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{{Short description|American Anglican bishop}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = bishop
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Reverend]]
| name = Jacob C. Worley
| title = Bishop of Cascadia
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| church = [[Anglican Church in North America]]
| archdiocese =
| diocese = [[Diocese of Cascadia|Cascadia]]
| see =
| term = 2024–present
| predecessor = [[Kevin Bond Allen]]
| successor =

| ordination = 2004 (diaconate)<br/>2005 (priesthood)
| ordained_by =
| consecration = February 24, 2024
| consecrated_by = [[Foley Beach]]
| rank =

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1969}}
| birth_place = [[Alabama]]
| death_date =
| death_place =
| other_post = Rector, [[St. Andrew's Anglican Church (Fort Worth, Texas)|St. Andrew's Anglican Church]] (2018–2023)<br/>Bishop-elect, [[Diocese of Caledonia]] (2017)
}}

'''Jacob Christopher Worley'''<ref name="fullname">{{cite web |title=CLERGY |url=https://www.st-andrew.com/clergy-and-staff |publisher=St. Andrew's Anglican Church |access-date=31 October 2023}}</ref> (born 1969) is an American Anglican bishop. Since 2024, he has been the second diocesan bishop of the [[Diocese of Cascadia]] in the [[Anglican Church in North America]]. He has also served as a priest in the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]], the [[Anglican Mission in the Americas|Anglican Mission in America]], the [[Church of Ireland]], and the [[Anglican Church of Canada]]. In 2017, he was elected [[Diocese of Caledonia|bishop of Caledonia]], but the bishops of the [[Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon]] did not assent to the election because of Worley's involvement in [[Anglican realignment]] under the [[Anglican Church of Rwanda]].<ref name="anglicanjournal-rejection">{{cite news |last1=Folkins |first1=Tali |title=Worley will not serve as bishop of Caledonia, rules provincial HoB |url=https://anglicanjournal.com/worley-will-not-serve-as-bishop-of-caledonia-rules-provincial-hob/ |access-date=31 October 2023 |work=Anglican Journal |date=May 15, 2017}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Worley was born in Alabama and moved to [[Gallup, New Mexico]], around the age of five, where he was raised.<ref name="anglicanjournal-election">{{cite news |last1=Folkins |first1=Tali |title=U.S.-born priest elected bishop of Caledonia |url=https://anglicanjournal.com/u-s-born-priest-elected-bishop-of-caledonia/ |access-date=31 October 2023 |work=Anglican Journal |date=April 24, 2017}}</ref> He studied zoology and botany at Western New Mexico University, graduating with a B.S. in 1995.<ref name="houstontoday">{{cite news |last1=Lieuwen |first1=Jackie |title=Rev. Worley Has Worked for U.S. Army |url=https://issuu.com/blackpress/docs/i20150408050143186/7 |access-date=31 October 2023 |work=Houston Today |date=April 8, 2015}}</ref> During his time at WNMU, he [[Conversion to Christianity|converted to Christianity]] and married his wife, Kelly. They have five adult children.<ref name="worley-cv">{{cite web |last1=Worley |first1=Jacob |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5898e069b3db2bfd96da09e4/t/64decdf171b4c76380e891ae/1692323314573/Worley+Bishop+Packet.pdf |publisher=Diocese of Cascadia |access-date=31 October 2023 |archive-date=11 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230911162809/https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5898e069b3db2bfd96da09e4/t/64decdf171b4c76380e891ae/1692323314573/Worley+Bishop+Packet.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> After college, Worley worked for several years as a wildlife biologist in New Mexico, where he worked on wildlife censuses, habitat delineation, and environmental assessments for the [[United States Forest Service]], the [[International Boundary and Water Commission]], [[Phelps Dodge]] and the [[White Sands Missile Range]].<ref name="worley-cv" />

During his time in college, Worley experienced a call to ordained ministry. He enrolled in [[Trinity School for Ministry]] in 2001 and was ordained deacon in 2004 upon graduation and a priest in 2005. Both ordinations took place in the [[Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande]].<ref name="anglicanjournal-election" /> He served a curacy in Michigan and then as an assistant priest and interim rector at an Episcopal church in [[Las Cruces, New Mexico|Las Cruces]].<ref name="worley-cv" />

