The Rt. Rev. Robert O’Neill, tenth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, will be the preacher at the Friday afternoon Eucharist of the 2013 Diocesan Convention on November 8, 2013. The convention will be held in Wichita Falls.
Bishop O’Neil was educated at Texas Christian University and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and ordained to the priesthood in 1982. He was elected bishop of Colorado in 2003, and consecrated in January, 2004.
Bishop O’Neill and Bishop Rayford High both were elected in 2003 and thus are part of the same class in the House of Bishops. Throughout his ordained ministry, Bishop O’Neill has focused his efforts on the work of evangelism, strategic leadership development, and support and faith formation for all ages, and he has made these areas central to the work of the Office of the Bishop in Colorado, making significant adjustments to staffing and budget to focus resources in these three areas of ministry. He also has dedicated the resources of the Bishop’s Office and the diocese on the mission of the Church, and three basic marks of mission – proclamation, discipleship and servanthood.
O’Neill currently serves as the chair of the Board of Directors for Episcopal Relief & Development. He also serves as the vice president of Province VI of The Episcopal Church, and is a member of the Presiding Bishop’s Committee on Pastoral Development. He has served as President of El Hogar Ministries, Inc.—a non-profit organization that provides food, clothing and education to poor and abandoned boys the Diocese of Honduras.
Prior to being elected as bishop, O’Neill served as a priest in Colorado and Massachusetts. For ten years he served as Canon Educator at Saint John’s Cathedral in Denver. In 1991 he became the rector of The Parish of the Epiphany in Winchester, Massachusetts. During his service in Massachusetts, O’Neill served on a variety of diocesan commissions and committees, including chairing the Task Force for the development of the Barbara Harris Camp and Conference Center.
Bishop O’Neill maintains a blog at http://coloradobishopsblog.blogspot.com/.