New Assistant Bishop Mark A. Bourlakas and Canon for Discipleship Ricardo Sheppard begin June 1, exponentially increasing the Diocese of Virginia’s capacity to love Jesus, embody justice, and be disciples.
Bourlakas’ new call makes three bishop-level leaders who “can spend more time out in and around the Diocese of Virginia getting to know people, getting to know ministries, and for me that’s really exciting,” Bishop E. Mark Stevenson said.
“We’re going to get a lot of love out there going, in discipleship and in loving Jesus,” said Assistant Bishop Gayle E. Harris.
Sheppard brings effervescent excitement that blew away Stevenson and Harris. After Sheppard walked out of the room from the job interview, “both of us picked up pens and dropped them like microphones,” Stevenson told Sheppard in an introductory video.
“To put it simple: I’m going to be helping folks who know about Jesus to know Jesus, to get it from a head knowledge to a heart knowledge. There’s still power. There’s still fire. There’s still energy behind this thing we call discipleship,” said Sheppard.
Introducing the New Assistant Bishop
The Rt. Rev. Mark A. Bourlakas comes from the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, where he served as the diocesan bishop since July 2013. The 50 parishes there are mostly rural and stretch to the Virginia tip that is as far west as Detroit.
“My emphasis in all my parishes is evangelism and discipleship,” Bourlakas said in a conversation with Stevenson and Harris.
Bourlakas is the twelfth assistant bishop in diocesan history and will be providing support for the Episcopacy across the diocese. Additionally, he will collaborate closely with the Office of Congregational Vitality, and encourage parishes to boldly go beyond comfort into the mission field of their changing communities.
“Parishes think they understand the community that’s around them, but if they get out and really look around it’s shifted,” he said. The need then becomes “to ask questions about what’s our ministry now in this time.”
“When people’s spirits are willing and their hearts are open, they see the larger goal is to preach Jesus and to live Jesus and not just have my little comfortable place that’s familiar,” he said.
“Sometimes people really want to stay the way they are, and I just wonder what they know about the gospel of Jesus and how Jesus lived. He and the disciples went out in the world [and] that mission is really what drives your own faith. We’re not to possess faith; we’re supposed to let our faith possess us, and when we do that, we’re able to see partnerships. We’re able to see where we come together and where we can walk together,” said Harris.
Introducing the New Canon for Discipleship
Sheppard has been rector of The Episcopal Church of the Atonement in Washington, DC, since 2019. Both his parents attended seminary while expecting him, so Sheppard likes to say that his discipleship journey began “in the belly.” Born in Trinidad and Tobago, he immigrated to the United States in 1975.
He enlisted in the US Marine Corps and was honorably discharged after serving 9 ½ years. He earned a masters of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a diploma in Anglican studies from the University of the South School of Theology in Sewanee. He was ordained a priest in 2016.
Sheppard likes to keep discipleship simple, framing it as a deepening relationship with God that begins with a question: “When is the last time you saw Jesus, in creation or in each other?”
Staying present, paying attention, and having meaningful conversations build strong relationships over time. This is especially true for a disciple – a word that also means student.
He encourages everyone to take his “Five Minute Challenge” of reading the daily office and praying each day. “You’ll find that five minutes is way not enough,” Sheppard said in conversation with Stevenson and Harris.
“Discipleship is also the opportunity to share your story and help someone else find Jesus,” he added. “God didn’t make your cup run over so you can put a bigger cup underneath. It runs over so somebody else could bring their cup and be blessed.”
In Washington, he has served as chaplain at the Bishop Walker Episcopal School for Boys, on the Diocesan Council, and chairs the Diocesan Committee on Black Ministries. Prior to coming to The Episcopal Church, Sheppard served as the youth and outreach minister at the church founded by his father in 1983: Hebron Baptist Church in Brooklyn.