Election of new bishop in Washington DC

The Diocese of Washington today elected The Rev. Dr. Mariann Edgar Budde to be its new bishop replacing The Rt. Rev. John Chane, who is retiring. She will need to be confirmed by the dioceses of the Episcopal Church before taking office. Here some information about Bishop-Elect Budde:

The Rev. Dr. Mariann Edgar Budde
Rector, Saint John's, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mariann’s first conscious experience of Christ took place in a fundamentalist Christian community when she was in high school in Colorado. In college in upstate New York, she discovered the political dimensions of faith, striving for social justice among Roman Catholics of the Catholic Worker movement. After college, she worked for the Methodist Church serving undocumented and homeless people in Tucson, Arizona. Through it all, she realized that her spiritual home was the Episcopal Church, where she could love God with heart and mind, meet Christ in the mystery of liturgy, and serve Him in the world. Born in New Jersey, Mariann returned there in her late teens, and inspired by her mother, became active in the Episcopal Church of her childhood.

Mariann has been the rector of St. John’s, Minneapolis since 1993, a congregation she has led through significant growth and ministry development. A practitioner of family systems theory, Mariann is particularly interested in how to lead faith communities through the systemic transformation required for growth. She is passionate about congregational health and clergy wellness, the public ministry of the church, and preaching as it informs the spiritual life of both priest and congregation. Since 2001, she has served as a Conference Leader for CREDO, a wellness initiative of the Church Pension Fund. 

While in seminary, Mariann spent a year, with her husband, Paul, in Central America. They worked at an Episcopal home for abandoned children. Mariann has returned to Central America many times, often leading groups on service trips. She has also supported the first Spanish-speaking Episcopal mission in the Diocese of Minnesota. St. John’s has a strong partner parish relationship with a congregation in Haiti, and Mariann has helped established parish friendships between St. John’s and Native American and Liberian congregations of the Diocese of Minnesota. She has also worked to address racial inequities and their consequences in the city of Minneapolis. For years, Mariann has immersed herself in the writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights era, and in preaching she draws regularly from that well of inspiration. 

She and Paul Budde have been married for 25 years. They have two sons, Amos, 23, and Patrick, 20. She cherishes time with her family. Other favorite activities include walking the family dog, riding her bike, reading, watching movies and football games, and attending concerts and plays. 

Mariann has learned that anything worth doing takes time. Leading a parish well, raising a family well, being faithful in any realm of life and ministry takes time, perseverance and faith. The miracle of the loaves and fishes is the spiritual foundation upon which she depends daily. While drawn to prophetic voices that inspire change, she nonetheless feels her call is one of leadership rather than prophecy. Her vocation is grounded in the work of aligning the church to the vision of God, taking small, steady steps to transform our lives, congregations, and structures to better serve God’s mission in the world.