George Sumner, PhD

 The Rt. Rev. George Sumner was elected as the Seventh bishop of the Diocese of  Dallas during a Special Convention in May 2015. His consecration was November 14, 2015. As bishop he oversees the administrative needs throughout the diocese and is chief pastor for more than 25,000 Episcopalians, more than 180 clergy, and over 60 congregations.  Prior to his election, Sumner served as principal of Wycliffe College in Toronto, Canada. He was the dean of a growing seminary and the chief administrator responsible for strategic planning; encouraging young, future priests; stewardship; building relations with bishops; and overseeing clergy's continuing education.  Ordained as an Episcopal priest in western Massachusetts in 1981, Sumner served in a  variety of capacities: youth minister, missionary teacher in east Africa, curate in an  inner-city Anglo-Catholic parish, vicar on a Native American reservation in New Mexico  and Arizona, and rector in a small town. Sumner has a PhD in theology from Yale, and  is the author or co-author of several books: The First and the Last: The Claim of Jesus Christ and the Claims of Other Religious Traditions (Eerdmans, 2004), Being Salt: A Theology of an  Ordered Church (Cascade Books, 2007), a commentary on Esther and Daniel (Brazos, 2013), and Life ‘in Christ’ (Wipf and Stock, 2025). He also has an MDiv from Yale Divinity School and a BA from Harvard College. Sumner and his wife, Stephanie, have two adult children.