we’re also convinced that to live in a reactive mode is profoundly unsustainable. To move forward in this next season in our diocese, we need a leader who is ready to help us make courageous decisions about who we are and how we use our resources. We need to be collectively committed to asking a different set of questions, such as: “What systems have we assumed will be there forever and ever? How might we be asked to do things in radical new ways? How can we draw on the rich foundation of our tradition, and live it out in the current context of today? What does it look like to be faithful in this generation?”
Our Shared Future
We’re aware that in this profile we talk about a lot of great ideas and are inspired, but we have not yet accomplished the next steps of setting goals and priorities and then having the systems and support in place for accountability and follow-through. This is something that we struggle with both on a diocesan and parish level.
We need intentional and effective administration
Across the board, those we spoke to around the diocese named things such as centralized payroll as a service that was appreciated and supported the work at local parishes. Building on this, there is a desire to explore what other areas the diocese could administer more effectively, and collectively, that would support our parishes. Ideas such as technical training for new treasurers, greening our churches, tech and IT support, and education and resources for managing buildings came up often. There is a sense that there might be resources out there, but we often don’t know how to find them. What would it look like to grow the diocesan offices as a hub for equipping and connecting people and needs, education, and collaborative skill-building?
We see the need for our next bishop to be able to establish a system and culture of integration, to discern and enact a vision for where we are being called, and then to equip and support the vision to become reality, all the while connecting the vision to the people who are making it happen and training integrators at the parish level as well.
Beyond shared resources, we are aware of our need to be in better connection and communication in order to be moving forward as a church together. We need greater organizational structures and systems in place, as well as the culture and care to live into those systems for the sake of our shared gospel ministry.
Praying What We Believe: The Importance and Place of Liturgy
Our diocese is not just broad geographically, we are also broad liturgically. Some parishes continue to solely rely on the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, others have added Enriching Our Worship, and still others have found ways to incorporate additional creative liturgy to meet the concerns of their community. From creating meaningful intergenerational worship experiences to praying about the justice issues close to our hearts, these are all different expressions of liturgy, yet all come from our shared Anglican tradition. Our current bishop has cultivated this environment, giving permission for clergy to “go for it” when they seek to create liturgies that speak to the dynamics where they serve.
Our Shared Future
If we are praying what we believe and using diverse and expansive language, then this informs how we act and bear witness in the world.
Creator God spoke the world into being and we too believe that prayer and its language undergirds our being. We have work to do to continue to root out the white supremacy, systemic racism, and patriarchy that are embedded in our liturgical tradition. We trust we will be changed by our Expansive God who loves all whom they created. With our future bishop’s guidance, we will continue to learn and grow and pray together.
A Collective Witness: The Place of Formation
In this current culture where Christianity has been perverted by forces of Christian Nationalism and used for harm, we need to come together to confront this and be faithful followers of Christ. Another way to ask this is: How do we live into our baptismal covenant? Bishop Mariann Budde laid out the challenge at the National Cathedral in January: to be kind, merciful, and just. The response, both of those who were upset and those who were inspired, illuminates a pathway for the work ahead of us as a church and as followers of Christ. We need to mobilize our prayers to address the fear that is taking hold, and we seek guidance and license in how we reclaim Christianity. As the world around us continues to struggle, we need more collective formation around who we are as faithful followers of Christ in this season.
Youth and Young Adults
In multiple listening sessions, the need for more intentional nourishing and support of our youth and young adults was clearly present. While there are more than 30 colleges and universities located geographically within our diocese, most of our ministries to young adults are done at the parish level and on a volunteer basis. We believe this is an area where our diocese could serve in new and powerful ways. One person said, “In my parish, we have a lot of young people coming in to hear something different from what cradle Episcopalians are saying. We are working on that, but it is still a real challenge for us.” Others noted that many young people have been hurt by organized religion and need a place where that hurt can be healed. The desire on the part of congregations is there, and we believe with some more structured support, we could collaborate to be a greater presence for the next generations.
Our Shared Future
Time to Train and Support Lay Leaders
We see many of our smaller parishes realistically having part-time clergy, and therefore needing more training and support for our lay leaders. The same need is present in our parishes that are larger and growing, as clergy are overfunctioning and need to create more of a team model. In both cases, we need to discern what is realistic and “right-sized,” leading us to ask: What does an empowered and collaborative group of clergy and lay leaders look like? What does it mean to be sustainable in the long term?
Nourishing and Empowering Our Clergy to Be Adaptive, Resilient Leaders
As has been noted before, our clergy share in mutual collegiality and care. As we continue to discern what it means to be the church in this current context, our clergy need ways to continue to learn and grow together to meet this moment.
