The bishop elected will succeed the 25th Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, whose nine-year term concludes later this year.

The 26th Presiding Bishop will be installed November 4, 2006, at Washington National Cathedral.

The nominees are:
The Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of Atlanta
The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick, Jr., Bishop of Kentucky
The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada
The Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley, Jr., Bishop of Alabama

Following is biographical information compiled by the Episcopal News Service.

[b]The Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of Atlanta[/b]

John Neil Alexander, 52, was elected the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta on March 31, 2001. He was ordained to the episcopate and installed on July 7, 2001, at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. He serves a diocese of some 55,000 members in 93 congregations.

Alexander has served the wider church as a presenter to the 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. During the summer of 2005, he visited the Diocese of Atlanta's mission personnel who serve in the Dioceses of Central Tanganyika and Dar es Salaam in the Anglican Church in Tanzania. He serves as chair of the Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, as a regent of the University of the South (Sewanee), and as a member of the board of the Archives of the Episcopal Church. He has also served on the board of the General Theological Seminary.

He is most recently the author of "This Far by Grace, A Bishop's Journey Through Questions About Homosexuality," as well a number of publications in the fields of liturgics, homiletics, sacramental theology, and pastoral practice.

At the time of his election as bishop, Alexander was the Norma and Olin Mills Professor of Divinity at the University of the South School of Theology and was priest in charge of St. Agnes' Church in Cowan, Tennessee. Previously he served as the Trinity Church Professor of Liturgics and Preaching at the General Theological Seminary in New York, during which time he also served in a variety of parish settings. He has also taught at Yale, Drew, and Wilfrid Laurier Universities.

He received a B.A. in music from Moravian College (1976), followed by a master's in music from the University of South Carolina (1979). He earned an M. Div. from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (1980); and a Th.D. in liturgics from General Theological Seminary (1993).

Formerly a Lutheran pastor, he was ordained in the North Carolina Synod of the Lutheran Church in America and served Faith Lutheran Church in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and then as professor of Liturgics and Spirituality and Dean of Keffer Memorial Chapel at Waterloo (Ontario) Lutheran Seminary.

Alexander was born January 23, 1954, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and has been married to Lynn Tesh Alexander, a pediatric nurse practitioner, since 1976. Their children are John Jr., Kelly and Mary Catherine.

[b]The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick, Jr., Bishop of Kentucky[/b]

Edwin Funsten "Ted" Gulick, Jr., 57, was consecrated the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky on April 17, 1994, at St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

As the Diocese of Kentucky's bishop, Gulick is chief pastor to its clergy, 36 congregations and about 10,600 active members. He has served two terms on the SCEIR (Standing Committee on Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations), co-chaired the Anglican Roman Catholic Dialogue (ARC-USA) from 1997 to present, and served as one of the Episcopal Church's representatives on the Consultation on Church Union (1995-2000). In 2001, he was also appointed by Archbishop George Carey to serve on IARCCUM (International Anglican Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission), an ongoing commitment.

Gulick was appointed by former Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning to investigate, along with Bishops Mary Adelia McLeod and Rogers Harris, issues of alleged misconduct involving bishops. He also served on Committee 22 of the General Convention in 2000, which dealt with all questions related to human sexuality; co-chaired the General Convention cognate committee on Ecumenical Concerns; and served on the Member Advisory Committee for the College of Bishops, the Staff College of Bishops' "The Bishop as Recruiter" and the Staff College of Bishops conference for new bishops and spouses/partners.

At the time of his election as bishop, Gulick was rector of St. Stephen's Church in Newport News, Virginia, for 11 years. Previously he served as rector of Grace Church in Elkridge, Maryland, and as assistant at Trinity Church in Towson, Maryland. He was ordained deacon in 1973 and priest in 1974.

He received a B.A. from Lynchburg College (1970); an M.Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary (1973); and honorary D.D.s from Virginia Theological Seminary (1994) and the University of the South (1995).

Gulick was born July 27, 1948, in Washington, D.C. and has been married to Barbara Lichtfuss, who teaches middle school students at the Anchorage Public School, since 1970. They have three adult children, Jennifer Gulick Amos; Robin K. Gulick, a seminarian at Virginia Theological Seminary; and a son, John E. Gulick. The Gulicks first grandson, Samuel Joseph Gulick, was born on January 12 of this year.

[b]The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada[/b]

Katharine Jefferts Schori, 51, was consecrated the ninth Bishop of Nevada on February 24, 2001. She serves a diocese of some 6,000 members in 35 congregations. Jefferts Schori is the first woman selected as a nominee for Presiding Bishop.

