The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. “Ted” Gulick, Jr., Bishop of Kentucky, has accepted an invitation to serve on a part-time basis as provisional Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth in The Episcopal Church as it seeks to reorganize.
 
The invitation, which was approved by the Kentucky standing committee on Jan. 21, was extended to Bishop Gulick by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. In a letter asking Bishop Gulick and the standing committee to consider the appointment, Bishop Jefferts Schori noted that “an experienced bishop, with excellent pastoral and leadership skills, is needed to assist the leaders of that diocese in righting themselves, beginning and continuing the healing process, and setting a course for a renewed future.”
 
Bishop Jefferts Schori will convene a special reorganizing convention of the diocese at Trinity Church, Fort Worth on Feb. 7. Assuming that Bishop Gulick’s appointment is approved by clergy and lay delegates, he will be installed that same day.
 
Last November approximately 80 percent of clergy and lay delegates to Fort Worth’s annual convention voted to withdraw the diocese’s affiliation with The Episcopal Church and realign with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone.
 
Bishop Gulick, 60, was ordained and consecrated as Bishop of Kentucky on April 17, 1994. Last September he announced his intention to retire by 2010 and called for the election of his successor. Because of previous commitments, Bishop Gulick plans only to serve as the provisional Bishop of Fort Worth through General Convention in July. Another provisional bishop would then need to be selected to serve until the diocese is ready to elect a diocesan bishop, which the reorganizing group said would most likely require one to two years.
 
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