Seattle Priest To Head Pa. Episcopal Diocese

The Rev. Michael W. Creighton of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in North Seattle has been selected from a national field as the next bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, based in Harrisburg.

Creighton, 54, was elected over the weekend at the 125th annual convention of the Pennsylvania diocese, which includes 70 parishes and 18,500 members.

He won a majority vote of lay and clergy delegates on the fourth ballot, and then was affirmed unanimously in a fifth ballot, according to Barry Ciccocioppo, diocesan spokesman. The 99-applicant field was narrowed to five finalists before the balloting.

Creighton was vacationing in Uganda and could not be reached for comment.

Grace Wilson, St. Stephen's parish secretary, described Creighton as "very warm, very pastoral . . . He will be the most honest and most true to his faith of any bishop around. It's a very mixed feeling (at St. Stephen's). We are glad for him. Their gain is our loss."

Ciccocioppo said details have not yet been worked out as to when Creighton will move to Harrisburg. He will succeed the Right Rev. Charlie F. McNutt, Jr., whom Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning yesterday named chief operating officer of the Episcopal Church of the United States.

Browning, who is in the Seattle area this week for a gathering of local and national church officials, appointed McNutt to the new post to oversee day-to-day operations of the church. Browning noted that he spends much of his time traveling among the church's dioceses and said McNutt would be his "alter ego" at New York headquarters.

The Episcopal Church is recovering from a $2.2 million embezzlement scandal. The church's former national treasurer, Ellen Cooke, allegedly took money from church coffers over a five-year period beginning in 1990, according to church officials. Browning said the church is seeking full restitution from Cooke. In the meantime, Browning appointed Robert Brown as interim treasurer. Brown recently retired as assistant treasurer.

When he succeeds McNutt, Creighton will become the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania's ninth bishop.

Creighton was born in St. Paul, Minn. He received a bachelor's degree in history from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and his master of divinity degree from the Episcopal Theological School in New York City. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and a mission worker in the Dominican Republic. He served parishes in San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., before being named rector, or senior priest, at St. Stephen's in Seattle's Laurelhurst neighborhood in 1981.

He has been active in housing, environmental and food issues through Seattle Habitat for Humanity, Earth Ministry and the Heifer Project International, among other initiatives.

Creighton and his wife, Elizabeth, have two children.

St. Stephen's will begin a process of calling a new rector. The associate rector is the Rev. Scott Miller.