Her service to the wider church includes current membership on the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion; the Board of Trustees, Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California; the CREDO Advisory Board; the House of Bishops peer coaching program; the General Board of Examining Chaplains; the Board for Church Deployment; the House of Bishops' Pastoral Development, Racism, and Planning Committees; the Court for Review of a Trial of a Bishop; the Episcopal visitor team for the Community of the Holy Spirit; and the Bishops of Small Dioceses group.

From 2001-2003 she was a member of the 20/20 Strategy Group, and served as secretary of the House of Bishops Ministry Committee at the 2003 General Convention.

She is the author of "When Conflict and Hope Abound," Vestry Papers (March-April 2005); "Building Bridges/Widening Circles" in Preaching Through Holy Days and Holidays: Sermons that Work XI, Roger Alling and David J. Schlafer, eds. Morehouse (2003); "Multicultural Issues in Preaching" in Preaching Through the Year of Matthew: Sermons That Work X, Roger Alling and David J. Schlafer, eds. Morehouse (2001); and "The Nag" in Preaching Through the Year of Luke: Sermons That Work IX, Roger Alling and David J. Schlafer, eds. Morehouse (2000). Her Maundy Thursday sermon was included in What Makes This Day Different? by David Schlafer, Cowley (1998).

She is an active, instrument-rated pilot with more than 500 hours logged.

At the time of her election as bishop of Nevada, Jefferts Schori was assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, Oregon, where she also served as pastoral associate, dean of the Good Samaritan School of Theology, and priest-in-charge, El Buen Samaritano, Corvallis. She was ordained deacon and priest in 1994. Prior to ordination, she was a visiting assistant professor at Oregon State University's Department of Religious Studies, a visiting scientist at Oregon State University's Department of Oceanography, and an oceanographer with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle.

She received a B.S. in biology from Stanford University, 1974; an M.S. in oceanography from Oregon State University, 1977; a Ph.D. from Oregon State University, 1983; an M.Div. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 1994; and a D.D. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2001.

Jefferts Schori was born March 26, 1954, in Pensacola, Florida. She has been married to Richard Miles Schori, a retired theoretical mathematician (topologist), since 1979. They have one child, Katharine Johanna, 24, who is a second lieutenant and pilot in the US Air Force.

[b]The Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley, Jr., Bishop of Alabama[/b]

nHenry Nutt Parsley, Jr., 57, was elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Alabama on January 9, 1996. He was ordained and consecrated on September 28, 1996, in Birmingham, Alabama, and became the tenth Bishop of Alabama in 1999, overseeing 92 churches, eight campus ministries, and several institutions which serve some 35,000 Episcopalians in the northern part of Alabama.

He is the chair of the Theology Committee and a member of the Planning Committee of the House of Bishops. He has chaired the Standing Commission on Stewardship and Development since 1998 and the Church Pension Fund's Abundance Committee since 2001. He serves as Chancellor of the University of the South, Sewanee and as a member of the Board of Regents of the university. He has been a preacher on the Protestant Hour and active in many outreach ministries of the Episcopal Church including serving on the Board of the Presiding Bishops Fund for World Relief (now Episcopal Relief and Development). He served as a deputy to General Convention in 1982, 1985 and 1994.

At the time of his election Parsley had been the rector of Christ Church, Charlotte, North Carolina, for 10 years, and served on the Diocesan Council, the AIDS Ministry Task Force, the Department of Stewardship, as dean of the Charlotte Convocation, a member of the Board of the Thompson Children's Home and Vice President for Church Relations of the Alumni Council of the University of the South. He previously served as rector of St. Paul's Church, Summerville, and All Saints Church and Day School, Florence, and as assistant rector of St. Philip's Church, Charleston, and Trinity Church, Myrtle Beach. In the Diocese of South Carolina he was president of the Standing Committee, Chair of the Youth Department and Division of Stewardship, a Cursillo spiritual director and E.F.M. (Education for Ministry) mentor, and served two terms on the Diocesan Council, and the Board of Trustees of the Porter Gaud School. He was an Examining Chaplain for nine years.

He received a B.A. (magna cum laude with honors in English) from the University of the South (1970) and an M.Div. from the General Theological Seminary (1973). He was ordained to the diaconate in June 1973 and to the priesthood in April 1974. He has studied at Oxford University in the areas of spirituality and soteriology, and received an honorary D.D. from the University of the South (1998).

Parsley was born October 29, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee, and has been married to the former Rebecca Knox Allison of New Orleans since 1970. They have one son, Henry Nutt, III, born in 1974.