Geralyn Wolf
Geralyn Wolf is an American bishop who was the twelfth diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island in the Episcopal Church. Wolf was consecrated as bishop on February 17, 1996.Biography
Wolf is a native of West Chester, Pennsylvania and was raised Jewish before becoming a Christian around 1971. She graduated from West Chester University in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in education from Trenton State College which she received in 1971. At Episcopal Divinity School in 1977 she earned a Master of Divinity degree.
Wolf was ordained to the diaconate in 1977, and the priesthood in 1978, in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
Prior to her election she was, from 1986 to 1995, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in the Diocese of Kentucky, the first woman dean of a cathedral. David Reed, Bishop of Kentucky, had named Wolf to replace Rev. Allen L. Bartlett Jr., was elected bishop coadjutor of the diocese of Pennsylvania in September, 1985.
Wolf serves on several national committees and is the liturgist for the House of Bishops. She is an associate of the Society of St. Margaret, a companion of the Oratory of the Good Shepherd, an ecumenical oblate of Mount Saviour Monastery in Elmira, New York, and has visited and worked with the Taizé community in France. She is the author of several published anthems and articles and creates whimsical figures that are made out of wood.
Wolf falls on the mainstream to progressive side of Episcopal Church politics and in 2003 supported the consecration of gay bishop Gene Robinson. But she defrocked the Episcopal Priest Ann Holmes Redding for Redding choosing to embrace the Islamic faith while remaining Christian.
In 2007 Wolf married Thomas Charles Bair Jr.
She retired as Bishop of Rhode Island in 2012.
