Shay Craig elected bishop of North Dakota

[Episcopal News Service] The Very Rev. Shay Craig, dean of Christ Cathedral in Salina, Kansas, was elected bishop of the Fargo-based Diocese of North Dakota Oct. 25 on the first ballot.

The Very Rev. Shay Craig was elected bishop of the Diocese of North Dakota on Oct. 25, 2025. Photo: Diocese of North Dakota

Craig, who also serves as a member of Executive Council, will succeed Bishop Provisional Brian Thom, who has served in the role since 2024. Bishop Michael G. Smith resigned from the Diocese in 2019 and went on to serve as a part-time assisting bishop in the Diocese of Dallas before becoming assisting bishop in the Diocese of Albany.

The other nominees were:

• The Rev. Lecia Diaz Brannon, director of alumni relations for the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas;
• The Rev. Brandt Montgomery, chaplain of Saint James School in Hagerstown, Maryland, and vicar of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Boonsboro, Maryland;
• The Rev. Benjamin Thomas, executive manager of Becketwood, a 55-plus senior housing cooperative in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in the San Francisco, California, area, Craig earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. While an active member of Christ Church in Winnetka, Illinois, where she served on the vestry and taught Sunday School, she felt a call to ordained ministry, according to her biography on the Diocese of North Dakota’s website.

After earning a Master of Theological Studies in Hebrew Bible from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Craig worked as the Diocese of Chicago’s development officer until she was ordained a priest in 2018. Soon after, she moved to Kansas.

In addition to dean, Craig has served as the Diocese of Western Kansas’s canon for congregational development and vitality and as standing committee chair.

Craig has focused much of her ordained career on rural ministry and serving small churches in remote areas with limited resources. She co-hosts monthly Zoom meetings for small and rural churches in Province VII.

A mother of four children, she is married to John Houston, an assistant general counsel member for the Kansas Supreme Court Office of Judicial Administration.

Upon completion of The Episcopal Church’s consent process, Craig is scheduled to be ordained and consecrated on March 24, 2026, by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe.

As bishop, Craig will lead 18 congregations across North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota.