The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee is the Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, one of the oldest and largest dioceses in the Episcopal Church. With 90,000 baptized members and 455 clergy, the diocese includes 194 churches in the 38 central and northern counties of Virginia, owns five secondary schools, operates two conference centers, participates in the sponsorship of six retirement communities, and is one of the founding dioceses of the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. The diocesan headquarters are in the Mayo Memorial Church House in Richmond.

Bishop Lee became the 12th Bishop of Virginia on May 27, 1985, upon the death of the Rt. Rev. Robert B. Hall, his predecessor. He had been elected Bishop Coadjutor of Virginia the previous year and was consecrated at the Washington National Cathedral on May 19, 1984.

Bishop Lee was born May 11, 1938, in Greenville, Mississippi, and raised in Pensacola, Florida, where he attended the public schools. He was graduated magna cum laude from Washington and Lee University in 1960, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He studied law at Duke University before entering Virginia Theological Seminary, where he received his M.Div. cum laude in 1967.

He was ordained to the diaconate in June 1967 by Bishop Hamilton West of Florida and to the priesthood in May 1968 by Bishop William Creighton of Washington. He served as a deacon at St. John's Cathedral, Jacksonville, Florida, and from 1968‑1971 was assistant minister at St. John's Church, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.

In 1971, Bishop Lee became rector of the Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the parish that serves both the community and the University of North Carolina, and continued as rector there until he was consecrated a bishop in May 1984.

Bishop Lee was awarded the honorary degree of doctor of divinity by the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1984, by the University of the South in 1993 and the degree of Doctor of Letters from Washington and Lee University in 1998. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Virginia Theological Seminary and Rector of the Board of the Episcopal High School in Alexandria. As Bishop of Virginia, he is Chairman of the Board and President of Shrine Mont, Inc., and chairs the Memorial Trustees (the body that owns the Virginia Diocesan Center at Roslyn) and the Trustees of the Funds of the Diocese of Virginia. He also presides at the annual meeting of the Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia, Inc. He has been a trustee of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. 

The Bishop is currently a member and co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Church Pension Fund and he is co-chair of the Joint Nominating Committee for the Presiding Bishop.  He has served on the Board of Directors of the Greater Richmond YMCA, the Board of Directors of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Advisory Committee to the Anglican Observer at the United Nations. He previously served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief and was chairman of its grants committee. He also served as a member of the Cathedral Chapter of the Washington National Cathedral.

In 1997, Bishop Lee received the Jessie Ball duPont Fund Award for "courageous and bold commitment to community leadership and social ministry," from the trustees of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.

Before he entered seminary, Bishop Lee was a U.S. Army intelligence officer and was decorated for service with the U.S. Eighth Army in Seoul, Korea. He has been a newspaper reporter and copy editor in Memphis, Tennessee; Pensacola, Florida; and Richmond, Virginia.

Bishop Lee and his wife Kristina live in Richmond; their married children are, a daughter, Stewart, a son, James, and five grandchildren. 

Biography last revised April 2006