Tenth Bishop of Georgia (2010-2020)

(1957- )

Born and raised near the Ohio River, Scott Anson Benhase went to DePauw University. After college, he spent a year as a missionary of the Episcopal Church in Honduras. During that time, he was discerning a vocation to ordained ministry with his bishop, Edward Jones of Indianapolis. In 1980, he was accepted as a postulant and entered Virginia Theological Seminary. He married Kelly Jones on May 12, 1984, eight weeks after his ordination to the priesthood.

After two years as a curate at Trinity Church, Indianapolis, he accepted a call to be Rector of St Paul’s, East Cleveland, an urban parish in one of the poorest communities in the country. He spent five years there helping the parish transition from a predominantly white parish to a predominantly black one. In 1990, Bishop Benhase was called to be Vicar of Trinity, Charlottesville, an historic black church that discerned a call to become an integrated community to witness next door to Mr. Jefferson’s University. Benhase accepted a call to St Philip’s Church in Durham, North Carolina, the mother church of Durham. In 2006, Bishop Benhase accepted a call to be Rector of St Alban’s Parish in Washington, DC, the parish church next to the National Cathedral. He was elected Bishop of Georgia in September of 2009 and consecrated as the 10th Bishop of Georgia on January 23, 2010.

A major initiative of Benhase’s episcopacy was the Campaign for Congregational Development, a capital campaign raising funds to enhance capacity in congregational growth and development, clergy and lay leader development, and leadership formation of youth and young adults.

As part of his final address to the 198th convention on November 15, 2019, he announced he is committing 3% of the diocese’s unrestricted endowment to help form the St. Anna Alexander Center for Racial Reconciliation & Healing. ⁣
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“As I wrote to the diocese last week, every person’s life is an unspoken sermon that is constantly preaching to others. That is true not just of individuals. It is also true for the church as a whole and for a diocese in particular. What we do as a diocese speaks volumes,” said Benhase during the address. “What we are beginning is not reparations. No amount of money can do that. What we are doing is committing significant resources to the long, slow work of racial reconciliation and healing.” ⁣

Benhase was succeeded as Bishop of Georgia by Frank Logue on May 30, 2020.

Additional archival links

eCroziers-The eCrozier was Bishop Benhase’ weekly communication with the people of the Diocese of Georgia. You can read the archive of Bishop Benhase’ eCroziers at ecrozier.georgiaepiscopal.org

Photos–Photo Albums from Bishop Benhase’s episcopacy

Videos-An archive of the videos created by the Diocese of Georgia during his episcopacy is online here: Archived YouTube Channel