Matthew Cavanaugh
Bishop Julia Whitworth exits Trinity Church to the congregation's applause at the conclusion of the Oct. 19 consecration service.
View the livestream recording of the service here.
The Rt. Rev. Julia E. Whitworth was ordained and consecrated a bishop in the Diocese of Massachusetts on Saturday, Oct. 19 at Trinity Church in Boston, surrounded in celebration by an attending congregation of 1,200 and an additional 3,800-plus viewers online via livestream and from seven watch party locations hosted by churches around the diocese.
Whitworth is the 17th bishop diocesan of the Diocese of Massachusetts, which comprises the 180 parishes, missions, chapels, chaplaincies and worshiping communities in eastern Massachusetts. Established in 1784, it is among the Episcopal Church's oldest and largest, in terms of baptized membership.
The former rector of Trinity Church in Indianapolis, Whitworth succeeds the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, who served as the bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts since 2014 and, in preparation for retirement, resigned his office as of Oct. 19.
While women have served in suffragan and assistant bishop roles in the Diocese of Massachusetts--beginning with the late Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, the Massachusetts bishop suffragan who in 1989 became the Anglican Communion's first female bishop--Whitworth is the first woman to head the diocese in the role of bishop diocesan.
Matthew Cavanaugh
The Rev. Winnie Varghese, the rector of St. Luke's Church in Atlanta, preaches the consecration sermon.
"I am so honored to be with you to celebrate Julia Whitworth and the great commitment that she makes today with you towards God's future here in Massachusetts. This diocese is such an important witness to the entire Episcopal Church, to God's wild, wonderful, hope- and justice-filled future," the Rev. Winnie Varghese, the rector of St. Luke's Church in Atlanta, said in her sermon.
"You have elected one with a directness and moral clarity that matches your history. I don't know if you know that about her yet," Varghese said. "In standing here I feel the close presence of some who have served this diocese and also marked my life and yours, Barbara Harris, Tom Shaw, Ed Rodman. We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses this morning."
"How in this time are we to be a light to the nations?" Varghese asked. She named predominating evils, ills and anxieties--natural disasters, war and genocide, racism and violence, the impending and, for many, fear-inducing presidential election--and reflected on them, and on a bishop's role at such a time, in the light of the day's Gospel reading from John 4 and the living water of new life in Christ that the Samaritan woman receives through her encounter with Jesus at the well.
"Julia, I wonder if your call includes to believe in us so that we may have the courage to find words and ways to love our neighbors, the truthful ways, possibly the healing ways, the institutional, the systemic and the personally healing ways, to build vessels for healing waters," she said.
The diversity of the Episcopal Church in eastern Massachusetts was evident through the many voices, languages and musicians taking part in the three-hour service. Along with a brass ensemble, singers from some 20 parish choirs joined the choirs of Trinity Church to perform music for the service. Members of the diocese's African Clergy Caucus and their families led singing during the celebration of Holy Eucharist. The service was also the debut of a new hymn, "From the first word of creation," written by Susan Palo Cherwien and Jason Roberts for the new bishop and her family, in thanksgiving for their ministry at Trinity Church in Indianapolis.
Matthew Cavanaugh
The bishops lay hands on the bishop-elect's head during the prayer of consecration.
A highlight of the service was the sacred and solemn moment when the 30 bishops participating from around the country placed their hands on Whitworth's head during the prayer of consecration--a passing on of episcopal authority in what is believed to be an unbroken line from Christ's apostles.
Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry served as the chief consecrator at what was his final consecration service as presiding bishop, as his nine-year term concludes in November ahead of his retirement.
Co-consecrators were retiring Massachusetts Bishop Alan M. Gates and Massachusetts Assistant Bishop Carol J. Gallagher; Western Massachusetts Bishop Douglas J. Fisher; Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer L. Baskerville-Burrows; New York Bishop Matthew F. Heyd; retired Maine Bishop Chilton R. Knudsen; and Bishop Nathan D. Pipho of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Whitworth was seated the following day, Oct. 20, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston. The cathedral church presented the service of Evensong together with Old North Church in Boston--both known as "peculiars" in that they are not parishes but institutions under the direct authority of the bishop.
"So this day you have seated me in this chair, in this place, and there are chairs all over this diocese like this where I will be privileged to sit, so that we all might be reminded together that we are called to this work together," Whitworth said in her sermon. "So let's be peculiar, let's be peculiar together, be an organization that is meant not for its members but for those just outside our doors to whom we say: All are welcome. Thanks be to God."
Whitworth was ordained to the priesthood in September 2010 and served as the assistant rector of St. James's Church in West Hartford, Conn., from 2010 to 2012, and then as the canon for liturgy and the arts at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, from 2013 to 2016. She was the rector of Trinity Church in Indianapolis from 2016 until her election as bishop in May.
While in the Diocese of Indianapolis, she was a General Convention deputy and a member of the Executive Council and the Committee for Canons and Constitution. She also served on the Board of Trustees of St. Richard’s Episcopal School; the Board of Directors of Trinity Haven, the first dedicated residence for LGBTQ+ youth in Indiana; and the LGBTQ+ youth advocacy organization Shelly’s Voice. She is a former member of the Governing Board of the National Association of Episcopal Schools.
She is a 1993 graduate of Dartmouth College, where she majored in drama and English, with minors in women's studies and education. She holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University/Tisch School of the Arts, in performance studies, and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary.
Whitworth is married to artist-designer Ray Neufeld. They have three children, Liam, Gregory and Grace.
--Tracy J. Sukraw