By Kirk Petersen
The Rev. Poulson C. Reed, rector of a large church in Phoenix, Arizona, was elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Oklahoma on December 14. He will be consecrated April 18, 2020, by Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, and will become bishop diocesan upon the retirement of Bishop Edward J. Konieczny later in the year.
Reed was elected on the second ballot after facing off with the Rev. Canon Scott Gunn, longtime executive director of Forward Movement, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. A third candidate had been announced earlier in the fall, but Konieczny said the Rev. Greg Methvin, rector of a church in Texas, withdrew for personal reasons.
Reed is currently the rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church and Day School in Phoenix, leading both the church and school staffs. He previously served as the sub-deacon and canon of St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, CO. He received his M.Div. degree from Yale Divinity School. Reed is married to Megan Reed and they have three sons.
Konieczny, who has led the diocese since 2007, told TLC he will remain on the diocesan payroll until the end of 2020, but he may hand the crozier to his successor earlier than that, when both he and Reed feel the time is right.
Konieczny, widely known as Bishop Ed because everyone can pronounce that, leads a mid-size diocese, but plays a large-size role in the Church. “I’m retiring from the day-to-day work of the diocese, but I’m not separating myself from the life of the Church,” he said.
He will remain on the Executive Council until General Convention 2021, and will retain his seat on the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), which facilitates cooperation among the provinces of the global Anglican Communion. Konieczny was elected to a nine-year term on the ACC in January 2018. The ACC, which meets every three years, met in Hong Kong in April.
Konieczny said he will not attend Lambeth Conference next year, leaving that honor to the new bishop, so that the diocese does not have to pay to send two bishops and two spouses to England for two weeks.
