Bishop Gregory H. Rickel
Head of the Episcopal Church in Western Washington
Age: 46
Hometown: Born in Omaha, Neb., grew up in Little Rock, Ark.
Experience: Hospital administrator in Arkansas and Texas. Ordained a priest in 1997; vicar, St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Conway, Ark; rector, St. James' Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas. Ordained bishop and installed as eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Olympia in September 2007.
Education: B.A., sociology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Master of Health Services Administration and M.A. in interpersonal and organizational communication, University of Arkansas, Little Rock; Master of Divinity, Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, Austin; Doctor of Ministry, University of the South School of Theology, Sewanee, Tenn.
Family: Married to Marti Rickel, a psychiatric-nurse practitioner who teaches at North Seattle Community College; 14-year-old son Austin.
Hobbies: Reading, scuba diving, enjoying the music of Jimmy Buffett.
Source: Diocese of Olympia
In this season of baptisms, and given that he's a bishop, it seems strange to hear the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel speak proudly of the time he talked some parents out of baptizing their child.
He was convinced the parents were doing it only because other family members insisted.
And that, says Rickel, who is preaching this Easter Sunday at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle, is dumbing down the faith.
"My goal is not to baptize as many people (as I can) so I can count them up as Episcopalians," he said. "My goal is to have an authentic faith that people can really articulate and understand."
That approach might seem counterintuitive, given the decline in the numbers of Episcopalians — and other mainline Protestants — over the past decades, both locally and nationally.
But it's characteristic of Rickel, 46, who arrived 2 ½ years ago as head of the Episcopal Church in Western Washington.
A dynamic, down-to-earth Southerner with a Clintonesque drawl and strong people skills, Rickel is among a larger group of regional heads of mainline Protestant denominations who are relatively new in town.
They're trying to revitalize denominations that are grappling with stagnant or declining memberships and aging congregations, while also trying to attract younger people and remain relevant in a swiftly changing culture.
In addition to Rickel, the heads of the local Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denominations have all arrived within the last three years. Most of them are in their 40s.
For Rickel, who's made reaching those under 35 one of his primary goals, it's not about trying to achieve megachurch-sized numbers — something many Episcopal churches aren't good at anyway, he says.
Rather, he's emphasizing a back-to-basics approach that gets at the core of what Episcopalians believe and why, and the rich traditions they have — because too many people, Episcopalians included, he says, aren't clear on that.
At the same time, he's looking forward, leading his flock in trying to figure out where the culture is headed and how the church fits into that. He's encouraging congregations to experiment with different ways of thinking about and operating as a church, fully aware that some experiments will fail and some old ways of doing things will die.
"Maybe the ship we're trying to keep afloat doesn't need to float any more," Rickel says. "Maybe we need to dock it and do something else."
Some in the diocese see this approach as long overdue while others are, well, a bit freaked out.
Face big challenges
Rickel and his fellow denominational leaders clearly face big challenges.
Nationwide, the percentage of Americans who call themselves mainline Protestants dropped from 19 to 13 percent from 1990 to 2008.
In the Olympia Diocese, which covers Western Washington, the number of Episcopalians declined from about 38,000 to 31,000 between 1985 and 2006 — even as the state's total population grew. Rickel's had to close one parish, and his predecessor two, because of dwindling numbers.
Rickel gets that, nowadays, it's not enough for churches to say what they're against; they must convey a positive message of what they're for. He tries to guide church members into a clear understanding of who they are and what they have to offer so they can communicate that passionately, especially since so much of how churches grow these days is by word-of-mouth.
He tells an anecdote about a local professor who sent his students to St. Mark's. The students reported back, saying parishioners there "really believe in what they're doing. We just don't know what it is (they believe in)."
Rickel himself is liberal on many issues — in support of expanded domestic-partnership rights for gays and lesbians, and of immigration overhaul, for instance. He has ordained, and says he will continue to ordain, gay and lesbian clergy. He cherishes his denomination's embrace of a wide variety of viewpoints, and he decries the actions of conservatives who've left the church over disagreements about homosexuality and interpretation of Scripture.
But on the core of his faith, Rickel is orthodox, believing in the divinity of Jesus and in the Trinity, and drawing boundaries between faiths.
Some recent high-profile cases of Episcopal clergy who have incorporated Buddhist meditation or Islamic prayers into their faith indicates to him that many Episcopalians may not know enough about similar practices — such as centering prayer — in their own tradition.
"We can't evangelize the world about our particular expression if we don't even know what it is ourselves," he says.
So he talks about his beliefs and writes about them on his blog and Facebook and Twitter accounts, and in frequent e-mails to clergy and laypeople.
"He provides clean and clear teaching," said the Rev. Paul Collins, rector of Trinity Parish Church in Seattle. And "he repeats himself enough so we believe him."
But it isn't just a top-down approach. Rickel lays out his thought process on various church issues, then encourages people to comment on them and draw their own conclusions.
On his blog, he's started a book club of sorts, inviting all in the diocese to read a particular church-related book and post their comments about it. It's simultaneously a way of clarifying who they are and where they want to go as a church, and an engaging way to create a sense of community over a far-flung diocese.
In his postings and e-mails, he also highlights innovative and good things happening around the diocese.
Similarly, Rickel talks up what younger people in the diocese are doing — from starting a new church in someone's house to holding informal, more conversational worship services at an existing parish.
He also directs resources from the diocese to such efforts, features young people prominently as speakers at regional gatherings, and goes to young adult events.
Rickel gets that a cultural shift is happening that calls for alternatives to simply plopping young people into established church structures, said Jonathan Myers, 30, who's starting an Episcopal church in his home on Beacon Hill.
Younger people are used to making things happen quickly, having a voice, plugging into — or starting — a movement via social media and Web tools. To tell them they have to go through established church committees to do what they want done is like "a foreign language in a lot of ways," Myers said.
Rickel says that initially some rectors were nervous, fearing a new church would draw people away from existing ones.
To which he replied: "Let's quit being so scared of each other. We need to work together, you know? Ultimately, we're trying to bring people to Christ. Not even to the Episcopal Church."
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