A Philadelphia priest has been elected the eighth Bishop of Guyana. The Rev. Charles Davidson, rector of Calvary St Augustine Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was elected on the first ballot of the 29 Sep 2015 election. A native of Guyana, Bishop-elect Davidson was educated at the United Theological College of Jamaica and the Codrington College in Barbados. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Diocese of Guyana in 1977  and served in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Bahamas before transferring to the Diocese of New Jersey of the Episcopal Church in 1998. He subsequenly served in the dioceses of Southwest Florida and Pennsylvania. The Archbishop of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, the Most Rev. John Holder, Bishop of Barbados has been informed of the election, the diocese reported, and the election now goes to the House of Bishops for confirmation. Bishop-elect Davidson succeeds the Rt. Rev. Cornell Moss, who died from a heart ailment in July. Bishop Moss had been appointed Bishop of Guyana in 2009 by the West Indian bishops after the diocesan electoral college was unable to select a candidate.

Photo: Michael Powell