Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin to Elect Next Provisional Bishop at Special Convention, from a press release from the Diocese of San Joaquin:
Press Release – Website of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin
January 19, 2011
Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin to Elect Next Provisional Bishop at Special Convention
The Standing Committee has selected the Rt. Rev. Chester L. Talton, retired bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles, as the candidate for the next provisional bshop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin.
Delegates to a Special Diocesan Convention, scheduled for March 5 in Fresno, will vote whether or not to elect Bishop Talton in a process dictated by church canons. Talton succeeds the Rt. Rev. Jerry A. Lamb, who has served as Provisional Bishop since his election at the March 29, 2008 Special Meeting of the Diocesan Convention. The meeting will also include a celebration of the ministry and contributions of Bishop Lamb and his wife Jane prior to their return to their home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Bishop Talton’s installation service, led by Bishop Lamb, is scheduled to follow an affirming vote.
Born in Arkansas in 1941, Bishop Talton has spent much of his life in California. He attended California State University, Hayward (B.S. 1965) and Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, (M.Div.‘70, D.D.’92). He has served at churches in Berkeley, Carmel, Chicago, Saint Paul, and spent nine years in New York City as Mission Officer of Trinity Church (Wall Street) and the Rector of St. Philip’s Church (Harlem), prior to becoming Bishop Suffragan (a type of assisting bishop) of Los Angeles in 1991. Bishop Talton retired from Los Angeles in 2010 after serving as Bishop Suffragan for 19 years. After careful discernment, he was selected by the Standing Committee of San Joaquin in consultation with the Office of the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. Bishop Talton has four adult children. He and his wife, April, will divide their time between the Diocese of San Joaquin and their home in Pasadena.
The Taltons will arrive in the diocese later this month, and officially recognized by Bishop Lamb as a “Visiting Bishop” until the Special Meeting of the Diocesan Convention, Bishop Talton will begin to visit congregations and faith communities as of February 1. There will be three regional deanery meetings in Bakersfield, Fresno, and Modesto, scheduled on consecutive Sundays in February, where members of the diocese will have the opportunity to meet the Taltons and hear from Bishop Talton prior to the Special Convention in March.