Episcopal Press and News
Northwest Texas diocese elects J. Scott Mayer as bishop
Episcopal News Service. November 22, 2008 [112208-01]
Matthew Davies
The Rev. J. Scott Mayer was elected November 22 to be the fifth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwest Texas.
Mayer, 53, rector of Church of the Heavenly Rest, Abilene, Texas, was elected on the second ballot out of a field of four nominees. He received 90 votes of 141 cast in the lay order and 38 of 47 cast in the clergy order. An election on that ballot required 71 in the lay order and 24 in the clergy order.
The electing convention was held at St. Paul's on the Plain Church in Lubbock.
Mayer will succeed the Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl Jr., fourth bishop of the Diocese of Northwest Texas, who announced his retirement on April 25, 2007. Ohl will retire on January 1, 2009.
Mayer, a 1992 graduate of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, was ordained in the Diocese of Dallas, where he served as curate of St. James Episcopal Church in Texarkana. He then served at Church of the Heavenly Rest, first as associate rector then rector since 1994.
Mayer and his wife, Kathy, have two grown children and one grandchild.
Under the canons the Episcopal Church (III.16.4 (a)), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to Mayer's election and ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving the consent request.
The consecration is scheduled for Saturday, March 21, 2009 at First Methodist Church in Lubbock. Mayer will assume office upon his consecration.
The other nominees were:
- the Rev. Ronald D. Pogue, rector, Trinity Episcopal Church, Galveston, Texas;
- the Rev. J. Christopher Roberts, rector, St. Martha's Episcopal Church, Papillion, Nebraska; and
- the Rev. Stephen F. Zimmerman, rector, the Chapel of Saint Andrew, Boca Raton, Florida.
On November 17, the Rev. Christopher Thompson, rector of Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach, withdrew his name from the nominee slate.
Biographical profiles and the nominees' answers to the search committee's questions are posted here.
The Diocese of Northwest Texas comprises 80 out of Texas' 254 counties and encompasses the entire panhandle as well as portions of North and West Texas, from Vernon in the Red River Valley to the Pecos River. Celebrating 50 years of ministry in 2008, the diocese has 18 parishes, 16 missions, 5 preaching stations, four college chaplaincies, a conference center and camp, and the Hulsey Center in Lubbock which houses the diocesan offices.