Bishop Andy Doyle installed the Rev. Dr. Bonnie Mixon McCrickard as rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Granbury on Saturday, September 16, 2023. The installation was followed by a banquet at DeCordova Bend Country Club. McCrickard and her husband, Dr. Matthew McCrickard, moved to Granbury this summer. Her first day at Good Shepherd was July 2, 2023.
Bishop Doyle began his sermon by quoting that well-loved contemporary prophet, Tina Turner, asking, “What’s love got to do with it?”
“Jesus would answer, ‘Everything.’
“This love is rooted in the ancient understanding of covenant. ‘I am your God and you will be my people as you keep my commandment of love for there is no shame here.’
“What people have understood from the Garden Imaginary to Jesus, Acts, and Paul is that they have received compassion and love from God. This is not a contract or oath. Instead, we understand our love as a response to God’s love.”
He continued, “This love moves out from this place to each of you. And through you to the rest of your neighborhood and context.
“If we are to fully grasp the missionary work of the church as it flows from church font to the world and back again, we need grasp that this corporate we call church is founded in faithful action and loving relationships between you.
“To do this well you will have to do more than worship, more than action, more than service. You will need to know each other, listen to each other, and pray for each other.”
He told them that when McCrickard moves on to a new call, and they look back over their time together as priest and congregation, “…in that moment what will matter is this: how much love you shared, how you had become kin to each other, and how much compassion was shared amongst you and the world around you.”
McCrickard was rector at St Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, PA since October 2018. Previously she was for 4 years as associate rector at Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, AL, and a seminarian at the School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, TN, for 3 years. Before entering the priesthood, she was a medical Social Worker for 15 years in Nashville, TN.
Her education includes a Doctor of Ministry, Drew University, Madison, NJ (2020), Master of Divinity, University of the South, Sewanee, TN (2014), Bachelor of Arts in Ministry, Belmont University, Nashville, TN (2009), Master of Social Work, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO (1996) and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Trinity University, San Antonio, Tx (1994).
Good Shepherd was one of the congregations displaced from their historic building after the 2008 schism in the former Diocese of Fort Worth. They worshiped in a woman’s club building, then in 2011 rented space from the Seventh Day Adventists until they built their new building in 2019.
On Sunday, Bishop Doyle baptized two people, Riley Fowler and Julia Roucloux, reaffirmed Baptismal vows of Cynthia Jewell, and received Thomas Jewell, Bill Booker, Richard Roucloux, Linda Simonsen, Kathy McCarthy, Lynnita Uselton and Jim Uselton. The service was followed by a reception.
Watch the Installation of the Rev. Dr. Bonnie Mixon McCrickard below
