The Rt. Rev. Dr. Philip N. LaBelle was ordained and consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia on Saturday, September 14, at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. LaBelle leads nearly 26,000 Episcopalians in more than 100 worshiping communities across Western Washington.
The Most Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop for the Episcopal Church, served as the chief consecrator. Co-consecrators were Bishop-Provisional in the Diocese of Olympia, The Most Rev. Melissa Skelton; Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, The Rt. Rev. Gordon P. Scruton; Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Massachusetts, The Rt. Rev. Carol J.W.T. Gallagher; Bishop of the Diocese of Western Oregon, The Rt. Rev. Diana Akiyama; Bishop of the Diocese of Maine, The Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Brown; Bishop of the Southwestern Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Rev. Richard E. Jaech; and Bishop of the Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Rev. Shelley M. Bryan Wee. 18 other bishops attended the service, as did over 125 priests and deacons from Western Washington and the wider Episcopal church.
Olivia LaBelle, his daughter, and Liberato Arellano, of Misa Guadalupe in Renton, Washington, read the lessons. The Rev. Lynette Poulton Kamakura of St. Luke/San Lucas in Vancouver, Washington, read the gospel. LeBelle’s wife, Melissa, and his children, Noah and Olivia, presented him with a stole, chasuble, pectoral cross, and episcopal ring. The Rev. Michael Hamilton of Christ the King-Epiphany in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, presented him with a miter. The Most Rev. Melissa Skelton presented him with the diocesan crozier, and The Most Rev. Michael Curry presented him with a Bible.
“Diocese of Olympia, you have a gem of a new bishop,” said The Very Rev. Pamela Werntz of Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts, during her sermon. “Which is good because you are a gem of a diocese, and I feel sure that you all are going to help each other get shinier as you tumble around being church together in the days and years to come.”
Fred McIlroy of Emmanual, Mercer Island, served as the service’s director of music and gathered a choir of more than 100 singers from churches across the diocese. Roughly 900 Episcopalians eager to celebrate LaBelle’s consecration and ordination attended the service, and more than 300 attended the service remotely via livestream. The seating of Bishop LaBelle took place the following day in a special evensong at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle.
“My family and I have, in the course of this spiritual journey, seen firsthand the abundant love of Jesus as it has been expressed by the people of the Diocese of Olympia’” LaBelle said after the consecration. “I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to serve with them in ministry in the years ahead as we seek to proclaim that love in Western Washington.”
LaBelle previously served as the rector of St. Mark’s Church in Southborough, Massachusetts. He received his MDiv from Yale, and a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary, focused on Christian Spirituality. He was elected bishop diocesan on May 18, 2024, and follows Bishop-Provisional Melissa Skelton, who led the diocese since former Bishop Greg Rickel resigned in December 2022.
A recording of the service can be found below.
