Meet Bishop W. Nicholas Knisely

Bishop Nicholas KniselyBishop Knisely became our diocesan bishop in November 2012. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and met his wife Karen while they were both students at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. Later, as a graduate student at the University of Delaware, he decided to leave behind his studies of Physics and Astronomy and was sent to Yale/Berkeley Divinity School to study for the priesthood. He completed his Masters of Divinity and was ordained to the diaconate in Delaware in 1991, then to the priesthood in 1992. In 2013 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity, also from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

Bishop Knisely previously served as a priest in Delaware, Western and Eastern Pennsylvania, and as Dean of the Cathedral in Phoenix Arizona. He has been active in a number of ministries with particular focus in the areas of homelessness, communications, college and youth, finance, and ecumenical relations. He taught Physics and Astronomy for nearly seven years at Lehigh University while he was serving in Bethlehem PA. He was the first chair of the General Convention Standing Commission on Communications and Technology and was part of the Moravian-Episcopal Dialog that drew up the full communion agreement between the two denominations. Karen and Nicholas Knisely have been married for 30 years and have an adult daughter named Kenney.

Connect with Bishop Knisely

Email: bishopsoffice@episcopalri.org
Twitter: @wnknisely
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BishopWNKnisely/
Personal Blog: http://entangledstates.org
Diocesan Blog: https://www.episcopalri.org/connect/the-bishops-blog/
Instagram: @wnknisely

 

From the Bishop

  • The Return of Sacral Rulership?
    The Divine role of Emperor or King seems to be making a comeback. The Return of Sacral Rulership?: Ancients would learn, and our Founders too, that the language of sacral rulership is incompatible with a functioning demo …
  • The Cross was not the end, but it was the point
    Jesus came into this world, specifically to die on the Cross of the Roman Empire. He came to be die a death of humiliation and dehumanization. And he came to live again after that happened.  The Easter moment is the over …
  • Please pray: An Update on Haiti – from The Episcopal Church
    An Update on Haiti – The Episcopal Church: First and foremost, we call on all Episcopalians throughout the Church to pray for the Diocese of Haiti and for Haitians everywhere. Pray for peace and stability in the diocese, …
  • The rise of authoritanianism – a return to our past
    If you haven’t read “American Schism” by Seth David Radwell and Jonathan Israel, I recommend that you do. It’s been a popular recent choice for book groups. It’s a study of the different currents present in the Enlighten …
  • Jesus must be lifted up so that we can see the truth and have a chance to reject the lie
    When the people are murmuring in the wilderness, dreaming of returning to captivity and oppression, God sends the seraph, the “dragons” to lead them to a change of mind, a metanoia, a repentance. Moses makes a bronze ser …
  • One Step at a Time
    I am at the House of Bishop’s Spring retreat and am not able to post a sermon, and I didn’t want to try to repost the one from three years ago… we’re in a different context now than we were then, and I don’t think it spe …
  • Sometimes we have won when to everyone else it seems we have lost
    This week’s Gospel reading tells of Jesus surprising teaching to his disciples that the Messiah must suffer and die. He told them this just outside the gates of the seat of Roman power in the region, a place that the Hel …
  • What’s your absolute favorite Bible verse?
    Maple Anglican (@mapleanglican.bsky.social) over on BlueSky posted a question this afternoon asking people to share their favorite verse in the entire Bible. What a great question.  Mine is “And the Word became flesh and …
  • We are able to triumph, in the end, because of the life of Jesus that lives within us.
    We begin our Lenten journey this, as is customary, by reading the Gospel story of Jesus’ trials and temptation in the Wilderness. But this year, the middle year of our three year lectionary cycle, we read this story acco …
  • We need candor in public discourse
    There’s a great discussion in this morning NYTimes newsletter on why we’re seeing such a divided and divisive response to vaccination. The short version is that the CDC and public policy issued strict guidelines in what …