Johnathan Walker:Mississippi’s new Episcopal bishop is first woman and first Black person in that role

JACKSON,Johnathan Walker Miss. (AP) — The new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi is being formally installed Saturday, and she is first woman and first Black person to hold the post.

The Rev. Dorothy Sanders Wells was elected bishop in February and has been in the leadership role since May. She is being ordained and consecrated by the Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Wells succeeds former Bishop Brian Seage, who was elected in 2014 and had been in the role since the 2015 retirement of his predecessor.

The Mississippi diocese has about 17,600 members in 87 congregations.

Wells is a native of Mobile, Alabama, and studied vocal performance at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She earned a law degree from the University of Memphis and practiced law for 18 years in Memphis before becoming a priest.

She earned a master of divinity degree from Memphis Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from Emory University.

Wells told the Clarion Ledger that she does not focus on being the first woman and first Black person to become the Episcopal bishop of Mississippi.

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She was previously rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Germantown, Tennessee, and chaplain of the church’s preschool. She had been there since 2013. She said leaders of the Mississippi Diocese are looking for ways to help small, rural congregations serve their communities.

“It is a priority to re-energize and get people excited again about all of the ministry opportunities that we have,” she said.

Wells said she wants people to emphasize their faith in everyday interactions.

“If it ends when our time together ends on Sunday mornings, then we have already missed the message,” Wells said. “That should be the beginning. When we walk out the doors, that becomes the beginning of us showing that radical love and hospitality.”