Johnston Consecrated Bishop Coadjutor Orderly process of transition and vesting of Episcopal authority begun
By the Rev. Lauren R. Stanley
WASHINGTON (May 26) – With the sounds of Rolling Thunder motorcycles filling the streets of the nation’s capital in the background, a different sort of roar rolled through the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday when the Rt. Rev. Shannon Sherwood Johnston was consecrated as the bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Virginia.
Three times during the service – twice in response to liturgical questions from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and once proclaiming “Amen” at the conclusion of the prayer of consecration – the congregation’s roaring approvals echoed throughout the great stone cathedral for six seconds each.
Bishop Johnston, 48, will succeed the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, the 12th bishop of Virginia who has led the diocese since 1985, when the latter retires sometime in the next three years.
Rolling Thunder is a motorcycle rally held each Memorial Day in Washington dedicated to Vietnam War veterans, to those who are missing in action, were prisoners of war or who died during the war. Approximately 100,000 riders participate each year. During the weekend, the roar of the motorcycles echoes through the city and its surrounding suburbs.
The service, attended by 2,043 people, was filled with special music, including a violin solo performed by world renowned violinist Eugene Fodor during the prelude, several pieces performed by musician friends James Martin, baritone, and David O’Steen, pianist, from St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Jackson, Miss., and a special hymn, Rise, O Church set to a new tune, Shannon, composed for the consecration by William Bradley Roberts. Dr. Roberts also composed the music for a prayer written by Bishop Johnston for use in his parish. Choirs from 21 churches, including the new bishop’s former parish, participated.
In his sermon, the Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of Atlanta, urged Bishop Johnston to “wear us out! Wear us out with the promise of the resurrection!”
The consecration, Bishop Alexander said, was “an act of faith, a sign of hope, a living reminder of the mission that Jesus Christ has given to the Church. It is an act of faith in God’s confidence in the Church, God’s faith in us to live boldly, perhaps even daringly.”
This day, he said, was a “bold reminder to ourselves and the world that the mission of Jesus continues. We are not prepared to give up, to let up, to hold back or to relax.”
Bishop Lee, 69, said afterward that he was “very hopeful for the Diocese and excited by the support” that both he and Bishop Johnston have received. For himself, he said, “the end has begun. (Bishop Johnston) is the kind of guy who is not looking over my shoulder, telling me to get out of the way … he’s asking, ‘What can I learn to be a good bishop?’”
Bishop Jefferts Schori, who served as the chief consecrator, was joined by Bishop Lee, Virginia Bishop Suffragan David Colin Jones, Bishop Alexander, Michigan Bishop Wendell Gibbs, Mississippi Bishop Duncan M. Gray III and West Virginia Bishop Michie Klusmeyer. Twenty-five other bishops also participated in the consecration.
“It was a delight to see 30 bishops of the Church gather to celebrate, and an utter delight to hear Fodor perform” Bach’s Ciaconna, Bishop Jefferts Schori said.
“The music and the preaching were all right on target,” Bishop Gibbs said. “It’s all about resurrection. We finally got back on message. Thanks be to God!”
Throughout the service, Bishop Johnston and his wife, Ellen, exchanged glances, smiles and tears across the center aisle of the cathedral. “I feel great!” Mrs. Johnston said at the conclusion of the service.
“I am incredibly uplifted,” Bishop Johnston said during the reception that followed. “We were raised by God’s grace and held by an embrace of affection by the people of the Diocese and the bishops. I am so confident of who we are now and what we are going to be and do together.”
Bishop Johnston will make his first episcopal visit to the Church of the Holy Comforter in Vienna on Sunday. “It does not get better than that, visiting that church on the Feast of Pentecost,” he said. His initial duties this summer, he said, will be to “get to know the congregations, the leadership and the clergy of the Diocese. I want to go out into the Diocese and find out what it is like on the front lines, to meet with vestries and to really get to know the clergy and their families.”
Prior to his election, Bishop Johnston was rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Tupelo, in the Diocese of Mississippi. He was elected on Jan. 26 at the Diocese of Virginia’s 212th Annual Council in Richmond. Bishop Johnston, a 1988 graduate of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., also served as rector of Church of the Advent in Sumner, Miss., and as curate at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, in Selma, Ala. He was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in 1988 in the Diocese of Alabama.
The Diocese of Virginia has approximately 90,000 members in 195 churches.
