The Diocese of Chicago will have to wait a little longer for its new bishop.
In a video recorded yesterday in Chicago, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry announced that the ordination and consecration of Bishop-elect Paula Clark has been postponed from August 28 to a date to be determined in consultation with the bishop-elect and her doctors.
“We continue to have every expectation that Bishop-elect Clark will make a recovery enabling her to serve as the bishop of Chicago,” he said. “But we are not there yet. Please hear me when I say, we are not there yet!”
…“While my medical team was confident I could have gone forward on August 28, the Presiding Bishop, Anne Jolly and I feel it is best if I can be healed more at the time of the consecration, and able to begin work with you together,” Clark said.
Curry plans to meet with the bishop-elect and her doctors in early October and, if necessary, every three months thereafter to assess her progress.
… The Standing Committee remains the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese, [Standing Committee President Anne] Jolly said in the video. The group is in the final stages of securing an assisting bishop to serve the diocese beginning in the fall and expects to make an announcement in the coming weeks.
“The Standing Committee, I will tell you, are your biggest cheerleaders,” Jolly told Clark. “We support you and pray for you and we have every expectation that you will make a full recovery and we look forward to the day that we can all serve together for this Diocese of Chicago we love so dearly.”
Paula Clark was elected as the 13th Bishop of Chicago on December 12, 2020. Her ordination and consecration, which was originally scheduled for April 24, was put on hold after Clark suffered a brain bleed.
The video announcement can be watched here.