Phyllis Spiegel, who formerly served a church in Christiansburg, has been elected the Espiscopal Bishop of the Diocese of Utah.
She was elected on the first ballot in a three-way contest at the diocesan convention in Salt Lake City on April 29, according to the Episcopal News Service. She will be consecreated on September 17.
In biography posted on the church website, Spiegel says: “I was raised in Southwestern Virginia and baptized at St. Paul’s in Salem, Virginia. The youngest of three, my childhood was comprised of church, Girl Scouting, camping, and hiking the Appalachian Trail.” She graduated from Emory & Henry College with an interdisciplinary BA of Business Management, French, and International Studies.
She taught business and commerce for nine months in Kenya. “Returning to the U.S., I worked for the Girl Scouts briefly before opening a second location of my mom’s nature store, For the Birds,” she writes. “Eleven years later, I answered the call to the priesthood.” (That store was in Blacksburg; the original location was in Roanoke).
Spiegel attended Virginia Theological Seminary and later was Deacon/Priest-in-Charge to St. Thomas, “a church dedicated to serving the unhoused,” in Christiansburg, She currently serves as the rector of St. Anne Episcopal Church in West Chester, Ohio.