Martins was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but was raised in Chicago and is an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs. He is married and the father of three adult children. He is no stranger to Illinois.

Martins is a convert to The Episcopal Church (from Baptist). Through his interest in music, his college major, he first encountered the 1940 Hymnal and through it The Episcopal Church. By the time he obtained his BA in music from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, he was on the road fully to becoming an Episcopalian. Following his graduation from Westmont, he obtained his masters in music history from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Bishop Francis Bloy confirmed the future Episcopal priest and bishop-elect while he was still in California. There Martins also experienced the Catholic element of the church as an Anglican.

"Now if it was music and liturgy that initially drew me to the Anglican tradition, it was sacraments and ecclesiology-the idea of what the Church is and how the Church is ordered- that kept me there," Fr. Martin wrote in his bishops' search profile.

Martins answered the call to the Episcopal priesthood after earning his M.Div. (cum laude) from Nashotah House. He was ordained into the diaconate by Bishop Robert Ladehoff in the Diocese of Oregon in June of 1989. Bishop James Barrow Brown in the Diocese of Louisiana priested Martins just in time to celebrate a Christmas Mass. Following his ordination, he became the curate and school chaplain at St. Luke's in Baton Rouge. He later became the vicar of St. Margaret's also in Baton Rouge.

He went on to serve as rector at St. John's in Stockton in the Diocese of San Joaquin before becoming the rector of St. Anne's in Warsaw, Indiana.

The bishop-elect says he is looking forward to the challenges he sees in the Diocese of Springfield. He likes the Anglo-Catholic DNA of the Diocese and looks toward both Bishop Philander Chase, the first bishop of the Diocese of Illinois, and Bishop George Franklin Seymour, the first bishop of the Diocese of Springfield as stalwart Anglican role models.

Martins wrote that Bishop Chase, the evangelical, had a passion for souls, while Bishop Seymour, an Anglo-Catholic, fed his flock a very nourishing diet of Catholic liturgy and devotion mixed with spiritual practice.

"It's clear to me that the Diocese of Springfield possesses the essential raw material, at least, for facing the future. The diocese has some impressive 'DNA'. Most of the congregations in the diocese can trace their roots to these early Evangelicals and Catholics."

The Diocese of Springfield has a history of being conservative. Retiring Bishop Peter Beckwith was one of the signers of the Anaheim Statement following last year's Episcopal General Convention. Bishop-elect Martins was a delegate at that convention. He was also a delegate to the 2003 and 2006 General Conventions while still a priest in the Diocese San Joaquin.

As the newly elected bishop, Martins says he will be faced with challenges when he relocates to the Land of Lincoln. He knows that the Diocese of Springfield incorporates the bottom half of the State of Illinois and that in recent years his new diocese has lost more than a third of its membership. While the diocese has 5,449 members; its Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) on any given Sunday is barely over 2,000 in 40 parishes. More than 2.6 millions souls live in the Diocese's geographic area.

"To see such steep declines in a five year period is an alarm bell that should focus everybody's attention. But the challenge isn't merely to reverse attendance trends; that would be the fruit of an effective response to the challenge," Martins wrote in answering Diocesan questions. "The challenge itself-a challenge, I might add, that the entire Episcopal Church faces-is to find a way to re-invent ourselves, both inwardly and outwardly, while at the same time remaining faithful to our core identity as Anglican Christians."

Martins is a familiar name in the Anglican blogosphere. He writes several blogs including, "Confessions of a Carioca" and "Woe to Me If I Preach Not the Gospel". He has also written a novel called "A Slight Momentary Affliction", which can be found online.

He has been married to Brenda F. Martins since 1972; the couple has three grown children.

Martins faces an uphill battle for consents. His claim to orthodoxy and the see of Springfield will be challenged over whether or not he will consent to and allow the working out of two General Convention resolutions C025 and C056. If he receives the necessary consents, which will depend mainly on the Standing committees of the church's 100 dioceses, he will be consecrated March 2011 and take up his new challenges sometime next spring.

Resolution D025, rescinded the moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops, thus paving the way for Mary Glasspool's consecration 10 months later; and C056 called for the development of same-sex marriage liturgies. Both resolutions drew international attention.

Martins told an audience in Alton recently that he wouldn't consent to the ordination and deployment of clergy who are openly gay and openly in partnered relationships. Women's ordination in the Episcopal Church is "simply a done deal," he said, though the process, he noted, is still "in reception" in the greater Anglican community.

---Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline