Episcopal Press and News
Dallas elects Paul Lambert as bishop suffragan
Episcopal News Service. March 29, 2008 [032908-03]
Matthew Davies
The Rev. Canon Paul Lambert was elected March 29 as bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas.
Lambert, 57, canon to the ordinary in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, was elected on the sixth ballot out of a field of six nominees. He received 120 votes of 203 cast in the lay order and 71 of 124 cast in the clergy order. An election on that ballot required 102 in the lay order and 63 in the clergy order.
The election took place at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Dallas.
Under the canons the Episcopal Church (III.16.4 (a)), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to Lambert's election and ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving the consent request.
Lambert has served parishes in the dioceses of Dallas and Western Kansas. He is a member of the board of trustees at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. He has served as Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Dallas since 2002. Lambert is married to Sally Lynne and they have three daughters.
More information about Lambert is available here.
The other nominees were:
- the Rev. Leander S. Harding, 58, associate professor of Pastoral Theology and head of Chapel, Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania;
- the Rev. Canon David W. Holland, rector, Episcopal Church of the Annunciation, Lewisville, Texas;
- the Rev. Raymond E. Jennison, Jr., 59, priest-in-charge, St. David's, Garland, Texas;
- the Rev. Canon Dr. Neal O. Michell, 55, canon missioner for Strategic Development, Episcopal Diocese of Dallas; and
- the Rev. Ally Perry, 58, vicar, Saint John the Apostle, Pottsboro, Texas.
Perry withdrew after the second ballot and Michell after the third.
Photographs, biographies and each nominee's response to the seven questions requested of them are available here.
The bishop suffragan will work with an emphasis in clergy recruitment, development and deployment, and focus on congregational development especially in the rural areas of the diocese, according to the report from the election committee.
Dallas Bishop James Stanton called for the election of a bishop suffragan in October 2007 at the diocese's 112th annual convention.
Stanton is the only bishop in the diocese. He had been assisted by Retired Florida Bishop Stephen Jecko prior to his death June 7, 2007.
He told the convention that although he is healthy and has no less zeal than when he began as bishop, he needs help to carry out the work of his office, in part because of the size of the diocese.
"The passing of Assistant Bishop [Stephen] Jecko last summer was a grievous loss to us. His ministry meant a great deal to all of us and left a vacuum that would be very difficult to fill," Stanton wrote in the November 2007 issue of the diocese's newspaper. "After weighing the relative ease with which I could appoint another assistant -- or the more involved process of electing a Bishop Suffragan -- I concluded that this is the appropriate time to engage in an election."