Bishop Reed’s Homily Investiture Service from Episcopal Diocese of West Texas on Vimeo.
The Rt. Rev. David M. Reed was invested as the 10th Bishop of West Texas on June 3 during a service at TMI-The Episcopal School of Texas in San Antonio. Clergy and lay members of the diocese filled the 500-seat chapel.
Reed was first consecrated as a bishop in 2006, when he was elected to serve as the diocese’s fifth bishop suffragan. Reed is the first bishop suffragan of the diocese to be chosen as diocesan bishop.
The Rt. Rev. Gary R. Lillibridge, ninth bishop of the diocese, who retires this summer, presided at the service and led him through the renewal of his ordination vows. During the service, Lillibridge handed over the diocesan bishop’s crozier that has been carried by bishops of the diocese for 98 years.
During his homily, Reed said he was able to accept the pageantry of a bishop’s investiture, as long as the diocesan family “doesn’t forget where we’re headed together with Jesus, if we will give ourselves to the work of remembering the life to which we are called by the grace, mercy, and love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. I will go along with this, if you will go along with me … this way, following Jesus … toward the Kingdom.”
Last year, Reed introduced his vision for the diocese: the kingdom of God, which he said is the reason the diocese Texas exists.
“I can be audacious enough to take the pastoral staff and serve as a shepherd only because Jesus is our one, true Good Shepherd; and therefore, the whole Church — all of us sheep of his pasture — are called to rise up on our hind hooves and be shepherds of the kingdom with him,” Bishop Reed said.
Changing the traditional closing procession, Reed exited the chapel first, along with the other visiting bishops, and he asked the acolytes, vergers, and children to go last, “the place of honor in a parade,” he said.
“Real shepherds don’t stay in the back, but lead and move among the sheep and know them by name. And shepherds are called to lead the Church outside … passionate and open-armed … where Jesus is calling us, into the pain, anger, and division of our world,” Reed said.
Reed was ordained a priest in January 1984 after receiving his Master of Divinity degree from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin in 1983. He served as the assistant rector of St. Alban’s, Harlingen (1983-87), rector of St. Francis, Victoria (1987-1994), and rector of St. Alban’s, Harlingen (1994-2006). He is married to Patti (Kopec) Reed, and they have two grown children.
David Reed-Investiture Homily by TheLivingChurchdocs on Scribd
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.
