Massachusetts diocese ordains Alan M. Gates as bishop

By ENS staff
Posted Sep 17, 2014
The Rt. Rev. Alan Gates. Photo: Matthew Cavanaugh/Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. Alan Gates. Photo: Matthew Cavanaugh/Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts ordained and consecrated the Rev. Alan M. Gates as its 16th bishop on Sept. 13 during a service at the Agganis Arena at Boston University.

Bishop Stephen T. Lane of the Diocese of Maine, president of Province I of the Episcopal Church, served as the chief consecrator. He was among some 4,000 participants and 27 bishops who attended the service. A massed choir of 550-plus singers from nearly 75 parish choirs performed, along with a gospel choir, a brass ensemble, a steel drum band and a handbell choir.

Bishop Mark Hollingsworth Jr. of the Diocese of Ohio, and formerly a priest of the Diocese of Massachusetts, preached.

A photo gallery of the service is available here.

Gates, 56, former rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Ohio, was elected bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts on April 5.

Gates is a Massachusetts native and graduate of Middlebury College. Prior to seminary he was a Russian language translator, researcher and intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense, including a tour of duty at the State Department. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. He served congregations in the Episcopal dioceses of Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts and Chicago prior to his call to Ohio. He and his spouse, Patricia J. Harvey, have two adult sons.

Gates succeeds the Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, who has served the Diocese of Massachusetts as its bishop since 1995 and who resigned his office at the time of the consecration on Sept. 13.

The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, established in 1784, is among the Episcopal Church’s oldest and largest in terms of baptized membership, and comprises 180 parishes, missions, chapels and campus chaplaincies in eastern Massachusetts.


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