Paul-Gordon Chandler, who has been on administrative leave as Bishop of Wyoming since October 2023 because of an “alleged indiscretion,” has agreed to be deposed from ordained ministry, thereby ending a Title IV disciplinary case against him. “As of March 26, he is no [longer] serving as Bishop of Wyoming,” according to a statement from the Rev. Meg Nickles, president of the diocesan Standing Committee. Deposition means he also is no longer an Episcopal priest.
Chandler emphasized that the deposition accord is not an admission of guilt. “My decision to voluntarily leave ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church is not in any way an admittance of the specific allegations and charges brought against me,” he wrote. “This decision, as difficult as it is, allows me to stay true to myself, as well as to be faithful to my calling: ‘Seeking to enable others to enter a deeper dimension spiritually and experience the beauty of God in fresh ways.’”
When Chandler was placed on leave, Nickles said in a message to the diocese that it involves “an alleged indiscretion with a member of our Diocesan team, although the allegation did not come from within the Diocesan team itself.” In a brief phone conversation with TLC after the deposition was announced, Nickles declined to elaborate on the nature of the charges. Chandler also declined to comment beyond his written statement.
The deposition accord is the first major development since the church in February launched a website to track Title IV cases against bishops. That move was in response to complaints that bishops may be getting “a free pass on behavioral issues” in the Title IV process.
Part of the website is a chronology of official steps in Title IV cases against bishops — steps that ordinarily would not be made public in cases against priests or deacons. But while the chronology is intended to provide greater transparency, the cryptic information provided for Chandler does not go as far as the very brief announcement from the Public Affairs Office — omitting the fundamental information that Chandler has been deposed from ordained ministry. The new entries on the chronology for Chandler are: “March 21, 2024, Accord reached by presiding bishop-designate and respondent (Canon IV.9.1)” and “March 26, 2024, Accord approved by Disciplinary Board for Bishops (Canon IV.17.9).”
“Presiding bishop-designate” refers to Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, vice president of the House of Bishops, who is standing in on many matters for the recuperating Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry. Curry has been on light duty since a subdural hematoma in January.
The only other recent update to the Title IV chronology involves a case against Curry himself, along with Bishop Todd Ousley, head of the Office of Pastoral Development. The two are accused of failing to failing to respond properly to allegations against Bishop Prince Singh, who resigned as bishop provisional of two Michigan dioceses in the face of allegations of physical abuse from his adult sons and ex-wife.
The Curry and Ousley chronology was updated March 14 with a notation: “Reference panel referred the matter for investigation (Canon IV.6.8.c).” This means the case has moved beyond the initial review stage, and that an investigator will be hired to research the allegations. Public Affairs Officer Amanda Skofstad declined to comment on any of the Title IV cases, beyond the public statements.
Nickles said that the Standing Committee will continue for now as the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese. “Easter always dawns. On Monday the Standing Committee will work together with the Bishop of Pastoral Development to walk in hope and survey the terrain to create a trail toward transition,” she wrote in an email.
While a Standing Committee can provide administrative leadership for a diocese, certain functions such as ordinations and confirmations can only be performed by a bishop. In the absence of a bishop diocesan, dioceses often hire a retired bishop on a part-time basis to perform such duties, but Wyoming has been making do without that, Nickles said. “We had one ordination scheduled in January 2024, and obviously that has not taken place,” she told TLC.
Chandler was consecrated the 10th Bishop of Wyoming on February 13, 2021, after being elected the previous September. He came to Wyoming from Doha, Qatar, where he was rector of Church of the Epiphany, after previously serving churches in Egypt and Tunisia.
In a Wyoming PBS interview conducted several months into his episcopacy, Chandler said his parents moved to Senegal in West Africa when he was four months old, and that he spent most of the first 18 years of his life there. Over the course of his career, he said, he has worked in about 150 countries. He is the author of four books and founder of CARAVAN, an international non-profit dedicated to the arts.
Chandler noted in the PBS interview that he had lived for many years in countries with large Muslim-majority populations, and the experience had shaped his ministry. In 2020, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby honored Chandler with the Anglican Communion’s Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation, stating that he “has spent his life focusing strategically on the role of the arts in the context of interfaith peace building, toward building bridges of understanding, respect and friendship between the Abrahamic faiths.”
In a letter to the diocese, Chandler said he and his wife, Lynne, “prayed long and hard” before agreeing to deposition, which is the most severe penalty the church can impose. “Personally, as many of you are already aware, I never aspired to be a bishop. Rather, for me it was a sense of calling to serve with you in Wyoming. Serving among you has been among the greatest honors of my life. I thank God for the inestimable gift I was given of ministering alongside you over the last three years, as we together sought to follow the Christ of the Wyoming Road, and be open to whatever new frontiers he led us towards.”
