Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry has appointed Mary E. Kostel as his chancellor. Kostel is the fourth person to hold this position since it was created in the 1970s. She succeeds David Booth Beers, chancellor since 1991.
Kostel is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was editor in chief of the law review. After two federal judicial clerkships, she served in the U.S. Department of Justice and practiced law in Washington firms, representing the Episcopal Church in various matters.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori appointed Kostel as special counsel for the church’s property litigation and disciplinary matters in 2009. She recently resigned as chancellor of the Diocese of Washington.
Kostel is married to Gregory DiMeglio, also a practicing lawyer, and has two sons. She worships at St. Alban’s in Washington, D.C., and is a trustee of Virginia Theological Seminary.
Beers is a graduate of Trinity College and the University of California at Berkeley, and entered private law practice in Washington, D.C., in 1961. He is now Of Counsel of the Goodwin Law Firm. After serving as chancellor of the Diocese of Washington from 1977 until 1991, he was appointed by Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning. He was chancellor to four presiding bishops.
Before that appointment, Beers was a five-time deputy to General Convention and served one term on Executive Council. He is a trustee of Virginia Theological Seminary, which recently honored him with the Dean’s Cross for Servant Leadership.
Adapted from the Office of Public Affairs
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
