Nearly Two Years After Election, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago’s First Black Female Bishop Takes Office

LOMBARD, Illinois (RNS) — Everyone would have understood if Bishop Paula E. Clark had stepped away from her call to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, said her fellow bishop, Mariann Edgar Budde of Washington.

Just weeks before she was set to take office in April 2021, Clark experienced a brain bleed while exercising. Surgery followed, postponing her consecration to June, then to August, then indefinitely as she worked through speech, physical and occupational therapies.

As Clark regained her health, her husband, Andrew McLean, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and died in November.

“Paula never once wavered — not once,” said Budde in a sermon at the worship service celebrating Clark’s ordination as bishop on Saturday (Sept. 17) at the Westin Chicago Lombard Hotel in this Chicago suburb.

“Now Paula knows how to let go when that’s what’s best, but she never let go of you, Diocese of Chicago, and she never let go of the call that God placed on her heart and yours.”

Clark is the first female and first Black bishop to lead the Chicago diocese.

On Sunday, she will take her seat in the chair, called a cathedra, symbolic of her position, at a worship service at St. James Cathedral in Chicago.

“The process of confirming a new Bishop in the Diocese of Chicago has been long, challenging, sometimes heartbreaking, but always guided by God,” Clark wrote in a letter of welcome to those who attended her ordination.

“I would like to thank the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago for your steadfast loyalty and faith. You have believed in me, prayed for, comforted, and encouraged me even through difficult times. You have held fast to your faith and showed me what God-centered leadership really is. Most of all, you have kept the faith and overcome, despite repeated setbacks.”

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, head of the Episcopal Church, served as chief consecrating bishop during the ordination service.

Curry and the Rev. Anne B. Jolly, president of the Diocese of Chicago’s standing committee, had said repeatedly they expected Clark to eventually serve as bishop.

Budde never doubted it, either, she said. “Being in the presence of Paula Clark and watching her in action is like taking a master class in Christian leadership. That was true before all that transpired in the last 18 months, and it is even more so now,” Budde said in her sermon.