The Right Reverend William Bower, SSC
His Episcopal motto "Dominus illuminatio mea" (The Lord is my light) is taken from the opening words of Psalm 27 and is the used by the University of Oxford as its motto. It reminds us that only in Christ do we have the light of salvation. In the light of Christ, we shall not be afraid of anything.
The Right Reverend William Bower, SSC was elected to be the bishop suffragan of the Diocese of the West of the Anglican Church in America at its Synod in September 2020 and was consecrated on July 10, 2021. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1964, where he attended grade school through high school. It was during this period that he was a member of the Grammy A ward winning Atlanta Boy Choir and was part of a student exchange program with the Vienna Boys Choir. In his teen years he relocated with his family to the Los Angeles area where he finished high school and met the love of his life, Sabrina Thai, whom he married in 1984.
He attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) on an Army scholarship and received a Reserve commission in 1985. In 1986 he founded Contemporary Information Corporation, a data company, in Santa Clarita, California. As a bi-vocational clergyman, he continues to work full time at his secular employment as well as being engaged in pastoral ministry.
After being ordained both deacon and priest in a noncanonical old calendar Orthodox jurisdiction, Bishop Bower moved his congregation into the Orthodox Church in America. In 1997 he completed the Late Vocations Program and was ordained a deacon by Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald). He attended St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary from 1997 - 2000. He was incardinated in the Anglican Church in America in July of 2000 and assigned to St. Mary of the Angels parish in Hollywood, California, where he participated in the St. Mary's Theological College. In 2002 he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop James Gordon Stewart. In 2001 Bishop Bower began a degree by research program with the University of Oxford, and in 2013 was awarded the degree of Master of Philosophy specializing in Theology.
Bishop Bower was the founding rector of the parish of St. Columba in Lancaster, California which he served from 2002-2013. From 2014 until 2019 he assisted at two Anglican parishes in Atlanta, Georgia. In July 2019 he began filling in at St. Mary of the Angels parish and was assigned as Locum Tenens in August of that year. He has faithfully served St. Mary of the Angels for two years providing pastoral leadership to guide the parish through a crisis period into stability including finding and training a permanent parish priest.
He has served as Canon to the Ordinary for three diocesan bishops, has been a member of almost every diocesan committee, and is a long-term member of the Societas Sanctae Crucis (Society of the Holy Cross).
Bishop Bower and his wife Sabrina have four adult children, Rebecca, Ian, Catherine, and Julia. When not engaged by secular or church work, they enjoy spending time boating in coastal South Carolina or on the Suwannee River in Florida.
The Right Reverend William Bower, SSC
Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of the Eastern United States (ADEUS)
EMAIL: william.bower@theology.oxon.org
PHONE: 706-530-0690 ext. 700
