The Office of Public Affairs reports that the Rt. Rev. W. Michie “Mike” Klusmeyer, Bishop of West Virginia, has replaced the Rt. Rev. Nathan Baxter, Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, on the Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori appointed Bishop Klusmeyer to represent Province III.
Bishop Baxter announced in January that he intended to resign in May because of persistent health problems. Those problems include migraine headaches, vertigo, and fatigue.
“As I have communicated to you previously my health, though improved, continues to be insufficient to the demands and duties of this sacred office,” the bishop wrote in January. “The people and mission to which we are called need the energy and strength I cannot give.”
Baxter announced March 10 that the diocese’s standing committee has nominated the Rt. Rev. Robert Gepert, Bishop of Western Michigan from 2002 to 2013, as provisional bishop. The diocese’s next convention, scheduled for June 13-14, will vote on the nomination.
“This choice has been done in consultation with the Presiding Bishop’s Office and my support,” Bishop Baxter wrote. “He will join us later in Lent as Assisting Bishop until the vote of Convention and will then lead the Diocese through this current discernment season and the consecration of the next Diocesan Bishop on September 12, 2015.”
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.
