The Episcopal Diocese of Oregon’s annual convention took only two ballots to elect a new bishop on Nov. 20.

The Rev. Dr. Michael Joseph Hanley, rector of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, Roseville, Minn., will be the tenth Bishop of Oregon, pending consents by a majority of bishops and standing committees.

The other two nominees were the Rev. Dr. Andrew Jeffrey MacBeth, rector of Calvary Church, Memphis, Tenn.; and the Rev. Canon Britt Elaine Olson, canon to the ordinary, Episcopal Diocese of Northern California.

Fr. Hanley has served at St. Christopher’s since 1998. He previously served as rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Hastings, Minn.; and on staff at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, St. Louis, Mo.; St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Bartlesville, Okla.; and Church of the Resurrection, Oklahoma City.

Fr. Hanley, a native of Tulsa, Okla., is a 1981 graduate of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He completed a doctor of ministry in congregational development, also at Seabury-Western, in 2005. His thesis title was “Oh, It’s You Again: Episcopal Visitation as Congregational Development.”

“It has recently been suggested that out democratic process, with all its messiness, is the Episcopal Church’s gift to the whole of the Anglican Communion,” Fr. Hanley said in an interview conducted by the diocese’s nominating committee. “I hope this is indeed the case. In a world as diverse as ours, we can ill afford to limit God’s voice to only those whose experience mirrors our own. It was in the voice of the stranger that Abraham found God’s promise and that stranger’s voice continues to challenge us to be God’s hands and feet in a struggling world.”

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