Right Rev. Mariann Budde reaching out for a more vital Episcopal Church

From The Washington Post-

Is the Right Rev. Mariann Budde the woman to save the Episcopal Church?

On meeting her, you’d hope so. Bright-eyed, string-bean skinny and 52 years old, Budde (pronounced bud-EE) has the athletic bearing and viselike handshake of your high school lacrosse coach. She is unapologetically liberal, and the way she answers hot-button questions — “I’m in favor of gay marriage, always have been. At this point it’s a no-brainer” — is bracing after decades of public squabbling and tepid rhetoric on such matters from church leaders.

But Budde, who was installed last month as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, faces a tough road. After a decade of schism within the church and a broad disillusionment with mainline Protestantism in general, membership in the Episcopal Church in America — the denomination of FDR and George Herbert Walker Bush, the throne of high WASP-dom — has fallen on hard times.

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/right-rev-mariann-budde-reaching-out-for-a-more-vital-episcopal-church/2011/12/07/gIQAPlazeO_story.html?tid=pm_national_pop