C. Franklin Brookhart
Bishop Brookhart
C. Franklin Brookhart, Jr. retired in 2018 after 15 years as ninth bishop of the Diocese of Montana. He began visiting congregations in the Diocese of Los Angeles in early 2020, but his schedule was interrupted by the COVID quarantine.
Born in West Virginia and raised in West Virginia and Ohio, Brookhart graduated from Ohio’s Wittenberg University and attended divinity school at Vanderbilt University. He received his master of divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Seminary; his doctorate in homiletics was conferred by United Theological Seminary.
Before his election as bishop of Montana, he was a parish priest in West Virginia, where he also was the bishop’s deputy for ecumenism. He helped to prepare the “Call to Common Mission” statement that established full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
During his tenure as bishop, Brookhart was actively involved with community service organizations and served as adjunct faculty for United Theological Seminary (Methodist) and Wheeling Jesuit University. He continued his ecumenical work as co-chair of the United Methodist-Episcopal Bilateral Dialogue and as a member of the General Convention legislative committee and Episcopal Church standing committee on ecumenical and interreligious relations.
Brookhart is the author of Living the Resurrection: Reflections After Easter; Journey with Jesus: Encountering Christ in his Birth, Baptism, Death and Resurrection; The Language of Love: A Basic Christian Vocabulary; and, most recently, Washing and Well-Fed: How the Sacraments Change Everything.
He and his wife, Susan Moyer Brookhart, a private educational consultant, now live in Los Angeles. They have two adult daughters.
Edward Little
Bishop Little
Ed Little returned recently to Los Angeles, where he earned his bachelor’s degree from USC and later served as vicar and first rector of St. Joseph’s Church, Buena Park. He was rector of All Saints Church, Bakersfield, when he was elected as bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana in 1999.
A native of New York City, Little earned his master of divinity degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in 1971 in the Diocese of Chicago. During his episcopate he focused on congregational development, helping the mostly small churches of his diocese to expand their ministries by addressing needs in their communities. His efforts also resulted in a thriving Spanish-language ministry as the Latino population of the area grew.
Little was recently married to Claudia Thompson. Between them, their family includes five adult children, eight grandchildren and two happily compatible dogs. They live in Long Beach.
He has written several books, including Ears to Hear: Recognizing and Responding to God’s Call; Joy in Disguise: Meeting Jesus in the Dark Times; and most recently The Heart of a Leader, in which he explores Paul’s second letter to Timothy as “a training manual, a book of encouragement, and an outline of how a leader guides the church,” as he told his publisher, Forward Movement, in a 2020 interview.