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Diocesan Regions

In the summer of 2024, Bishop White appointed a special task force to look at the possibility of recreating regional gatherings of congregations. The goal was to provide a structure to assist in the strengthening and maintenance of connections between and among the congregations of our diocese. 

Our diocesan regions, implemented in summer 2025, offer a means by which our leaders and congregations can gather together for learning, conversation, and fellowship across our geography, from the Indiana border to our river cities neighboring West Virginia and Kentucky. 

They are a tool to describe participation in the life and workings of our diocese, to guide staff deployment, and to offer the ability for the congregations of that region to organize self-driven opportunities to gather.

List of Congregations by Region

Frequently Asked Questions

Per a specific recommendation from the Task Force on Regional Structures, the four regions were created mindful of travel times and road connections between congregations. While our goal was that no congregation would have to drive more than 45 minutes to its central location, that was not possible in all circumstances, most obviously in the Eastern Region, where our congregations are quite spread out. 

Additionally, several congregations have active collaborations in place–sharing leadership, staff, or some other major ministry function. We ensured those congregations landed in the same region together.

No, not at this time. However, as with all things, as we live into this new expression of life together and evaluate, it’s possible we would evolve and pursue changes in the future. This might include some kind of more formal governance designation and function.

Bishop White invites the clergy of your region to consider gathering as a clericus for ongoing support, learning and fellowship. She will request that a cleric in each region convene a first meeting; that will be an opportunity to self-organize and determine whether such a grouping is helpful for your ministry and in what form and frequency. They will be asked to communicate meeting dates to the diocesan office so that we can include them on the diocesan calendar. 

In other words, it’s the bishop’s hope that clergy will use this as an opportunity to gather together. Whether they do and how they do is up to them! 

We also recognize that in some circumstances, like in the more highly-populated Southwest Region, it may be easier to subdivide into smaller groupings of clergy to be most effective.

If you feel your congregation better fits within another region by reason of access or culture, the rector or senior warden should please email Canon Katie Forsyth at kforsyth@diosohio.org and we will accommodate your request to move. 

In the summer of 2024, Bishop White appointed a group to explore the possibility of recreating regional gatherings of congregations with the goal of providing a structure to assist in the strengthening and maintaining connections between and among the congregations of the Diocese of Southern Ohio. 

Between September and December of 2024 the group shared their own experiences and ideas about region and other kinds of gatherings of congregations and solicited feedback from the diocese in the following ways:

  • Table conversations over lunch at the Holy Cross clergy day at Procter Center.
  • Individual interviews with identified leaders from around the diocese.
  • Table conversations over lunch at diocesan convention.
  • A survey promoted to the whole diocese that generated over 220 individual responses

This process resulted in a set of recommendations, delivered to Bishop White last winter. Along with information collected from a Clergy Care Survey conducted by our Mission Implementation Team, the determination of the new regional structure was finalized by Bishop White in coordination with senior diocesan staff. 

With gratitude for their service, the following people served on the Task Force on Regional Structures:

Carol Allen – Christ Church, Ironton
Canon Jon Boss – Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming
The Rev. Mary Carson – St. James, Westwood
Ericka Hall – St. Philip, Columbus
Lauren Cuff Faller – St. Christopher’s, Fairborn
The Rev. Benjamin Speare-Hardy – St. Margaret’s, Trotwood
Wendell Mulford – St. Paul’s, Chillicothe
The Very Rev. Owen Thompson – Christ Church Cathedral
The Rev. William Sangrey – St. George’s, Dayton
The Rev. Gene Sheppard – St. Luke’s, Marietta
The Rev. Vicki Zust – St. Mark’s, Columbus (Chair)

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Cincinnati, OH 45202

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