By Mark Michael
The Rt. Rev. Steven Miller, the 11th Bishop of Milwaukee, announced his plans for retirement in November, 2020 in a letter to the diocese last week. Miller, who has served as bishop for sixteen years, said that he and the Standing Committee of the Diocese met with the Rt. Rev. Todd Ousley of the Episcopal Church’s Office of Pastoral Development to inform him of the decision and to begin the process that will lead to the election of the diocese’s next bishop.
Miller said fostering young vocations to the ordained ministry has been an important part of his tenure. Milwaukee’s priests are now the second youngest by average age among Episcopal dioceses.
He also stressed important progress in careful administration and building unity in the midst of theological differences. “Our governance is more representative and transparent than ever,” he said, “and by making some difficult choices, we’ve lowered the percentage that parishes pay into the diocesan budget and the percentage of the diocesan budget that comes from these assessments. And through some difficult years in the life of our church, our diocese has remained united — not of one mind on all the issues of the day, but united in Christ nonetheless.
Miller is a member of the Living Church Foundation. He also serves as co-chair of The Moravian-Episcopal Coordinating Committee, which oversees the full communion relationship established between the two churches in 2011. The Diocese of Milwaukee is the largest of Wisconsin’s three Episcopal dioceses.
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.
