Doug Neckers
Thirty or so years ago, soon after my wife Sue and I first joined Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Toledo, we met a young priest then serving as assistant rector, her first calling out of seminary.
Today, that priest, the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, is the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., the first woman in history to lead that diocese, the one that, more than any other, is in the public eye. Though Americans mostly know her as the leader appearing from the pulpit at the National Cathedral speaking in times of national crisis, or the funerals of important persons, her role goes considerably beyond that.