This is part of series of question-and-answer columns from the Bishop Search Committee. Wondering what’s going on? Looking for details? Ask the committee by submitting questions here.
Q. What’s the minimum age to be elected a bishop? When do bishops have to retire?
A. The minimum age, per the Constitution of The Episcopal Church, is 30 years of age. Bishops must retire within 90 days of their 72nd birthday.
Q. How old are most bishops when they’re elected?
A. The average age at election is 55. Average age at retirement is 66. And the average length of an episcopate is 8.9 years. Fewer and fewer bishops are staying until they turn 72.
Q. Who is the youngest bishop?
A. The Right Rev. Douglas Scharf of Southwest Florida, who was elected at age 43 and is now 45 years old. The Church is starting to see more candidates in their 40s. (The Presiding Bishop, the Right Rev. Sean Rowe, was the youngest member of the House of Bishops when he was elected bishop of Northwest Pennsylvania in 2007 at the age of 32.)
Q. How often are bishops elected on the first ballot?
A. It’s infrequent but it does happen. West Missouri in 2024; Central Florida in 2023; Louisiana, Utah, and Idaho in 2022; and Georgia in 2020 all elected on the first ballot.
Q. Okay, then tell us how many ballots it typically does take.
A. Typically between 3 and 4.
Q. And remind us what it takes to be elected.
A. A candidate must obtain a majority (50 percent plus 1) in both the lay order and the clergy order on the same ballot.
Q. Tell us about bishops’ numbers.
A. The Church maintains a list of every bishop, numbered from #1 – Samuel Seabury – down to the most recently consecrated bishop, showing the historic succession of the episcopate within the Church. Every bishop knows his or her number. Bishop Taylor is the 1101st bishop in the American Succession. The newest bishop in the Episcopal Church, the Very Rev. Amy Dafler Meaux, who will be consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of West Missouri on May 3, will be #1171. When the bishops formally process as a group they line up according to their numbers.