The Rev. Kimberly (Kym) Lucas, rector of St. Margaret’s Church in Washington, D.C., was elected 11th Bishop of Colorado on Oct. 27.
The other nominee was the Rev. Canon Ruth Woodliff-Stanley, who serves as the diocese’s canon to the ordinary.
Lucas led in the lay order and Woodliff-Stanley led among clergy on the first ballot.
The second ballot was ruled invalid because of a reporting error about the first ballot. By the third ballot, Lucas led in both orders. On the fourth ballot, she reached the two-thirds majority that the diocese requires in both orders.
“I am both amazed and thrilled that the Holy Spirit has called us to minister together,” Lucas said in response to her election. “The next few months will be full for me as my family and I plan our transition, but know that I am eager to be with you. Your confidence and love humble me, and I pray that I will be a faithful steward of both as your bishop.”
Woodliff-Stanley offered her quick support of the bishop-elect: “My prayers are with you and with Mother Kym and her family as you prepare for a new season of ministry together across this vast and beautiful state.
“If I have been even a small part of this historic moment of your electing the first woman bishop and the first African-American bishop of Colorado, I say Praise God! And I have one admonition: support her — with all your heart, mind, and soul. Support her when the road is easy and when the road his hard. Support her.”
Lucas has led St. Margaret’s January 2012, and she was rector of St. Ambrose Church in Raleigh, N.C., from 2005 to 2011.
Lucas grew up in Spring Lake, N.C., and is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Union Theological Seminary in New York. She and her husband, Mark Retherford, have four children.
Adapted from the Episcopal Church in Colorado