There is much for us to do at the local and diocesan levels. Our lay and clergy leaders, along with our new bishop, have important work to do that will need to be focused. We want our leaders to be passionately committed and equipped for ministry, while also being encouraged to embrace the Sabbath. Jesus modeled this for us again and again whenever he would go off for prayer, rest, and renewal. As we look to the future, we hope to avoid burnout by being intentional in our Sabbath practice and finding ways to collectively support one another in it. We can grow in our systems, coaching, and support for greater collaboration and training in order to continue to show up for our parishes, and we need greater support in systems for clergy to have consistent rest, renewal, nurture, and care.
We look forward to discovering how to right-size our ministry models in a way that is both financially sustainable for our parishes and humanly sustainable for our people.
The Leader We Are Seeking
We hope that in reading our profile so far, you have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit stirring as you wonder if this is a time and a place you are called to lead. While we know no one leader has every quality, we have tried to lift up qualities that we are particularly seeking so as to aid in our mutual discernment.
Our pastoral need is to have a strong and prophetic leader who will strategically equip and mobilize us for mission and ministry.
We seek a bold leader, unafraid to prayerfully lead us in discerning and living into a strategic vision, and helping us to let go of what is no longer serving and focus our resources into the essential ministry we have in front of us for the next decade. We will need a bishop who is willing to be courageous and make tough decisions for the future.
We seek a deeply faithful leader, grounded in their own belovedness as a child of God, and through whom that love flows out. We know you are human and we will share in our foibles together. We seek someone whose own love of our Loving God and God’s people is palpable and infectious. We hope for faithful flexibility, rooted in the traditions of the Church while receptive to the expanding liturgical needs of our parishes.
We seek a strategic and collaborative leader who can help us to collectively clarify what we are being called to do and then realign our diocesan resources and staffing to equip us all for the ministry ahead. With the right person at the helm, someone who has strong organizational skills and is wellbalanced in administration and social justice, we believe there is no limit to all we can be and do to further the way of love and justice and peace in our region.
We seek a kind and wise pastor. A pastor who will think creatively about how to ensure our clergy, who provide pastoral care for the lay leaders in their communities, also have a place to be the recipients of pastoral care. A pastor who will be present to all whom they encounter and lead both in word and deed to the dignity and care of all people.
The Leader We Are Seeking
We seek a leader who has a heart for justice and is committed to the gospel and is a faithful witness in the public sphere. We want to follow you in bold embodiments of the gospel and together transform our communities into the more just and generous places God longs for. We hope you have a heart and passion for supporting smaller congregations who can not afford clergy, believing that it too is a justice issue when people do not have regular access to sacramental life due to being without a priest.
We seek a leader that not only celebrates diversity and the inclusion of all people, but works tirelessly to ensure that our diocese and our churches are places that live up to the signs outside of them that proclaim, “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.” While being bilingual (English/Spanish) would certainly be a plus, what is most important to us is someone who is willing to embrace learning about and celebrating the bilingual and bicultural identities in our diocese, to work to authentically support different ministries, and to understand and care about various cultures and values. We are a diocese of diverse cultures across three corridors and a multitude of identities across axes of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, class, political ideology, and ability. We seek a leader who is always learning and asking how to expand the table to all.
We want you to have our back and, even more so, to speak the truth in love when something needs to be addressed. We are seeking a leader who will care for all involved, and will put the wellbeing of the whole foremost – a leader who asks, “What does the whole community need?” while not being swayed or bullied by the loudest or most persuasive voices.
We seek a leader who is called to the episcopate, yes, and also called particularly to our diocese at this time and place. We seek a bishop who desires to be in dynamic community with us, walking our streets and trails with us, and living in the core of our diocese as both a holy shepherd and a human. We pray that you will join us in our prayers of discernment and in praying for how we can, together, further Jesus’ way of love here in Western Massachusetts in the coming years.
How to Apply
Thank you for taking the time to read through our profile and begin getting to know us. If you felt the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart and stirring up your curiosity, we invite you to prayerfully consider applying. In doing so, you are saying “Yes” to walking with us during a season of discernment. We are praying for you, and we ask that you pray for us as we discover together.
Please submit the following items as part of the online application, by 11:59 p.m. on May 20, 2025
● The application
● Letter of Introduction
● Office of Transition Ministry Profile
● Resume (listing all employment)
● A link to a video sermon
● Example of a pastoral letter in response to a local or world event
● Contact information for three references
● A letter of reference from your ecclesiastical authority
● Links to any public social media accounts
● Responses to the following questions (no more than 500 words per essay question):
● A wise priest once said, “The best thing you can ever do for your ministry is have a life outside the Church.” Tell us about your support network and what is especially lifegiving in your life outside the Church. What does your daily prayer life look like? What sustains you in your relationship with God?
