Dear colleagues,

I write to let you know of upcoming changes to the Sunday visitation schedule.

Due to family obligations and priorities, Bishop Persell will no longer be scheduled for Sunday visitations. For the last 11 years, the Persells have been enormously generous in sharing their retirement with the congregations and communicants of our diocese. Joining with the Bowmans and Williamses, they have helped deepen the unity of the church through Sunday visits across northern Ohio, providing episcopal companionship to clergy and lay leaders alike. We have all benefited immensely from their wisdom, fidelity, and affection.

Bishop Persell will continue with Bishop Williams to provide counsel and companionship to me, and to participate in various diocesan events, as their schedule and desires dictate. It just won’t include Sunday mornings.

As a result, we will be restructuring the upcoming visitation schedule for 2020-21. I will continue to make parish visits according to the canonical expectation, and with Bishop Williams’s assistance, provide as many additional visitations and special services as possible. We hope to have the calendar finalized and distributed in the next few weeks.

I am certain that you share my unending thanks for the Persells’ continuing ministry in the Diocese of Ohio, and for all that they, the Bowmans, and the Williamses have and do contribute to the life and spirit of the body of Christ that is our church.


Gratefully,

The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr.
Bishop of Ohio