Meet Bishop W. Nicholas Knisely
Bishop 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: bishop@episcopalri.org
Twitter: @wnknisely
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BishopWNKnisely/
Blog: http://entangledstates.org
Instagram: @wnknisely
Find out which church the Bishop is visiting –VISITATION SCHEDULE
From the Bishop
- Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you…?
Jesus describes himself as the True Vine in this week’s Gospel reading. And he says that if we abide in him, then we can ask whatever we want and we will receive it. And yet, for most of us (all of us?) that doesn’t seem … - Jesus the Model and Noble Shepherd
Some Sundays of the liturgical year have names that relate to the lessons that are (or were) traditionally read that week. This Sunday which is just such an occasion, is often called Good Shepherd Sunday. We hear Jesus d … - The wounds remain though the new life begins
Both Luke’s and John’s Gospels include accounts of the resurrected Jesus appearing in the Upper Room to his disciples and showing them the wounds that his transformed body still carries. The wounds on the transformed per … - What sins you bind, are bound. What sins you loose, are loosed.
If you step back just a bit from the events of this week’s Gospel reading from the Fourth Gospel, and look at how it functions in the larger narrative, you can begin to see that the Temple and the Priesthood is being rem … - Has the Pandemic brought an end to our hyper-mobility?
Susan McWilliams Barndt has a brief essay posted on the new site “Current” that talks about the implications of new sociological data showing that Americans are moving less and putting down deeper roots than they have in … - Easter Day 2021
Each year, as we hear the story of Easter Day, there’s some detail or piece of the account that seems to stand out. This year, for me, it’s what Jesus says to Mary of Madgela, the First Apostle, when she encounters him i … - Palm Sunday 2021 – Hosanna!?
Most years we celebrate Palm Sunday beginning in the church yard, blessing the palms, carrying them singing and shouting Hosanna around the neighborhood and then into the church nave. It feels like we move from light int … - The community gathered by Jesus’ Passion is the means the Spirit uses to transform the Cosmos
Jesus reveals the truth of the violence at the foundations of society by his death and resurrection on the cross. This week we hear him describe what his death will accomplish. It’s the longest speech about his Passion i … - Look upon the bronze serpent and live! Huh?
In the opening of today’s Gospel, which includes the famous passage about Jesus coming to save not to condemn the world, Jesus says he must be lifted up like the bronze serpent Moses fashioned in the wilderness to save t … - By what sign do you do these things? How shall we recognize a true prophet?
John’s version of the cleansing of the temple has it take place in the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, not as part of the events of Holy Week. In John’s version, Jesus’ actions driving out the cattle and overturning …