==Ordained ministry==
In 2007, as part of the [[Anglican realignment]], Worley planted St. Patrick’s Anglican Church in Las Cruces. As a priest in the Anglican Mission in America, Worley's clergy orders were held in the [[Anglican Church of Rwanda]].<ref name="anglicanjournal-election" /> In 2008, Worley was [[defrocking|deposed]] by the Episcopal Church along with several other priests who departed around the same time.<ref name="worley-deposition">{{cite web |title=Journal of the 192nd Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio |url=https://www.dohio.org/files/assets/192ndjournalprint.pdf |publisher=Episcopal Diocese of Ohio |page=51 |date=2008}}</ref> Worley was also a board member and teacher at Covenant Christian Academy in [[La Union, New Mexico]].<ref name="worley-cv" />

In 2013, Worley served a short stint as rector of the three-church Anglican Parish of the [[Fort St. John, British Columbia|North Peace]] in the Diocese of Caledonia, Anglican Church of Canada. Later that year, he was called to the Church of Ireland to serve as incumbent of the Kilmoremoy Union of Parishes, a five-point parish that included [[Castleconnor|Castleconnor Parish Church]] in the then-[[Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry]]. During this time, he also served as chairman of Leafoney National School and St. Michael’s National School.<ref name="worley-cv" />

Worley returned to the Diocese of Caledonia in 2014 to serve as rector of a three-church parish in the [[Bulkley Valley]] consisting of St. James’ Anglican Church in [[Smithers, British Columbia|Smithers]], St. John the Divine Anglican Church in Quick, and St. Clement’s Anglican Church in [[Houston, British Columbia|Houston]].<ref name="anglicanjournal-election" /> "When we were in Fort St. John, we fell in love with Canada. Alongside that, we fell in love with the people of Canada," Worley told local media at the time of his return to British Columbia.<ref name="houstontoday" />

===Election as bishop of Caledonia===
In April 2017, Worley was nominated to succeed [[William Anderson (bishop of Caledonia)|William Anderson]] as bishop of Caledonia. He was elected on the eighth ballot.<ref name="anglicanjournal-election" /> However, Worley's election was subject to the approval of the bishops of the [[Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon]]. In May 2017, the bishops formally objected to Worley's election on the grounds that he had served in the AMIA, which was the canonical jurisdiction of the Anglican Church of Rwanda while being located in the geographical jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church.<ref name="anglicanjournal-rejection"></ref>

"[T]he majority of the House concluded that within the past five years the Rev. Worley has held—and continues to hold—views contrary to the Discipline of the Anglican Church of Canada,” Metropolitan [[John Privett]] was quoted as saying. "The view he held and holds is that it is acceptable and permissible for a priest of one church of the Anglican Communion to exercise priestly ministry in the geographical jurisdiction of a second church of the Anglican Communion without the permission of the Ecclesiastical Authority of that second church."<ref name="anglicanjournal-rejection" />

The diocesan administrator, the Rev. Gwen Andrews, said she was "shocked" by the bishops’ decision because the diocesan search committee vetting episcopal candidates had notified Privett of Worley's background, "pointing out his missionary work under the bishop of Rwanda and asking if it posed a problem to his candidacy. The search committee told her, Andrews said, that Privett did not think it would pose a problem."<ref name="anglicanjournal-disappointment">{{cite news |last1=Folkins |first1=Tali |title=Caledonia administrator ‘shocked and saddened’ by Worley decision |url=https://anglicanjournal.com/caledonia-administrator-shocked-and-saddened-by-worley-decision/ |access-date=31 October 2023 |work=Anglican Journal |date=May 19, 2017}}</ref> Privett later told media that his comments were "off the cuff," based on Worley's then-residence in the Diocese of Caledonia. "In itself, it may or may not have been an issue," Privett said. "At that point, it didn’t seem to be, because he was functioning in the Diocese of Caledonia and I’d assumed that the Diocese of Caledonia had received him in due order. . . . It was only when it came to the House of Bishops, when we were looking primarily at the criteria in the provincial canon, that we recognized that we needed to look further than we had been before."<ref name="anglicanjournal-disappointment" />

In November 2017, Worley was dismissed "without cause" as a priest and with no explanation from Privett. The dismissal resulted in the termination of Worley's Canadian residency permit, forcing the family to return immediately to the United States.<ref name="anglicanjournal-dismissal">{{cite news |last1=Kidd |first1=Joelle |title=Diocese of Caledonia priest fired ‘without cause’ |url=https://anglicanjournal.com/diocese-caledonia-priest-fired-without-cause/ |work=Anglican Journal |date=November 15, 2017}}</ref> Worley later said: "We were painfully forced to leave the Pacific Northwest which we know God has called us to."<ref name="worley-cv" />

