Adapted from an announcement by the Companions of St. Luke–OSB
The Rt. Rev. R. William Franklin, Bishop of Western New York, is the new episcopal visitor to the Companions of St. Luke–OSB. Members of the order elected Franklin to succeed the Rt. Rev. Dean Wolfe, Bishop of Kansas, as their visitor.
The Episcopal Church requires religious communities and orders that operate independently from normal diocesan structures to elect a bishop visitor to assure that they have ecclesiastical support and oversight.
Early in his career, Bishop Franklin taught courses on monastic history at the Benedictine St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. While at St. John’s he taught at several Benedictine Experiences at the Episcopal House of Prayer.
The bishop has been married since 1971 to Carmela Vircillo Franklin, a scholar in medieval studies at Columbia University.
The Companions of St. Luke is a dispersed Benedictine community with members in 20 states, the District of Columbia, and England. CSL began in the Diocese of Chicago in June 1992 and is a recognized Christian community of the Episcopal Church. The community is an active member of the National Association of Episcopal Christian Communities.
