Episcopal Press and News
Bigliardi to Be Suffragan Bishop for Europe
Episcopal News Service. June 9, 1988 [88123]
NEW YORK, (DPS, June 9) -- Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning has announced his appointment of the Rt. Rev. Matthew P. Bigliardi, 67, retired Bishop of Oregon, as Suffragan Bishop for the Convocation of American Churches in Europe.
Bigliardi will begin his ministry on the first of August after attending the General Convention in Detroit. He and his wife, Jeanne, have been living in Carmel, California, since his retirement in 1986. Most recently, at the request of the Presiding Bishop and at the invitation of the Standing Committee, he presided at the convention to elect the Bishop of Taiwan.
In making this appointment, the Presiding Bishop was in direct consultation with the Council of Advice of the Convocation of the American Churches in Europe.
Bigliardi succeeds the Rt. Rev. A. Donald Davies, who was appointed to the position in 1986 after retiring as Bishop of Dallas. The Presiding Bishop said he would like "to express my deep personal gratitude to the Rt. Rev. Donald A. Davies for the ministry that he has contributed over the past years as the suffragan in Europe." Davies and his wife returned to the United States at the end of May. The convocation and suffragan in Europe are under the jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop. The suffragan is in charge of six Episcopal congregations on the continent of Europe, and also oversees two Church of England chaplaincies served by convocation clergy. Convocation parishes are located in Paris (Holy Trinity Cathedral), Frankfurt, Munich, Florence, Rome, and Geneva.
Presiding Bishop Browning himself was the first appointed bishop for Europe in the early 1970's.
Bigliardi is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Chemistry and of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (C.D.S.P.). He served in Seattle, Washington, before becoming vicar, then rector, of Emmanuel Church, Mercer Island, Washington, from 1955-74. He was a deputy to seven General Conventions, and served on both the Standing Committee and the Commission on Ministry of the Diocese of Olympia. He has served also on many boards of trustees, among them the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, the Clergy Deployment Office, C.D.S.P., the Oregon Heart Association, and hospitals in Portland.