Welcome to the Bishop's Office

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Diocese of Maine website. I urge you to look into every corner of this ministry of communication to discover all of the wonderful things that are going on in this diocese.

I hope you find it helpful and an asset to your ministry.

Ever in Christ,

A profile of Bishop Chilton Knudsen

The oldest child of a Navy family, Bishop Knudsen grew up in several parts of the world. Military life taught her to subordinate the interests of self to the mission at hand and to adopt an inner stance of respect toward all people, both loveable and less so.

In her early life she dreamed of being a medical missionary. In college she became interested in the social issues of Vietnam, the environment, civil rights and women's rights. She taught biology to undergraduates as she pursued her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh. The prospect of narrowly telescoping an academic discipline into the minute focus of doctoral research did not appeal. The larger picture was always more fascinating.

Bishop Knudsen's abandonment of the PhD coincided with the Episcopal Church's emerging desire for the ordained ministry to be opened to women. Now, a wife and a mother in a new home in Illinois, she taught at a local junior college and volunteered at Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile the Episcopal Church moved toward the ordination of women to the priesthood in 1976.

The day after the historic vote which opened the priesthood to women, Bishop Knudsen announced her call to the ministry to her rector. She entered the ordination process in the Diocese of Chicago which was deeply divided about the ministry of women. The years of study and the politically charged ordination process taught her to be persistent. She received her M.Div. from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in 1980.

After serving in a new parish for five years, Bishop Knudsen made a retreat to refocus her ministry to include spiritual direction, retreat leadership and involvement in the program for the diaconate. She left St. Benedict's and was called to become Pastoral Care Officer for the Bishop of Chicago. Her responsibilities included pastoral care for clergy and their families, crisis intervention, teaching in the program for the diaconate, and ministry development. Later she was named Canon to the Ordinary for Pastoral Care until she was elected Bishop of Maine in November 1997. She was consecrated at the Cathedral of St. Luke, Portland, on March 28, 1998.

Her first years of episcopal ministry have been spent travelling around the diocese supporting congregations and developing her staff. Like all bishops, she has responsibilities at the national church level and serves on various committees. 

To contact Bishop Knudsen, please email her at: 

The Rt. Rev. Chilton Knudsen

What the Bishop's Office does...