Welcome, Bishop Jessica Crist

This Sunday we welcome our bishop as the guest speaker in Adult Forum (9:00am) and as our guest preacher in worship at 10:00am. Please greet her and welcome her to Bozeman and Christ the King!

 

The Rev. Jessica Crist is Bishop of the Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  A resident of Great Falls, she is married to Turner Graybill, a retired attorney.  They are members of Bethel Lutheran Church in Great Falls, Montana.  They have two adult children—Rhiannon, who is a professor in the religion department at Rhodes College in Memphis, and Raphael, a recent graduate of Yale Law School.  Bishop Crist grew up in Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Divinity School.

 

Prior to assuming the office of Bishop, Pastor Crist served as Associate to the Bishop for 5 years, and Director of the Northern Rockies Institute of Theology for 18 years.  She served congregations in Great Falls, Montana, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and started in ministry as a campus pastor.  She served on the Transition Team that helped put together the Montana Synod from the predecessor churches, and was elected Synod Secretary at the Constituting Convention.  She served in that capacity for 12 years.  She has worked with the Montana Association of Churches for many years, including serving as President, and as part of the teaching staff for the Lay Ministry Institute. She has served on the Board of Lutheran World Relief.
Her community service over the years has included chairing boards for the local YWCA, the PTA and the hospital’s Women’s Health Board.  She writes a monthly column for Montana Woman Magazine.

Bishop Crist was elected Chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops. She currently serves on the Board of the Montana Association of Churches, on the Board of Luther Seminary.

She is a member of the ELCA Task Force on Communal Discernment, the Bishops’ Liason Committee for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, and the Bishops’ Domestic Ready Bench.    

“I am honored to serve as the Bishop of the Montana Synod.  As I travel the Synod and visit your congregations and ministries I get to function as an ambassador.  I get to meet you and listen to your stories.  And I get to share the story of the wider church with you.  I pray for every congregation and every pastor and AIM each week.  And I hope you will join me in praying for the whole church.”