Bishop announces retirement

From Minnesota-

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With the beginning of my 10th year of serving as the Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota on the horizon, and after much prayer and conversations, the Spirit has led me to believe that it is time to begin the process of calling the 10th Bishop of Minnesota.

The question inevitably is, why now? ECMN is clear about its calling to engage God’s mission of becoming the Beloved Community. In every corner and in countless neighborhoods faithful Episcopalians are participating in the Jesus movement through building relationships and cultivating partnerships across the great state of Minnesota.

ECMN is incredibly healthy. We are blessed to have great clergy and lay leaders, a phenomenal Team of Missioners and very competent leaders at all our affiliates. Our Elected Bodies and our Mission Areas are functioning at a high level of collaborative leadership. We are, and have been for a number of years, very financially solid; including being debt free on all ECMN properties.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/An-Important-Announcement-From-Bishop-Prior.html?soid=1102000925595&aid=j1Ky9oaLixw

Minnesota bishop helps coach basketball team to state championship

From ENS-

He may be known as Bishop Brian Prior in the Diocese of Minnesota but to the Freeman High Scotties he's "Coach."
Prior, 50, was consecrated bishop a month ago. But he was courtside back in Yakima, Washington, March 6 to help lead the girl's varsity basketball team to their first state championship.

"They've been waiting a long time for this. Those girls worked very hard. They deserved it. We've been there five times in the last five years," said Prior about the team he has mentored for six years.

"The other team, Granger, was the hometown favorite," he added. "Everybody, all the media had talked about Granger, how they had incredible three-point shooters and no way was Freeman able to defeat them. But we shut down their offense."

His own love of the game led Prior to first coach his two sons, who are now teenagers. It seemed a natural evolution when he was invited to help coach the Scotties about six years ago, he said.

Then, he was serving as rector of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Spokane, a congregation he founded in 1996. Adding coaching to his activities meant summer basketball camps and out-of-town weekend tournaments in the off-season.

More here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_120820_ENG_HTM.htm

MINNESOTA: Brian Prior consecrated as ninth bishop in diocese's 'next chapter'

From Episcopal Life Online- (Brian is a good friend and I wish him God's blessings)

Several thousand well-wishers packed the Minneapolis Convention Center Feb. 13 mid-way into a three-day celebration of the Rt. Rev. Brian N. Prior's consecration as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota, in a ceremony rich with diversity and rife with history.
Fragrant smoldering sage filled the convention center as Ojibwe and Dakota Native Americans drummed and danced. A variety of musical traditions were represented, including Hmong choristers, Fran McKendree's four-piece folk rock ensemble, and a 200-voice "Massed Intergenerational" choir as well as a hand-bell choir from local congregations.

Prior, 50, paid tribute to that history and diversity. "I know I stand on the shoulders" of many who preceded him, he told the joyous gathering. At his request, the service was crafted as a celebration of the diocese's next chapter, not just of its next bishop.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori presided over the consecration. During the service retiring Bishop James Jelinek placed the Bishop Whipple pectoral cross, named after Henry Whipple, Minnesota's first Episcopal bishop, on Prior.

"Every bishop since the 1860s has worn that cross," Prior had said in an earlier interview. "I feel incredibly blessed to be able to serve here. It's a phenomenal place. It's got such a richness of diversity, and the history is amazing."

Prior's gold, green and blue vestments symbolized the plains, the forests and the waters of the state, whose name derives from the Dakota language and means "sky water" or "cloudy water." It refers to the state's more than 11,000 lakes, rivers and streams.

More here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_119441_ENG_HTM.htm

A Minnesota-centric ceremony

From Minnesota-

The Rev. Brian Prior realizes that several thousand people are going to make their way to the Minneapolis Convention Center Saturday morning to witness his installation as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. He just doesn't want all the attention to be on him.

"As I was talking to the people planning this, I told them that the one thing I don't want is for this to feel like a coronation," the 50-year-old bishop said Thursday. "I want this to be a celebration of the diocese. I don't want it to be focused on the new bishop, I want it to be focused on the new chapter in the diocese."

The consecration, which starts at 11 a.m. (people are being encouraged to arrive by 10:30), will feature a localized version of pomp and circumstance. It will include Ojibwe and Dakota drummers, Hmong choristers and a 200-voice choir gleaned from the diocese's churches.

