The Diocese of Mississippi will have its third Bishop Duncan Montgomery Gray. The Rev. Duncan M. Gray III, rector of St. Peter's Church, Oxford, Miss., was elected Bishop Coadjutor of Mississippi Feb. 26 at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Jackson. The bishop-elect was chosen on the third ballot by a majority vote of clerical and lay delegates.

"I'm truly humbled by this whole process and the election and look forward to offering what gifts that may have been discerned in me to the diocese," said bishop-elect Gray. "It's my home - where I've been nurtured and shaped and formed - and I'm thrilled with the opportunity to offer these gifts."

Fr. Gray is the son of the Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray, Jr., seventh Bishop of Mississippi, who served from 1974 to 1993, and the grandson of the Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray, fifth bishop, whose episcopate extended from 1943 to 1966.

The bishop-elect is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon in 1975 and priest in 1976. He served as curate at St. James', Greenville, Miss.; chaplain of Trinity School, New Orleans, La.; and associate at Holy Communion, Memphis, Tenn., before he became rector of St. Peter's.

The new bishop will serve from the office of the diocese in Jackson, and will work with the Rt. Rev. A. C. Marble, Jr., Bishop of Mississippi. He will initially have responsibility within the diocese for missions and clergy oversight and will assume such other duties as may be assigned by the diocesan.

Assuming consents, consecration of the bishop-elect will occur June 17, at the Municipal Auditorium in Jackson.

Fr. Gray, 50, and his wife, Kathryn, are the parents of two children.

Other candidates for election were the Very Rev. Henry L. Hudson, dean of Trinity Cathedral, Little Rock, Ark.; the Rev. Elizabeth Claiborne Jones, rector of Epiphany, Atlanta, Ga.; the Rev. John R. Price, rector of St. Anne's, Annapolis, Md.; and the Rev. Leslie C. Smith rector of Trinity, Princeton, N.J.