Gayle Harris
Gayle Elizabeth Harris was ordained as Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 2003, succeeding Barbara Harris. This was the first time in the Episcopal Church in the United States that a woman was succeeded as bishop by another woman.
Early life and ministry
Harris was born on February 12, 1951, in Cleveland, Ohio. She studied at the Lewis & Clark College and then at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, from where she earned a Master of Divinity. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity by the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 2002, and an honorary Doctor of Humanity from the New England Law Boston.Harris was ordained as a deacon in June 1981 and as a priest in February 1982. She served as assistant to Grace Church Van Vorst in Jersey City, New Jersey, and as diocesan Urban Resident at St. Philip's Church in Washington, D.C., from 1982 to 1984. In 1984, she became priest-in-charge of Holy Communion Church in Washington, D.C., and simultaneously as a member of the clergy at Washington National Cathedral. She left Washington for Rochester, New York, in 1992, to become the rector of St. Luke and St, Simon Cyrene's Church, where she remained until 2002.
She was elected Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts on June 1, 2002, and was consecrated on January 18, 2003, at Trinity Church, Boston, by Bishop Arthur Benjamin Williams Jr. She chairs the House of Bishops Pastoral Development Committee and is the convenor of the Episcopal Bishops of African Descent.
In 2022, she retired as Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts. In April 2023, she became the Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia.