[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Western North Carolina Standing Committee April 18 announced a four-priest slate of candidate to be the next diocesan bishop.

The candidates are:

• The Rev. Hannah E. Atkins, Trinity Episcopal Church, Houston, Texas;
• The Rev. Cyndi Banks, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Boone, North Carolina;
• The Rev. Thomas James Brown, Episcopal Parish of the Epiphany, Winchester, Massachusetts;
• The Rev. Canon José Antonio McLoughlin, canon to the ordinary, Diocese of Oklahoma

For more information on the candidates, click here.

The election is set for June 25. The seventh bishop of the diocese will succeed Bishop G. Porter Taylor who has announced that he will resign at the end of September. He has served bisop since September 2004.