A new leader has been named to head up the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester.
The Very Reverend Kara Wagner Sherer has been elected to lead the Episcopal diocese which stretches over an 8-county region in parts of the Rochester-Finger Lakes and Southern Tier areas.
Currently she serves as Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chicago.
Wagner Sherer said that she hopes to facilitate parishioners engaging in discussion on important community issues.
“I am looking forward to being in a place where the church can be a voice for civil discourse, which is a real issue right now in our political landscape, a voice for the those who are forgotten or set aside by our society,” said Wagner Sherer.
Wagner Sherer will also be the first female bishop for the local Episcopal diocese. She replaces Bishop Stephen Lane, who has been in the position in an interim role, since Bishop Prince Singh left the diocese in 2022.
In an interview with WXXI News, Wagner Sherer said she realizes there is some symbolism in moving to a region where women’s rights is an important part of its history.
“I grew up not knowing that I could be a priest but also not knowing that I couldn't,” said Wagner Sherer, "and so I'm really grateful to the generation of women who came before who really blazed the trail. And Rochester has a great history of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, and Seneca Falls.”
Elizabeth Salamone, president of the Diocesan Standing Committee, the governing body that oversaw the election process, released a statement about the new leader for the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester.
Salamone said that Wagner Sherer’s experience in the Diocese of Chicago as a rector and regional dean, as well as her leadership and pastoral skills and commitment to healing and justice “will be embraced by the people of our diocese as we strive to respond to God’s call.”
The ordination and consecration services for Bishop-Elect Wagner Sherer take place on July 13 at Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester.
