Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announces staff departures, new top appointments
[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, in his first week in office, has made a series of changes to churchwide staffing that were, Rowe said in a Nov. 4 letter to church leaders, “the result of discernment on the part of the people involved, and I give thanks for their dedication and love for our church.”
Three of the top leaders on the staff of the former presiding bishop, the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, will leave by the end of 2024: the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, who served nine years as the presiding bishop’s canon for evangelism, reconciliation and creation care; Bishop Todd Ousley, who has served since 2017 as head of the Office of Pastoral Development; and the Rev. Ann Hallisey, who has served for the past year as canon to the presiding bishop for ministry within The Episcopal Church.
Rowe also announced the appointment of three individuals to newly created positions on his leadership team.
Vanessa Butler will serve as executive coordinator to the presiding bishop. She has worked with Rowe in the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania since 2007, when he was consecrated bishop of the diocese. After serving as canon for administration of that diocese and its partner diocese, Western New York, her role in the presiding bishop’s office will include managing Rowe’s schedule and responding to inquiries to his office.
The Rev. Lester Mackenzie, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Laguna Beach, California, has also served as chaplain to various churchwide governance bodies and was elected this year to a six-year term on Executive Council. Rowe appointed him to his staff as chief of mission program, to “support bishops and dioceses, diocesan networks and church organizations by strategizing, coordinating and building capacity for ministries of racial reconciliation, creation care, formation and evangelism, and other key mission priorities.”
Rebecca Wilson, a partner at Canticle Communications who previously worked as a consultant with Rowe, was appointed his chief of strategy. Rowe has asked her to “support me in developing and implementing mission strategy and our structural realignment; coordinating governance ministry; and supporting dioceses experiencing crises and discerning new models for ministry.”
The staff announcements come two days after the beginning of Rowe’s nine-year term was celebrated at a scaled-down investiture on Nov. 2 in the Chapel of Christ the Lord at the church’s New York headquarters. The livestream of the service generated an estimated 20,0000 views, including at watch parties hosted across The Episcopal Church.
The Most Rev. Sean Rowe took office as presiding bishop on Nov. 1 after his election in June to a nine-year term as the denominational leader.
“Our ministry together has officially begun,” Rowe said in his letter to church leaders, which was released by the Office of Public Affairs. “I first want to thank you for the warm and generous welcome that so many of you extended to me and my family over the investiture weekend. Your video greetings and messages are reminders that we are, as I said on Saturday, one church. I am grateful for each of them and for you.”
The letter offered the first round of what could be significant changes to the structure of the presiding bishop’s leadership team and churchwide staff under Rowe. Spellers, for example, had been one of Curry’s most prominent advisers and a renowned leader in the church’s work on issues of racial reconciliation, evangelism and creation care. In 2021, she also published the book “The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community.”
Spellers chose to step down from her position “to devote time to research on a new book and a period of discernment and reflection,” Rowe said. Her last day is Nov. 30.
Ousley has had several responsibilities as leader of the Office of Pastoral Development, including assisting dioceses in bishop elections and consecrations, recruiting bishops provisional for dioceses in need of interim leadership, ensuring bishops received adequate pastoral support and receiving complaints against bishops under the church’s Title IV disciplinary process. In 2023, Curry reassigned the role of Title IV intake officer to a newly created position, allowing Ousley to focus on his other responsibilities.
Ousley will continue to serve through the end of this year, Rowe said, “assisting me by transitioning the work he has done so faithfully for the last seven years,” after which Rowe “will assess the structure of the Office of Pastoral Development and plan for the future.”
Hallisey, who will step down at the end of the year, was the newest of the presiding bishop’s canons. She was appointed to oversee ministry with The Episcopal Church by Curry after the Rt. Rev. Mike Klusmeyer, former bishop of West Virginia, served in the role for one year. Curry’s two previous appointees each had left to be consecrated as bishops: the Rt. Rev. Michael Hunn in 2018 in the Diocese of the Rio Grande and the Rt. Rev. E. Mark Stevenson in the Diocese of Virginia in 2022.
Curry’s other canon, the Rev. Charles Robertson, remains on Rowe’s staff as canon to the presiding bishop for mission beyond The Episcopal Church.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
