Idaho elects Brian Thom as 15th bishop; consecration set for October 11
Episcopal News Service. June 29, 2008 [062908-02]
Pat McCaughan, Correspondent for Episcopal Life Media in Province VIII
The Rev. Brian Thom was elected the 15th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho at a special convention June 28 at St. Michael's Cathedral in Boise.
Thom, rector of the Church of the Ascension in Twin Falls, Idaho, was elected on the sixth ballot from a slate of four candidates.
Thom was elected with 65 lay votes and 32 clergy votes. He needed 60 votes in the lay order and 27 in the clergy order to be elected, according to the Rev. Canon Karen Hunter, diocesan canon for Christian education and spiritual formation.
"Brian Thom has been in this diocese for 17 years," Hunter said June 28. He succeeds the Rt. Rev. Harry B. Bainbridge III, who began serving the diocese in 1998 and who had undergone chemotherapy earlier this year. The ministries of Harry and Kit Bainbridge were celebrated on May 17.
Under the canons of the Episcopal Church (III.11.4), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan Standing Committees must consent to Thom's election and ordination as bishop.
Thom had served at Ascension since September 1991. He is a 1987 graduate of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, and had served congregations in Portland, Oregon, and Palm Desert, California.
A cradle Episcopalian, Thom was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and is a graduate of Oregon State University with a degree in forest management.
He has chaired the diocesan Commission on Ministry for the past five years and also serves on the diocesan Latino Ministry Development Committee. A five-time deputy to General Convention, he has served the last four conventions on the Committee on Ministry.
He is also active in local interfaith and community efforts, including serving as past president of the Kiwanis Club and as a board member for Planned Parenthood of Idaho and as a member of a county hospital biomedical ethics committee.
During questioning from the bishop's search committee he described his leadership style as collaborative and respectful, and himself as a casual and enjoyable teacher. "As a son of the Northwest, I understand its distances, geography and way of life," he said in remarks posted on the diocesan website.
He also described himself as "an advocate, a connector, a teacher, and a reconciler" who believes in the potential of long-term relationships.
"I believe in the ability of the Church to enlighten, challenge, and recreate us more and more into who we are as beloved children of God," he said. "I feel called to open myself to the transformation that apostolic ministry would foster."
His consecration is set for October 11 at St. Michael's Cathedral and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is expected to attend, according to the diocesan website.
The other nominees were:
- The Very Rev. Richard Demarest, dean, St. Michael's Cathedral, Boise, Idaho
- The Rev. Kelsey Hogue, rector, St. Francis Episcopal Church, Scottsbluff, Nebraska
- The Ven. Faith Perrizo, archdeacon, Diocese of West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia
The Diocese of Idaho stretches from the Church of the Redeemer in Salmon to the urban St. Michael's Cathedral in downtown Boise and from St. James, Payette, near the Oregon border, to St. Luke's, Idaho Falls at the gateway of the Yellowstone and the Tetons, and includes 29 congregations in-between.
The diocese also founded St. Luke's Hospital and St. Margaret's School for Women in Boise. The hospital, now a regional medical center and one of the largest facilities of its kind in the Northwest, is rated among the nation's top 100 hospitals. St. Margaret's School was the forerunner of Boise Junior College, which has grown into Boise State University, now the largest public university in the state.