The Rt. Rev. Rayford High has been called to serve as the next provisional bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth. Photo/Diocese of Texas

[Episcopal News Service] The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth has called the Rt. Rev. Rayford High, recently retired bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, to serve as its next provisional bishop. Clergy and laity attending the 30th Diocesan Convention Nov. 3 in Stephenville, Texas, will vote on the recommendation.

If elected, High will succeed the Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, who has served as provisional bishop since November 2009.

“I am deeply honored and humbled by the fact that the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth would ask me to be their provisional bishop,” said High, who served as bishop suffragan of the Texas diocese from 2003-2011. “I am thrilled and I am excited about it and I look forward to working with [the] laity and clergy of the diocese.”

Before his election as bishop, High, 71, served the Texas diocese as canon for pastoral ministries and liaison to St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston. His 32 years of parish ministry culminated in his service as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Waco. He represented the Texas diocese as a deputy at General Convention on eight occasions and was named Waco humanitarian of the year.

A native of Houston, High graduated from Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee and Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

High and his wife Pat have been married for 42 years. They have three children and six grandchildren.

The continuing Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth has been reorganizing since November 2008 when a majority of former clergy and lay leaders voted to leave the Episcopal Church. The diocese currently includes 20 active parishes with many more in the process of reorganization.