Bishop Hobby said he'll apply these and other lessons learned over the past decades as he gets to know his flock as the new spiritual leader of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.

He officially became Bishop Hobby Saturday in a consecration ceremony at St. Paul Cathedral, attended by numerous local Anglicans, about two-dozen bishops from around the world and representatives of local church groups. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh offered use of the cathedral, as none of the area's Anglican churches were large enough for the crowd.

Bishop Hobby succeeds Bishop Robert Duncan, who retired after being the founding leader of both the local diocese and the national Anglican Church in North America. That conservative denomination formed in a split in 2008 from the Episcopal Church and its Canadian counterpart over liberal theological trends in the latter groups, particularly involving same-sex unions and the ordination of gays and lesbians.

The Anglican diocese has about 50 congregations in Pennsylvania and oversees several more in other states.

In the interview at his new Allegheny Center office -- a largely spartan, booklined space that reflects his scholarly and understated demeanor -- Bishop Hobby paid tribute to Anglicans' local heritage not just from 2008 but from generations past.

"My goal is to build on that and maintain a missional ethos in our diocese," whether through starting new churches or through encouraging members to share their faith.

Bishop Hobby -- who arrives here from Thomasville, Ga., where he was rector of Trinity Anglican Church -- grew up in a Southern Baptist family that had transplanted itself to Northern states as his father followed various General Electric job transfers.

He attended evangelical churches and enrolled in a Massachusetts seminary, anticipating a ministry in Baptist or similar churches. That changed upon a single visit to an Episcopal church, where he and his wife, Shari, "fell in love with the liturgy and the sense of history and connectedness."

The couple was confirmed into the Episcopal Church within a year, and he transferred in 1983 to Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, an evangelical seminary in Ambridge.

He was particularly drawn by the the cover photo of that year's student handbook, showing a street procession of Trinity students to a backdrop of boarded-up buildings. "Being in Ambridge meant there was plenty of opportunity to reach out to a hurting community," he said.

Soon after graduating, he became a pastor in 1986 serving St. Paul's in Monongahela and St. John's in Donora, two Mon Valley communities struggling with the loss of steel-industry jobs. Bishop Hobby, who did not grow up in a blue-collar setting, said it was there that he learned the hard way about the need to learn and respect the culture of parishioners.

After assisting at a large parish in Darien, Conn., he began sending inquiries to other churches about possible pulpit positions. He put the responses in two piles -- those that interested him and those that didn't -- before sensing an "almost audible" message from God: "I don't get to pick and choose the people I'm interested in loving."

He ended up at one of the churches from the "no" pile, a medium-sized congregation in Tallahassee, Fla. After eight years, he went to work for a missions agency, Global Teams, then returned to parish work in Thomasville.

He became active with the conservative American Anglican Council, coordinating legislative updates to delegates at Episcopal general conventions. When the 2003 convention affirmed the election of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, "I remember sitting in the deputies' hall ... just weeping, because I realized that was the beginning of the end of my connection" with the Episcopal Church.

He recognizes many Episcopalians and others saw Robinson's election -- which became the flashpoint for years of global Anglican controversy -- as a divine breakthrough for inclusion of lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual persons.

"I'm not the person who's going to sit on the great white throne of judgment and figure it all out," said Bishop Hobby. "I don't have any need to judge or criticize."

But for him, it was "a bridge too far," he said. "This isn't a minor disagreement. It has all kinds of ramifications on how you understand the Word of God, how you understand the nature of humanity, how you discern the working of the Holy Spirit."

When the Pittsburgh position became open, Bishop Hobby said he resisted, wanting to stay in Georgia near his children and grandchildren. But as with his move to Tallahassee, he concluded God wanted him to be open to the possibility.

He was elected from among six candidates at a diocesan meeting in April.

He said he also has enjoyed meeting the current Episcopal Bishop Dorsey McConnell. Neither was here during the years of the diocesan breakup, and he senses that "both of us are better peacetime leaders." While the ownership of some parish properties used by Anglican parishes are still unresolved, he's hopeful these can be resolved out of court.

"There are probably smart people on both sides that can think this through in a way that's fair and reasonable," he said.

VOL FOOTNOTE: It is understood that TEC Episcopal Bishop Dorsey McConnell was invited to the consecration but declined to attend.