Bishop Paul Marshall is resigning

Bishop Paul Marshall of the Diocese of Bethlehem is sending this letter to the Standing Committee of the diocese today:

July 15, 2013

The Standing Committee

Diocese of Bethlehem

333 Wyandotte Street

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I was my long-held intention to serve you as long as the canons permit. Life contains surprises, however. A number of circumstances and conversations have made it very for me to continue as bishop of a diocese that I have come to love with all my heart. I will resign for the canonical reasons of “advanced age” as of December 31 of this year.

I will turn over ecclesiastical authority to the Standing Committee at noon on August 1, the beginning of my usual holiday. I will move up my long-delayed sabbatical from 2014 to September of this year, continuing that terminal sabbatical until I lay down my crosier on December 31, thus giving me time to transition into the last stage of my life and giving the diocese all of 2014 to accumulate the funds required to finance an episcopal election.

Canon Gerns will be in contact with Bishop Clayton Matthews, who will guide you through the process of providing episcopal ministry and selecting my successor.

This comes, as always, with my best wishes and blessing. I doubt that there are many bishops who have had as much satisfaction over seventeen yearsl

Faithfully,

(The Rt. Rev.) Paul V. Marshall

Editor’s note: Canon Andrew Gerns, who is mentioned in this letter, is president of the diocesan Standing Committee and a Café news blogger. He played no role in our obtaining a copy of the letter.