Hopeful Beginning

Today was the first Sunday of Advent, which is the beginning of the Liturgical Year. It was also a beginning for the Episcopal Diocese of California, which elected a new bishop yesterday.

Born in Texas, Bishop-elect [Austin K.] Rios calls Rome, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas, and Louisiana home. He is of Mexican-American heritage on his father’s side and of Scotch and English descent on his mother’s side. Bishop-elect Rios is the first Latino elected bishop in the Diocese of California. He learned to speak Spanish and Italian as an adult and is fluent in both languages.

Rios currently lives in Rome, Italy, where he serves as rector of St Paul’s Within the Walls Episcopal Church, a multilingual and multicultural community that hosts an outreach center for refugees. Pending the required consent from the wider Episcopal Church, the bishop-elect will be ordained and consecrated on Saturday, May 4, 2024, and will serve as bishop coadjutor with Bishop Marc Handley Andrus until July 2024, when Bishop Andrus will retire. At that time, Rios will succeed Andrus as bishop diocesan.

We have stated our dissatisfaction with retiring Bishop Andrus' leadership of the Diocese. Here's hoping that Bishop-elect Rios will focus on the needs of his flock rather than the platform of the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party.