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• 1 media/Douglas Sparks photo.jpg 2019-08-05T10:52:01-07:00 Douglas Everett Sparks, Eighth Bishop 26 plain 2024-01-10T10:24:58-08:00 Bishop Douglas Everett Sparks, the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana, is the current incumbent. Born on 8 January 1956, he studied Philosophy at St. Mary's Seminary College, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in 1980. Subsequently, he received a Master's degree from De Andreis Institute of Theology in 1984. Ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in 1984, he served parishes in Missouri, Colorado, and Illinois. In 1989 he was received as a priest into the Episcopal Church, serving as rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Whitewater, Wisconsin, from 1990 to 1995. He also married Dana Wirth and had three children: Christina, Graham, and Gavin.
  
  Sparks later served at St. Matthias Church in Waukesha, Wisconsin, then went to New Zealand to become Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in Wellington. On returning to the United States, he became rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Rochester, Minnesota. From here he was elected bishop on 6 February 2016. He was consecrated at Trinity English Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, on 25 June 2016 by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.
  
  Bishop Sparks has adopted a five-point plan of mission that will guide his episcopate:
  1. Tell the Good News of the Kingdom.
  2. Teach, Baptize, and Nurture new believers.
  3. Tend to human need with loving service.
  4. Transform unjust structures of society.
  5. Treasure God's Creation and renew the Earth.
  
  Bishop Sparks has reversed previous diocesan policy and approved same-sex marriages being performed in the diocese with the consent of individual parishes. He was personally present for the wedding of South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg to Chasten Glezman on 16 June 2018 in a ceremony at the Cathedral of St. James in South Bend. He also permitted openly gay priests to be ordained and serve in the diocese. He has also formed a strong pastoral partnership with Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows of the Diocese of Indianapolis, marching for social justice issues, against gun violence, and in favor of greater acceptance of all marginalized groups in the Church. He is an "activist bishop" and comfortable in that role, but he is always careful to ground that advocacy in his faith.
  
  On a national level, the Episcopal Church began an initiative under Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to become a "Beloved Community" and to promote racial reconciliation and more loving, Christian relationships. The movement provided materials to individuals and congregations to "help us to understand and take up the long-term commitments necessary to form loving, liberating and life-giving relationships" with one other. "Together," promoters said, "we are growing as reconcilers, justice-makers, and healers in the name of Christ." This effort was also coined "the Jesus Movement" by the Presiding Bishop. Part of that process involved studying and apologizing for sins committed against minority groups throughout the Church's history. During his sabbatical in 2022, Bishop Sparks walked the Potawatomi Trail of Death, traveling on foot from Plymouth, Indiana, to Kansas. He left an account of his pilgrimage. It symbolized the work of the Diocese of Northern Indiana to account for acts of racism in its past.
  
  For several years during Bishop Sparks's episcopate, from 2020 to 2022, the nation suffered under a devastating COVID-19 epidemic. In-personal worship was canceled, and services were conducted remotely online through Zoom, a computer meeting software. When vaccines became available and the virulence of the epidemic eased, congregations met in limited form with enforced masking and social distancing. Bishop Sparks was instrumental in developing protocols that had never been previously considered in diocesan history.
  
  In 2023, the Diocese of Northern Indiana embarked on an exploratory path to discern the possibility of reuniting with the Diocese of Indianapolis. That process remains ongoing at this writing.
  
  Source:
   Episcopal News Service:
  
  https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2019/09/03/dioceses-reversal-on-same-sex-marriage-paved-way-for-pete-buttigiegs-wedding-at-south-bend-cathedral/?fbclid=IwAR2CIqRZ_yVl25YAkGLdmsXiK7FvvT-s5plIBit3zkHb4yqk7oUPwtqlZ68
  
  
  
  
  Consecration of Bishop Douglas Sparks, 25 June 2016, Trinity English Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 1 media/St Davids Elkhart exterior 22 Mar 2015.jpg 2019-07-13T13:12:08-07:00 St. David of Wales Episcopal Church, Elkhart 25 image_header 2023-07-21T13:06:38-07:00

  St. David’s Parish was established in 1964 as a mission of St. John the Evangelist Parish in downtown Elkhart. The Rev. Carl Richardson, rector of St. John’s, and the vestry saw the potential of growth in the Simonton Lake area of Elkhart County when the Bay Boom generation was in full swing. There were enough families to ‘seed’ the new parish, which began worshiping at Mary Feeser School, just east of the present location of St. David’s.

  After a few months, the Right Rev. Walter C Klein, Fourth Bishop of Northern Indiana, broke ground for the present building after a solemn evensong on the feast of Saint David of Wales, 1 March 1964. Eight years later in 1972, the diocese received St. David’s as a full parish in communion with the Bishop and Diocesan Convention. Since then the parish has been served by several rectors: the Rev. Paul M. Ross (1972-1977), the Rev. Richard J. Handley (1977-1987), the Rev. Richard F. Bragg (1988-1990), and the Rev. Henry G. Randolph Jr. (1991-2016). The Rev. Bruce B. Mosier provided good priestly leadership and stability for the parish in periods between rectors. There have been three deacons at St. David’s: Deacon Arthur W. Mattox (1990-1992), Archdeacon Sarah S Tracy (1995-2009), and Deacon Clayton Berkley (who was raised at St. David’s), since 2014. On June 1, 2017, the Rev Joshua Nelson was made Priest-in-Charge by Bishop Douglas Sparks following his ordination to the priesthood on June 25th of that year. 

  St. David’s Parish has been sustained by a small group of faithful parishioners. The congregation is thankful for the Providence of God in the community of faithful Christians for the past half a century, and it prays that it may continue to provide an Episcopal presence and ministry in the northwest corner of Elkhart County for many years to come.
  
  Clergy:
  
  John Smith, 1964-1968
  Paul M. Ross, 1969-1977
  Richard J. Handley, 1977-1987
  Richard F. Bragg, 1988-1990
  Henry G. Randolph, 1991-2016
  Joshua Nelson, 2017-2020
  Robert Armidon, 2021-
  
  Adapted from St. David's website: http://www.stdavidelkhart.org/parish-history/