The first female bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, the Right Rev. Megan Traquair, visited Christ Episcopal Church Eureka, Camp Living Waters and other locales this past week.
“This was Bishop Megan’s first in-person visit to Christ Church Eureka as diocesan bishop,” said the Rev. Dr. Daniel London of Christ Church Eureka. “She had previously visited in January of 2019 as a bishop candidate along with four other candidates.”
He added: “We Episcopalians derive our name from the fact that we are guided and united by ‘episcopos,’ which is the Greek word for ‘bishops,’ who trace their authority all the way back to the original 12 apostles. So, when the bishop visits, we are reminded of who we are as members of ‘the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement,’ and that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. Bishop Megan Traquair … holds her episcopal authority with an especially steady and powerful grace and we are tremendously blessed by her leadership.”
London said originally Traquair was slated to visit Christ Church Eureka in May 2020 to celebrate its 150th anniversary and confirm confirmands, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was only able to visit online. (That service can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8V62e649YU.)
“We postponed her in-person visit to February 2021, assuming that COVID would be over by then,” London said. “Of course it wasn’t, so she visited us again online to bless our sesquicentennial time capsule, which we installed under our altar.” (View that service at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK2lsUEQ9w4.)
“That ended up being the last of our sesquicentennial celebrations,” London said, “but we still had several people who wanted to get confirmed as Episcopalians and that could not be done online via Zoom. Confirmation is the sacramental ‘rite in which we express a mature commitment to Christ and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop’ (Book of Common Prayer, 860). So, the bishop and her hands had to be physically present in order for the candidates to be confirmed.”
Traquair — who was in Humboldt County from July 23 to 28 — was able to visit Christ Church Eureka for its July 24 service, which included two baptisms, eight confirmations and one reception.
“A ‘reception’ is the term used when someone from the Roman Catholic Church (or Eastern Orthodox or Evangelical Lutheran Church) decides to become an Episcopalian and be received into the Anglican Communion,” London said. “The two young women who were baptized (by me) are members of Christ Church Eureka. Six of the confirmands were from Christ Church. One confirmand was from St. Alban’s (Arcata), and another drove all the way from St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Mt. Shasta to be confirmed by the bishop. We also had the priest from St. Francis (Fortuna) participate in the service, so it was a deanery-wide event.”
Traquair said: “Eureka is a beautiful place in a setting of real loveliness, I was eager to return. My husband, Philip, and I really enjoyed the people of Christ Church and of this region of our diocese — they shared a gracious hospitality and a deep love for God in Christ.”
Traquair next drove to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Crescent City on July 25 for Sunday worship, where she confirmed another person who’d participated in the online confirmation class, which London offered from March 2020 to March 2021. After that, she went to Camp Living Waters, a week-long youth Episcopal summer camp in the heart of Redwood Valley.
“I wanted to see as many people as possible. My travels included Crescent City, safe passage through the Last Chance Grade, worship in the redwoods,” she said. “I stayed at our church camp which is located at Cookson Ranch beyond 299 and Bair Road, and I visited with several very faithful members in Ferndale at the site of the historic Episcopal Church there. I would love to spend some more time walking Old Town Eureka, exploring the coast and learning more about our Native communities throughout the area. And, of course, eating more of the delicious farm to fork … cuisine of Humboldt County.”
According to the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California website, Traquair was ordained and consecrated the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California on June 29, 2019.
Traquair graduated from Pomona College in Claremont and received her Master of Divinity at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Illinois. Ordained in 1992 in the Diocese of Los Angeles, she has led congregations in Arizona and Indiana, as well as in Los Angeles. She and her husband are now based out of Sacramento.
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