Dorsey McConnell

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Dorsey W. M. McConnell was elected April 21 as eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

McConnell, 58, rector of Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, was elected on the sixth ballot from a field of three nominees. Two other nominees withdrew after the third ballot. McConnell received 47 votes of 83 cast in the lay order and 31 of 41 cast in the clergy order. An election on that ballot required 43 votes in the lay order and 22 in the clergy order.

The election was held in the context of a service of Eucharist during a special convention at Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh.

McConnell will succeed the Rt. Rev. Kenneth L. Price Jr., who has served the diocese as provisional bishop since 2009.

McConnell, 58, has served as rector of Church of the Redeemer since 2004. He previously served congregations in New York, Seattle and Boston, and has been a chaplain at Yale. He helped to found and lead the New Commandment Task Force, a national reconciliation effort within the Episcopal Church. He is an instructor for the Harvard Law School Reading Group on Faith and Legal Practice, and president of the international board of Pilgrim Africa, an ecumenical evangelism and redevelopment project in Uganda. He has served on many other committees and boards in all four dioceses in which he has served, and was a deputy to General Convention 2000 and an alternate in 2003.

He is a graduate of Yale and of General Theological Seminary, and was a Fulbright scholar in Paris, France. He is married to Elizabeth Marsden, a clinical social worker in private practice. They have one son, Evan, who is in college.

Because the election took place within 120 days of a meeting of General Convention, the House of Deputies and a majority of bishops with jurisdiction must consent to the election during their meeting in Indianapolis in July 2012.

Pending the necessary consents, the consecration is scheduled for October 20.

The other nominees were:

• The Rev. Canon Michael N. Ambler, Jr., 47, rector, Grace Episcopal Church, Bath, Maine (Diocese of Maine)
• The Rev. Canon Scott T. Quinn, 57, rector, Church of the Nativity, Crafton, Pennsylvania (Diocese of Pittsburgh)
• The Rev. R. Stanley Runnels, 59, rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Missouri (Diocese of Western Missouri)
• The Rev. Ruth Woodliff-Stanley, 49, rector, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Denver, Colorado (Diocese of Colorado).

Information about all the nominees is available here.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh is composed of 32 congregations in 11 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania.