Washington, USA - The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has elected its first African American bishop: the Rev. Canon Eugene Taylor Sutton of Washington National Cathedral.
Sutton, 54, was chosen Saturday as the diocese's 14th bishop of Maryland in an electing convention at St. James' Church in Baltimore. If his selection receives consent from the leadership of a majority of dioceses nationwide, Sutton will be ordained and consecrated June 28 at Reid Temple AME Church in Glenn Dale in Prince George's County. He would succeed the Right Rev. Robert W. Ihloff, who retired in April.
The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland comprises 22,000 households in 117 congregations and covers Baltimore and 10 counties, including Anne Arundel, Calvert and Howard. Clergy and lay delegates voted on a slate of five nominees. Sutton needed more than half of the votes from each group to be elected. He received 210 of 370 ballots cast.
As a canon, Sutton assists the cathedral's dean. He also serves as director of the Cathedral Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. He leads frequent ecumenical retreats and conferences throughout the country, according to a biography posted on the cathedral's Web site.
The bishop-elect said yesterday that much of his recent work has focused on the act of pilgrimage, or journey to sacred places, a spiritual exercise of meditation, reflection and prayer common to many of the world's religions but neglected in some corners of Christianity. He has led pilgrimages to Rome, South Africa, the beaches of Normandy, France -- and to the Northwest Washington cathedral where he works.
"People are stressed out in their daily, busy lives," Sutton said. "You have to carve out space to be reconnected with God and your inner self. And that helps you get reconnected to other human beings."
In 1997, Sutton co-founded Contemplative Outreach of Metropolitan Washington, an ecumenical network devoted to "renewing the contemplative dimension" of the Gospel in daily life, according to the cathedral's Web site.
Sutton is a graduate of Hope College in Holland, Mich., earned a master of divinity degree at Western Theological Seminary in Michigan and has done graduate work at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has held teaching posts at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey and General Theological Seminary in New York.
Sutton said that throughout his career he has sought to reconcile people of different races, social classes and political ideologies. "I've done a lot of work in bringing sometimes-warring parties together," he said.
He said one of his chief goals as bishop would be "greening the diocese" by exploring steps to reduce the church's role in greenhouse emissions in Maryland.