I am a fourth generation Texan who became an Episcopalian when a friend invited me to church. I am the very proud mother of Lisa, who lives in New York City, and Jacob, who is married to another Lisa and lives in Portland, Oregon. I have Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Education from Texas Woman's University, a Master of Divinity from Houston Graduate School of Theology, and a Certificate of Individual Theological Studies from Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. Before being ordained, I did about everything one can do in Special Education and had a very active lay ministry including being a founding member of a mission of 35 or so persons and helping it grow into a healthy middle size parish. I was Assistant Rector at St. Dunstan's, Houston (a large suburban parish) before accepting the call as Rector of St. Mary's, Cypress eleven years ago. In the Diocese of Texas I have served on the Commission on Ministry (currently chair), as an Examining Chaplain, as chair of the committee beginning the diaconate, and twice as Dean of our Convocation. Within the larger Church, I have served on the board of the Roseate (ministry for abused women), helped coordinate interfaith worship and outreach in the Cypress area, gone on mission to Ukraine, and am one of 30 women clergy selected by the Lilly Endowment for a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Grant called Women Touched by Grace. I am in the process of becoming a Benedictine oblate.

When persons join the parish where I am rector, I am always curious about why God has sent them to us--what will we offer them, and what will they will offer our parish? I approach becoming your bishop with the same curiosity but with a slightly different question--what gifts will I share with you, and what will we do for God together? Coming from another diocese, I am comfortable casting a specific vision only after having the opportunity to meet you and listen to what you have to say. I am certain that it will have something to do with healing and reconciliation, transformation and growth, and challenging each of us to be all that God has called us to be--as individuals and as a Church. In the meantime, I share a prayer that I am praying daily that was written by a member of Our Lady of Grace Monastery: Our God, the time is now and we are here. We know that you have always called people to do special tasks when the time was ready and the need was great. What would you have us do now? How can we serve you best by using the gifts and talents you have given us? Show us how you want us to serve the people of God who cry for peace and justice, who lack life's necessities. Please help us know what you are calling us to do here and now. We are listening, God. AMEN

Recently I sat in Christ Church Cathedral (Diocese of Texas) and participated in the ordination of 16 new (transitional) deacons. I realized that I knew each of those sixteen persons well--either through my relationship with them on the Commission on Ministry or through my work with the Iona School of Ministry, the diocese's school for bivocational clergy. One of my passions is the selection and formation of clergy. Over the past fifteen years, I have read well over two hundred spiritual autobiographies and had conversations with many more people about their call to ministry--lay person, deacon, priest, and bishop. The parish where I serve is privileged to be a place where new clergy are mentored. I have been invited for several years to be the first and last speaker at the diocese's "Curate Camp" (monthly continuing education for new priests); I teach about spiritual practices and clergy health, in particular keeping Sabbath. I am told that I bring compassion and holy listening to my relationships and gentleness when I must say a hard or unwelcome word. Serving, encouraging, and challenging clergy is a ministry for which I have great enthusiasm. Between my ministry as a lay person and then as priest, I have been actively involved in churches of all sizes in all sorts of places and in a variety of church institutions. As your bishop, I would be honored prayerfully to support you and to join with you in the work of God.

Before I was a priest, I was an active lay leader in my parish. I have not forgotten the difficult task of juggling work, family, and ministry. I know the challenge it is to live our faith once we've left the relative safety of the church parking lot. When I talk to people who are discerning whether they are called to be clergy, I question their vocation when they say it is so they can serve God full time. No clergy, none, has more opportunity to serve God than the Baptized. What we should offer in the Church are the means for you, the Baptized, to be nourished so that you can share the gifts you have received of God's love and forgiveness with a world that largely does not know Christ Jesus. The Church should be a place where you can practice discipleship so that you can be a disciple in your quotidian life. I believe that each of the Baptized has important ministry to do; there is no small or insignificant ministry done for Christ. As an example, my preference is to call children "younger Christians" as a way to clearly value all that they have to offer. My ministry style is to work prayerfully and collaboratively with a community of faith discerning God's will and creating a ministry infrastructure to enable this to occur. As your bishop, it would be my privilege to join with you in the mission of the Church.