More here-

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/84277737.html?elr=KArksD:aDyaEP:kD:aUq9_b9b_jEkP:QUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

House of Deputies president sets out plan for naming vice president's successor

From Episcopal Life Online-

Episcopal Church House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson sent a letter Nov. 16 to diocesan deputies and first alternates that outlined the process she will use for replacing the Rev. Brian Prior as the house's vice president.
Prior was elected Oct. 31 to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota. Pending consent, he will become the ninth bishop of Minnesota on February 13.

Prior's vice president position will become vacant on that day, Anderson said, according to Episcopal Church Canon V.4.1(b). Prior was elected to a second term as vice president of the House of Deputies during the July 8-17 meeting of General Convention in Anaheim, California.

In the letter, Anderson noted that there is no canonical provision for filling a vacancy in the office of House of Deputies vice president until the first day of the next General Convention.

"Following the precedent set by Dr. Pamela Chinnis, president of the House of Deputies in 1993 when a vacancy in the office of vice president occurred prior to the General Convention of 1994, I will nominate a clergy deputy, respected by the house, who has agreed to serve, if elected, for the 77th General Convention only, and not to run for any office to be elected by the House of Deputies at the 77th General Convention," Anderson wrote. "This would enable the house to be served by a vice president without compromising the election of the vice president to be elected to serve during the succeeding triennium."

More here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/79901_116976_ENG_HTM.htm

Longtime Spokane priest chosen to be Minnesota bishop

From Spokane-

The Rev. Brian Prior has firm roots in the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. He grew up in Prosser, Wash., graduated from Whitworth University, was a fifth-grade substitute teacher at Midway Elementary in Mead and has worked in the diocese ever since he was ordained a priest in 1989.

Those roots will be transplanted to Minnesota as Prior prepares to take his new role as the ninth bishop of Minnesota in February.

Prior, 50, received word Saturday that he had been elected to the position by the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. “I was literally physically unable to speak,” he said.

Of the other candidates for the position, two were women, one was gay and one was Native American. In each of the five votes Prior was in the lead, and candidates withdrew their names as the process went on. The final vote was between Prior and the Rev. Mariann Budde, the pastor of St. John the Baptist in Minneapolis.

While electing a woman, a gay person or a Native American as bishop would have been historic, it didn’t seem that the diocese was looking at labels or categories during the interview process, said Prior. “I think they looked at us in terms of our gifts, not our gender or ethnicity,” he said.

The road to bishop began with Prior’s first position, as associate pastor of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on the South Hill. From there he worked as the director of education and development for the Diocese of Spokane and also was executive director of Camp Cross, a church-run camp on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene. He took the position as pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Spokane Valley in 1996 and has been there since.

More here-

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/nov/05/a-great-adventure/

Spokane priest to lead Minnesota Episcopalians

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune-

Minnesota's 22,000 Episcopalians will be led by a 50-year-old priest from Spokane, Wash.

Delegates at the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota's 152nd annual convention Saturday voted to name the Rev. Brian Prior as their next bishop.

In doing so, they sidestepped three potentially historic choices for the 106-congregation diocese's ninth bishop: a woman, a Native American or an openly partnered lesbian.

Meeting in a downtown Minneapolis hotel ballroom, alternately singing hymns and praying silently, nearly 500 clergy and lay delegates needed five ballots to pick Prior, currently pastor at the Church of the Resurrection in Spokane.

His closest competition came from the Rev. Mariann Budde, pastor at St. John the Baptist in Minneapolis. She would have been the diocese's first female bishop in its 152-year history.

In the final vote, Prior received 271 votes to Budde's 167.

Prior will succeed Bishop James Jelinek, who is retiring in February after heading the diocese since 1993.

More here-

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/68045877.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DUs

Minnesota Episcopalians select Prior as bishop

From AP- and Living Church (below)

The Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota says the Rev. Brian Prior has been elected its next bishop.
He was chosen Saturday over four other candidates, one of whom would have been only the second openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church if she were chosen.

Prior has been the rector of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Spokane, Wash., since 1996. He said in a statement he was "overwhelmed and blessed."

The Rev. Bonnie Perry of Chicago, who is a lesbian, withdrew after the third round of voting.
The selection of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in 2003 triggered a long-running controversy in the Episcopal Church as well as its worldwide umbrella church, the Anglican Communion.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jw4weO7HPj2iUcupF973r8ZwknewD9BMC16G0

Living Church Link

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/10/31/minnesotans-elect-deputies-vp