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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Priest didn’t seek top role

The Rev. Brian Prior, parish priest  at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in  Spokane Valley since 1996, has been selected to be the bishop of Minnesota. (J. Bart Rayniak / The Spokesman-Review)

The Rev. Brian Prior has firm roots in the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. He grew up in Prosser, Wash., graduated from Whitworth College, was a fifth-grade substitute teacher at Midway Elementary in Mead and has worked in the diocese since he was ordained a priest in 1989.

Those roots will be transplanted to Minnesota as Prior prepares to take his new role as the ninth bishop of Minnesota in February.

Prior, 50, received word Oct. 31 that he had been elected to the position by the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. “I was literally physically unable to speak,” he said.

The road to bishop began with Prior’s first position, as associate pastor of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on the South Hill. From there he worked as the director of education and development for the Diocese of Spokane and also was executive director of Camp Cross, a church-run camp on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene. He took the position as pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Spokane Valley in 1996.

In 2003 he was chosen to serve as chaplain of the Episcopal Church’s national General Convention. In 2006 he was elected vice president of the House of Deputies, one of the two groups that make up the governing body of the Episcopal Church. He was re-elected to that position this summer but must give up the post to join the House of Bishops.

Even though his fellow seminarians at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif., labeled him “most likely to become bishop,” Prior said that was never his goal. “I’ve never set out for that,” he said. “I loved being a camp director. I love being pastor of this church.”

Even now, Prior said he’s not certain he’s called to be a bishop, but he does feel called to use his talents where he believes they are needed.

“I think my gifts match what Minnesota is looking for in their bishop,” he said. “I have been a person who likes to build community, to work with others to discover what their gifts are and fully use those gifts.”

Nina Culver

‘Positive Change’ afoot in Spokane Valley

Spokane Valley voters didn’t just speak Tuesday, they “shouted their wishes loud and clear,” according to Councilman-elect Dean Grafos.

Still, a few things weren’t immediately clear.

For example, how should people address newly elected council member Bob McCaslin, who’s also a longtime state senator? Sen. McCaslin or Councilman McCaslin?

“You call me Bob, is what you call me,” McCaslin said.

In Spokane Valley’s city-manager government, the mayor is a council member who is chosen by the rest of the council to be its spokesman. McCaslin said he’ll be too busy to consider being mayor. He will keep his Senate seat and will have to spend most of his time in Olympia during the two-month legislative session that starts in January.

“I will come home if necessary,” McCaslin said.

Otherwise, he can count on his fellow council members to excuse his absences while the Legislature is in session. McCaslin is one of five “Positive Change” candidates elected Tuesday.

The others are Grafos, who will replace interim Councilman Ian Robertson as soon as election results are certified; Brenda Grassel, who defeated incumbent Diana Wilhite; Tom Towey, who ran unopposed for the position Dick Denenny is vacating; and incumbent Gary Schimmels, also unopposed.

Councilwoman Rose Dempsey, one of two incumbents not up for re-election, also supported the Positive Change slate. She thinks the current council failed to listen to constituents.

Councilman Bill Gothmann, who supported the defeated incumbents, will round out the new council.

The council’s first item of business will be to replace Munson and Denenny as mayor and deputy mayor.

Members of the new council haven’t firmed up their positions, but support seemed to be building last week for Schimmels.

Towey and Grassel joined McCaslin in ruling themselves out, and Gothmann’s stance in the election made him an unlikely candidate.

Grafos said he’s not ruling himself out as mayor, “but I’m probably not actively pursuing it.”

Schimmels and Dempsey, on the other hand, say they would accept the job.

Based on campaign rhetoric, the Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan, negotiations with University City Inc. to purchase land for a new city hall, the new 6 percent telephone tax, and City Manager Dave Mercier’s contract are likely to be among the new council’s first items of business.

John Craig