● In the bishop’s ordination vows the candidate is asked: “Will you boldly proclaim and interpret the Gospel of Christ, enlightening the minds and stirring up the conscience of your people?” How do you interpret the Gospel? How are you living out this charge in your current life and ministry?
● Our pastoral need is to have a strong and prophetic leader who will strategically equip and mobilize us for mission and ministry. Describe a time that you equipped and mobilized people for a particular ministry.
● In your current ministry context, how are you collaborating with others to foster multicultural or multilingual ministry?
● Tell us why you feel persuaded to serve as Bishop of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts during this particular time and season in our life together
How to Apply
Please note that the answers to these five essay questions will be published for the final slate of candidates.
Please write your responses in a Word or Google Document first and then paste them into the online application once you have finished all of the pieces. All application materials must be submitted on the Google Form by 11:59 p.m. on May 20, 2025. Questions? Contact us at wmabishopsearch@ gmail.com
Having explored our profile, if there is someone you feel might be called to serve as the next Bishop of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, please send them this profile and application for selfnomination.
Timeline
Profile Released April 21, 2025
Nominations Close
May 20, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.
Zoom Interviews May 21-June 12, 2025
Discernment Retreat September 11-14, 2025
Slate Announced; September 22, 2025
Petition Process Begins
Finalists Announced November 3, 2025 (tentative)
Slate + Petition
Diocesan Meet and Greet November 3-8, 2025 (tentative)
Electing Convention November 14-15, 2025
Consecration April 2026
The Search Committee offers their thanks for those who submitted and gave permission to print photos, especially The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, Christ Trinity-Sheffield, St. Phillip’sEasthampton, Ministerio Hispano, Jane Griesbach, Jason Blais, Caleb Ireland, and Vicki Ix. We also offer our thanks to the Diocese of Long Island, whose prayer for candidates was modified and adapted.
Prayer for the Candidates
Almighty God, giver of every good gift and source of all wisdom and understanding, open the minds and hearts of those who read this profile as we search for a new Bishop of Western Massachusetts.
We pray for those who offer themselves as candidates in this process, and that you will grant them wisdom and discernment. Be with them in this time of tenderness and exploration, and allow this season to bless their ministry.
Kindle within them a spirit of revelation and knowledge of your will, that they will feel drawn to care for all your people and equip us for our ministries through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Committees
Search Committee
The Rev. Heather Blais, Chair - Sts. James and Andrew - Greenfield
Mr. Richard Delorme - St. Francis - Holden
Mr. William Frazier - St. Stephen’s - Pittsfield
The Ven. Jane Griesbach - Archdeacon
The Rev. Jenny Gregg - Cathedral of the Beloved - Pittsfield
Mr. Caleb Ireland - Grace - Amherst
The Rev. Joel Martinez - St. Paul’s - Holyoke
The Hon. Judith Philips - CTK - Epiphany - Wilbraham & St. Peter ’s - Springfield
The Rev. Jimmy Solano Pickett - St. John’s - Athol
Ms. Amanda Watroba - St. Stephen’s - Pittsfield
The Rev. Anna Woofenden - St. John’s - Northampton
Dr. Adrienne Wootters - St. John’s - Williamstown
The Rev. Sam Smith, Chair - All Saints - Worcester
Mr. John Cheek - Grace - Great Barrington
The Rev. Tom Damrosch - Trinity - Lenox
Mr. Sergio D’Orsini - Christ Church Cathedral - Springfield
Ms. Debbie Rawson Goddard - St. Helena’s - Lenox
Ms. Gina Nelson - St. Paul’s - Holyoke
The Rev. Nina Pooley - St. Stephen’s - Pittsfield
The Rev. Pat O’Connell - St. Mark’s - East Longmeadow
The Rev. Mary Rosendale - St. Stephen’s - Westborough
The Rev. Michael Tuck - Trinity/St. Helena’s - Lenox Transition Committee
Chaplains
The Rev. Julie Carson - Holy Spirit - Sutton
Mr. Will Harron - Sts. James and Andrew - Greenfield
Standing Committee
The Rev. Nathaniel Anderson, President - St. John’s - Williamstown
Mr. Richard Gore - Grace - Southern Berkshires
Ms. Carole Ibsen - All Saints - South Hadley
Ms. Phyllis Larson, Secretary - Christ Church Cathedral - Springfield
The Rev. Meredyth Ward - All Saints - Worcester
The Rev. Patrick Perkins - St. Francis - Holden
The Rev. Ann Scannell - Good Shepherd - Clinton / Trinity - Shrewsbury
Ms. Wende Wheeler - St. Andrew’s - Longmeadow