Episcopalians and invited guests from across the United States will gather in Salina’s Christ Cathedral Saturday for the ordination and consecration of the Diocese of Western Kansas’ sixth bishop.

The Right Reverend Mark A. Cowell succeeds The Right Reverend Michael Milliken, who served the diocese for nearly seven years.

Elected on May 5, Cowell will lead Episcopalians in a largely rural diocese covering the western counties of Kansas. Like many of the clergy within the diocese as well as his predecessor, Cowell will be a bi-vocational bishop.

A lawyer who once prosecuted gang members in Dodge City, the new bishop will continue to serve as vicar of Sts. Mary and Martha of Bethany in Larned and of Holy Nativity in Kinsley. He also works part-time as Dodge City’s municipal prosecutor and is currently in his second term as Hodgeman County attorney.

The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, is scheduled to lead the ceremony as chief consecrator. Curry leads the two million-member denomination, the American branch of the 85 million-member global Anglican Communion.

Some will recognize Curry as the spirited bishop who delivered the sermon at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom.

About the new bishop

Raised in the Episcopal Church, Cowell fell in love with Anglican liturgy while living in England as a child. After returning to the United States, he served as an acolyte at St. Peter’s Church in Essex Fells, New Jersey, until he left home for college.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Drew University in 1990, and his Juris Doctorate from Washburn University Law School in 1994. Shortly after admission to the Kansas Bar in 1994, he felt the call to ministry. Trained locally, he was ordained a transitional deacon in October 2003 and a priest in June 2004.

Cowell, his wife Julie, and their three children, Gabriel, Cathleen, and Gryffin, reside in Larned.