[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Martha N. Macgill, 54, rector of Memorial Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, has been nominated by petition and added to a slate of five priests already chosen to stand for election as the Diocese of Atlanta’s next bishop.

The other candidates, announced on Feb. 13, are:

• the Rev. George F. Adamik, 58, rector, St. Paul’s Church, Cary, North Carolina (Diocese of North Carolina);
• the Rev. Michael A. Bird, 44, rector, Christ Church, Bronxville, New York (Diocese of New York);
• the Very Rev. Samuel G. Candler, 55, dean, Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta, Georgia (Diocese of Atlanta);
• the Rev. Canon James H. Pritchett, 55, canon to the ordinary, Diocese of Western North Carolina; and
• the Very Rev. Robert C. Wright, 48, rector, St. Paul’s Church, Atlanta, Georgia (Diocese of Atlanta).

The person elected will succeed Bishop J. Neil Alexander, who was elected in 2001. At the time of his election, Alexander was a professor at the University of the South School of Theology and was priest in charge of St. Agnes’ Church in Cowan, Tennessee. Upon his resignation as diocesan bishop he will become professor of liturgics and head the Department for Anglican Studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

All candidates will come to the Diocese of Atlanta for five public gatherings during the week of May 13. The election of the 10th bishop of Atlanta is scheduled for June 2 and the bishop-elect will be ordained Oct. 13, both at the Cathedral of St. Philip.

A document introducing the final slate of candidates can be viewed here.

Because the election falls within 120 days of the start of the July 4-12 meeting of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention, that body must consent to the bishop-elect’s ordination.

The diocese has a website here devoted to the bishop search and transition.