THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE

OF EAST TENNESSEE
The Rt. Rev. George D. Young, III
Bishop
gyoung@dioet.org

814 Episcopal School Way Knoxville, TN 37932

865-966-2110 http://DioET.org
The Rev. Canon Patricia Grace
Alex Haralson
The Rev. Canon Robert Hartmans
Beverly Hurley Hill
The Rev. Brad Jones
Laura Nichols
Vikki Myers
Kirby Purjet
Lisa Whitacre

pgrace@dioet.org
aharalson@dioet.org
rhartmans@dioet.org
bhurleyhill@dioet.org
bjones@gracepointcamp.org
lnichols@dioet.org
editor@dioet.org
kpurjet@dioet.org
lwhitacre@dioet.org

April 18, 2016

My dear sisters and brothers of the Episcopal Church in East Tennessee,
I'll never forget first reading your profile in the spring of 2010 and thinking wow, what a wonderful
group of Gods people. And I was right you are an incredible people! That began my relationship with
you, a relationship that continues to be deep, exciting, intimate, loving, faith-filled, fruitful, and much
more. And fun! Thank you, thank you, thank you for every moment of that! We have followed Jesus
together, prayed, worshipped, convened, retreated, camped, met, planned, worked, played, celebrated,
discerned together and God has blessed us in many, many marvelous ways. I am more grateful to God
and to you than I could ever express.
I am writing today to share with you that I have decided to retire as your bishop. The next chapter of my
life will be focused on my family and our life together.
I want you to know that there is no health issue, no crisis I am simply moving into the next season in
my life. I will be 62, with almost 30 years of ordained ministry. Bishops, and other clergy for that matter,
are serving shorter tenures these days than in the past, and there is much good about that. At this point I
do not have a plan for the future beyond enjoying a period of renewing and re-creating retirement.
Some of you have memories of this process, and know that it will take just shy of two years before another
bishop is in place. So, we have much more time and work and ministry together, to which I passionately
look forward. The Standing Committee has already begun its work in this process, and they will be
communicating clearly with you in the days, weeks and months ahead. We have a remarkably skilled and
faithful diocesan staff who will continue to serve us all in our life together. Thank God for each and every
one of them! Your next bishop will come to a vital, exciting, organized, healthy, flexible, spirit-filled
diocese, and she or he will be a very fortunate person. Hopefully you will elect that person in August 2017,
and she or he will be ordained and settled with you on or around January 2018, after which I will end my
time with you as your bishop.
The time will come down the road to say goodbyes; that time is not now. We have much good and
important work to do, following Jesus together. We will continue to celebrate and focus on our Missional
Network initiative: Going Local, on supporting and expanding the ministry of Grace Point, on
discernment and formation with those in the ordination process, on baptizing and receiving people into
the Body of Christ, on working for justice in our communities, and on furthering the Jesus Movement in
this part of Gods creation. As I said in my most recent convention address, if my legacy of those seven
years with you is that there is a clear missional focus among the Episcopal Church in East Tennessee, I
will be eternally grateful. Lets continue working together to make that happen. God bless you!
Peace in the risen Christ,

The Rt. Rev. George Dibrell Young, III

LOVE GOD. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. CHANGE THE WORLD.