The bishops' rejection of Worley's election triggered criticism from the theologically conservative wing of the Anglican Church. "We want to believe that this decision was reached in a fair and reasonable manner, but we are also aware that to many Anglicans in the pew it looks unfair and deliberately skewed—especially given some recent history," commented the head of the Anglican Communion Alliance.<ref name="anglicanjournal-disappointment" /> In protest, retired bishop Anderson withdrew from the Anglican Church of Canada and joined the [[Anglican Diocese of Canada|Anglican Network in Canada]], the ACNA's local diocese.<ref name="anglicanjournal-anderson">{{cite news |last1=Folkins |first1=Tali |title=Retired bishop of Caledonia leaves Anglican Church of Canada for breakaway group |url=https://anglicanjournal.com/retired-bishop-caledonia-leaves-anglican-church-canada-breakaway-group/ |access-date=31 October 2023 |work=Anglican Journal |date=November 24, 2017}}</ref> The editor of ''The Anglican Planet'' observed that "[t]his incident has cost the Anglican Church of Canada a fine priest and should-be bishop in Jacob Worley and a fine bishop in William Anderson. It has devastated the Diocese of Caledonia, destroyed a parish and undermined the credibility of all involved."<ref name="anglican-planet">{{cite news |last1=Molloy |first1=C. Peter |title=An Altogether Shameful Episode |url=https://anglicanplanet.net/an-altogether-shameful-episode/ |access-date=31 October 2023 |work=The Anglican Planet |date=December 10, 2017}}</ref>

===Return to the United States and the ACNA===
After returning to the United States, Worley was in July 2018 appointed rector of [[St. Andrew's Anglican Church (Fort Worth, Texas)|St. Andrew's Anglican Church]] in [[Fort Worth, Texas]], noted as a [[Low church|low-church]] parish in the [[Anglo-Catholicism|Anglo-Catholic]] [[Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth|Diocese of Fort Worth]].<ref name="tlc">{{cite news |title=Jacob Worley Called to Fort Worth |url=https://livingchurch.org/2018/07/26/jacob-worley-called-to-fort-worth/ |access-date=31 October 2023 |work=The Living Church |date=July 26, 2018}}</ref> While in Fort Worth, Worley served as a board member of the [[American Anglican Council]], on the diocesan executive committee and on the bishop search committee for the election of [[Ryan Reed (bishop)|Ryan Reed]].<ref name="worley-cv" />

In 2023, Worley was elected the second bishop of the Diocese of Cascadia to succeed [[Kevin Bond Allen]].<ref name="cascadia-election">{{cite web |title=Twenty-First Week After Pentecost (Holy Communion) Festival Eucharist |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwKBdCxHqj0&t=1487s |website=YouTube |publisher=Holy Trinity Edmonds |access-date=22 October 2023 |location=See sermon of Bishop Kevin Bond Allen at 24:48}}</ref> At the time of his election, Worley told the diocese that "the Lord put the Pacific Northwest in our hearts years ago when I distinctly heard Him tell me, 'These are your people. This is your place.' . . . When God calls us, He appoints us to a people, a place, and an office or task. . . . The people of the Pacific Northwest are our people. It is our place where we are called. And I know that I am called to the office of bishop because the local body of clergy and lay have affirmed it once already."<ref name="worley-cv" />

On February 24, 2024, Archbishop [[Foley Beach]] consecrated and installed Worley as bishop in Shoreline, Washington.<ref name="consecration">{{cite web |title=Consecration of Bishop Jacob Worley |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2C6jMRxA2k |website=YouTube |publisher=Diocese of Cascadia |access-date=24 February 2024 |date=February 24, 2024}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{S-rel|}}
{{S-bef|before= [[Kevin Bond Allen]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Diocese of Cascadia|II Bishop of Cascadia]]|years=2024–present}}
{{S-inc}}
{{End}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worley, Jacob C.}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1969 births]]
[[Category:Protestants from New Mexico]]
[[Category:Trinity Anglican Seminary alumni]]
[[Category:Western New Mexico University alumni]]
[[Category:Anglican realignment people]]
[[Category:Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America]]

Jacob Worley - Revision history

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wikipedia>Dclemens1971: removed Category:Trinity School for Ministry alumni; added Category:Trinity Anglican Seminary alumni using HotCat