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Dec 05, 2012 | EDOT Staff

Christ Church Cathedral Names New Dean

Barkley ThompsonChrist Church Cathedral, Houston, announced the Rev. Barkley Thompson as their new Dean on Wednesday morning. He follows the Very Rev. Joe Reynolds after his retirement earlier this year. Thompson will begin his ministry at the Cathedral on February 7, 2013.

 

"The Search Committee, by the grace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has been led to a priest who, we are confident, has a true vocational calling to be and to do just that," wrote the Cathedral on their website. "He was the unanimous choice of the Search Committee and his call was issued on the unanimous vote of the Vestry."

 

Since 2007, Thompson has served as the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Roanoke, Virginia. St. John's is the largest parish in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia and serves as the de facto cathedral in a diocese that doesn't recognize a formal cathedral. He is a graduate of the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin and now serves on their Board of Trustees.

 

"I'm both humbled and overjoyed to accept the call to be the next dean of Christ Church Cathedral," Thompson said in an online video. "In my own life I have placed a premium in what I call 'gracious community'; the forging of the church as that people of God among whom joys are doubled and sorrows halved...It is my prayer that the Cathedral will continue to forge the gracious community among all those who walk through the doors."

 

Thompson's wife, Jill, and their two children, Griffin and Eliza, will join him in Houston following the completion of the school year in June.

 

"It is with great joy and expectation that we welcome Barkley Thompson as Dean," Bishop Andy Doyle said. "I am excited about his leadership, vision, and gifts that he will bring to the cathedral family in service and in partnership as we work together to create a lively beating heart for the diocese and a loving heart for the citizens of houston."

 

Watch Thompson's video here.

Read an invterview here.