A Washington D.C. priest made historical past in Chicago Saturday, turning into the primary Black individual and the primary lady ever elected bishop of town’s native arm of the Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Canon Paula E. Clark used to be unanimously decided on amongst 4 applicants at the fourth poll of a digital conference to take the helm of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, church leaders stated.
“We Episcopalians are strong people who can model for the rest of this country and the world what it looks like to walk the way of love,” Clark stated. “God is calling us to a new day and a new way of being.”
Clark might be consecrated April 24, succeeding Bishop Jeffrey D. Lee, who’s retiring Dec. 31.
She involves Chicago from the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, the place she serves as canon to the odd and leader of personnel to the bishop.
Clark gained her undergraduate stage from Brown University and a grasp’s stage in public coverage from the University of California at Berkeley. Before learning on the Virginia Theological Seminary, she used to be a public knowledge officer for the Washington mayor.
Clark, who has all for clergy building and multicultural and justice problems, describes herself as “the proud matriarch of [a] blended family of five adult children and seven grandchildren.”
The Chicago Episcopal Diocese contains 122 congregations with a complete of greater than 31,000 individuals throughout northern, central and southwestern Illinois.