The Rt. Rev. Philip LaBelle was ordained and consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Olympia on Sept. 14 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry served as the chief consecrator. Photo: Courtesy of the Diocese of Olympia
[Diocese of Olympia] The Rt. Rev. Philip N. LaBelle was ordained and consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Olympia on Sept. 14 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. LaBelle leads nearly 26,000 Episcopalians in more than 100 worshiping communities across Western Washington.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry served as the chief consecrator. Co-consecrators were the Most Rev. Melissa Skelton, from the Anglican Church of Canada, who serves as bishop provisional of the Diocese of Olympia; former Western Massachusetts Bishop Gordon P. Scruton; Diocese of Massachusetts Assistant Bishop Carol J.W.T. Gallagher; Western Oregon Bishop Diana Akiyama; Maine Bishop Thomas J. Brown; the Rev. Richard E. Jaech, bishop of the Southwestern Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and the Rev. Shelley M. Bryan Wee, bishop of the Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Eighteen other bishops attended the service, as did over 125 priests and deacons from Western Washington and the wider Episcopal Church.
Olivia LaBelle, LaBelle’s daughter, and Liberato Arellano, of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Renton, read the lessons. The Rev. Lynette Poulton Kamakura, a deacon at St. Luke’s ~ San Lucas Episcopal Church in Vancouver read the Gospel. LeBelle’s wife, Melissa, and his children, Noah and Olivia, presented him with a stole, chasuble, pectoral cross and episcopal ring. The Rev. Michael Hamilton, a deacon at Christ the King-Epiphany in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, presented LaBelle with a miter. Skelton presented him with the diocesan crozier and Curry presented him with a Bible.
“Diocese of Olympia, you have a gem of a new bishop,” said the Rev. Pamela Werntz, rector of Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts, during her sermon. “Which is good because you are a gem of a diocese, and I feel sure that you all are going to help each other get shinier as you tumble around being church together in the days and years to come.”
Fred McIlroy, music director of Emmanuel Church in Mercer Island served as the service’s music director. He gathered a choir of more than 100 singers from churches across the Diocese of Olympia. Roughly 900 Episcopalians eager to celebrate LaBelle’s consecration and ordination attended the service, and more than 300 participated in the service remotely via livestream. The seating of LaBelle took place the following day in a special evensong at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle.
The Rt. Rev. Philip LaBelle was ordained and consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Olympia on Sept. 14 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. Presiding Bishop Michael LaBelle, center-right, is standing with his wife, Melissa, and two children. Photo: Courtesy of the Diocese of Olympia
“My family and I have, in the course of this spiritual journey, seen firsthand the abundant love of Jesus as it has been expressed by the people of the Diocese of Olympia,” LaBelle said after the consecration. “I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to serve with them in ministry in the years ahead as we seek to proclaim that love in Western Washington.”
LaBelle previously served as the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Southborough, Massachusetts. He received his Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary, focusing on Christian spirituality. He was elected bishop diocesan on May 18 and follows Skelton, who has led the diocese since former Bishop Greg Rickel resigned in December 2022.
A recording of the service can be found on the Diocese of Olympia’s YouTube channel. The service leaflet is also available online here.