Virginia diocese to install bishop

A Williamsburg priest who says homosexuality should not exclude people from full involvement in the Episcopal Church will be consecrated this week as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia.

The Rev. Herman “Holly” Hollerith IV said he supports the church leadership’s position that all baptized Christians should have equal rights to a full life in the church. But full life in the church doesn’t guarantee ordination, he added.

Hollerith will receive the title “right reverend” on Friday during a 7 p.m. service at William and Mary Hall. The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the New York-based Episcopal Church, will lead the consecration, to be held in conjunction with the diocese’s Annual Council meeting Saturday and Sunday at the Williamsburg Lodge.

“Full membership in the church is not confined to heterosexuals,“ added Hollerith, 53, who has spent almost half his life in ministry. He will be the 10th bishop of the diocese.

Like other dioceses in Virginia and around the country, Southern Virginia has been grappling with the role of gays and lesbians in the church. The issue came to a head in 2003 with the confirmation of Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, as bishop of New Hampshire.

Hollerith said he is OK with a gay person being a bishop in the Episcopal Church if it is all right with the diocese that elected him and with the General Convention, the church’s governing body. But he said he thinks that in confirming Robinson’s election, the General Convention left unanswered questions about how the church should deal with same-sex couples. For example, the Episcopal Church has no liturgy for blessing a same-sex union. Church leaders have since decided that no other openly gay clergy will be consecrated as bishops until the questions are sorted out.

But Hollerith added, “There is so much more to the life of the church that is more important than that. I don’t know that the kingdom of God is going to be ushered in on this issue.“

Hollerith will lead a diocese that not only is dealing with issues of sexuality, but one that was called one of the most dysfunctional in the country by a 2004 diocesan committee report. Hollerith will succeed the Rt. Rev. David C. Bane Jr., who retired under pressure in 2006 after refusing a buyout the previous year.

One church in the diocese, the Church of the Messiah in Chesapeake, has left because of theological disagreements with the Episcopal Church. Some members of Galilee Church in Virginia Beach also left and formed another church.

Helping people pick up the pieces and move forward isn’t new to Hollerith. He was called in 1999 as rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg after several children in the church’s day-care program were sexually molested. He was serving at Bruton Parish when he was elected last year to lead the Southern Diocese.

“Any time a system has been through trauma, you have to work hard to re-establish trust. It’s not just trust in the bishop. It is trusting one another. Trusting the whole system. Trusting the way we do business in the Episcopal Church,“ the bishop-elect said.

The challenges Hollerith sees ahead are finding ways to get young people in the church and the current economy. Attracting young people to the church is a challenge and an opportunity, he added.

The slow economy is especially tough on small churches, Hollerith said. He suggested that churches within the diocese should help each other.

He also wants to overcome what he calls “creeping congregationalism. It is very easy for churches to get isolated from one another because of geography.“

The Southern Virginia Diocese stretches from the Atlantic Ocean west to Danville and from the south side of the James River in Richmond to the North Carolina border. It includes 115 parishes with about 35,000 members and more than 170 clergy.

Being a bishop was not something Hollerith aspired to. He was selected over five other candidates. He was the only candidate from within the diocese, and he was part of the transition team selected by the diocesan standing committee to pull the diocese together after Bane’s retirement. The committee, an advisory council to the bishop, assumes some of the bishop’s duties if the bishop’s office is vacant.

“We have come a long way,“ said standing-committee member Sanders “Bud” Schooler of Midlothian. “Things are very healthy. I’m excited about the future.“

He described Hollerith as bright, articulate and a warm person. “I think we are moving forward now,“ said Schooler, who emphasized that he was speaking for himself and not on behalf of the committee.

Holly Hollerith isn’t the only clergyman in the family. His younger brother, Randolph, is rector of St. James’s Episcopal Church on West Franklin Street. St. James’s is in the Diocese of Virginia. Randolph “Randy” Hollerith’s wife, the Rev. Melissa Hollerith, is chaplain at St. Christopher’s School.

The brothers had some interesting role models.

They are the great-grandsons of inventor Herman Hollerith, who died in 1929. He developed the mechanical tabulator based on punched cards to tabulate statistics quickly. His company and three others merged in 1911 to form what became IBM in 1924. Their great-grandfather and grandfather photographed the Chesapeake Bay area, including the arrival of steamboats. Some of the photographs are displayed at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and the Mariners’ Museum.

“He was a great big brother, but he pulled pranks, like turning the lights off when you were in the basement,“ Randy Hollerith recalled.

He said his brother is perfect as the bishop of Southern Virginia. “He doesn’t have a huge ego. He has no agendas. He’s bright, good with groups and good at bringing out the best in others. He has a great sense of humor and loves people.“

Alberta Lindsey is a correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.