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Bishop Ruth D. Urban

The Right Rev. Ruth D. Urban was born and reared entirely within the Commonwealth of Virginia. She received her BA from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA in 1966. For several years following college and marriage to her husband, the Rev. John T. Urban (Fr. John), she taught elementary school in Virginia, Tennessee, and Texas. In 1975 she became a master teacher and teacher trainer of the Suzuki Piano method. In 1983, following several years of spiritual awakening and growth, she entered the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin TX. She received her Masters of Divinity in 1986. She was ordained both deacon and priest in the Diocese of Bethlehem (PA). Mother Ruth was rector of St. Paul's, Troy, PA for five years. In 1994 she was called to be rector of St. Matthias Church in Nashville, where she served for four years. Following her move to Memphis, she became Associate rector of St. John's Episcopal Church. She became co-rector with her husband of an Episcopal Church near the Barnett Reservoir outside of Jackson, MS in 2001. Mother Ruth has always been active in the Church: church teacher and musician; youth leader; conference organizer and leader; alternate deputy to General Convention; Serving on many diocesan committees and ministries; and deeply involved in the Order of St. Luke International healing ministry for nearly thirty years as chaplain, Regional director (which she is now for the Southeast Region), and conference leader and speaker. She is evangelical, sacramental, and charismatic in her life and worship, and founder and director of HEMS Ministry. Bishop Ruth D Urban was consecrated bishop on the Eve of the Feast of St. Thomas, December of 2008. The consecration took place in Madson, Mississippi. Bishop Ruth is the first woman to be consecrated bishop by the conservative Anglican Church. She will be concentrating on missions and the spiritual development of All Nations Anglican Church. She and her husband have been married forty-three years and have two happily married sons and five grandchildren in Austin, TX

Archdeacon John T. Urban was reared in the heartland of the United States: Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. He holds a BA from the University of Texas (1965) and a Masters of Divinity from The University of the South (1969). He was ordained Deacon in 1969 and priest in May 1970. In thirty-five years of ordained ministry, Fr. Urban has served churches in Houston and Dallas, TX; Western Kansas; Austin, TX; northeastern Pennsylvania (Diocese of Bethlehem), Nashville and Memphis, TN; and in the capital area of Mississippi. Fr. John has served as chairman for youth ministries in the dioceses of Dallas and Bethlehem, on the Diocesan Council (i.e. Executive Council) in the dioceses of Western Kansas and Bethlehem, as chair of the Evangelism and Renewal Task Force in the Diocese of Western Kansas, as secretary for the formation board for the Center for Hispanic Ministry of Province Seven in Austin, Texas, and as spiritual director for numerous Happenings and Cursillos. He trained for interim ministry in 1994. Prior to being the founding Co-Rector of Holy Apostles with his wife Ruth, he was co-Rector with her for three years at an Episcopal Church near Jackson, MS. Fr. John served nine months as interim pastor at an African-American Episcopal parish and four years as vicar at another church in Memphis, TN. He introduced ALPHA to the second church in order to restore sound teaching in that badly spiritually-damaged church. Fr. John is active with the Prayer Committee of Mission Mississippi, a ministry which promotes racial reconciliation through prayer and ministry partnerships. He and his wife were instrumental in the formation of Stand Firm, an organization of Mississippi Episcopal clergy and laity dedicated to addressiing the current un-Biblical movement of the Episcopal Church. Fr. John is both evangelical and charismatic: dedicated to Biblical Christianity and the movement of the Holy Spirit. He has been active in charismatic renewal since the late 1970's.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. John 3:16


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