About
Presiding BishopThe Right Reverend Gregory (Greer) Godsey, OSFoc
About the Presiding Bishop
A ministry of leadership, pastoral care, and service to the Church
Bishop Gregory (Greer) Godsey serves as Presiding Bishop of the Old Catholic Churches International. In that office, he bears responsibility for the wider life of the communion, helping to strengthen the Church in faith, order, sacramental life, and pastoral witness.
His ministry is shaped by a commitment to catholic faith, reverent worship, apostolic continuity, and a pastoral concern for those who have often been overlooked, alienated, or forgotten. He serves not only through episcopal leadership, but through the daily work of preaching, teaching, writing, and pastoral care.
This page offers a brief introduction to his ministry, calling, and work in service to the Church.
Presiding Bishop
He serves the wider communion of the Old Catholic Churches International through episcopal oversight, encouragement, leadership, and public witness.
Bishop Ordinary and pastor
His ministry is not only administrative. It is rooted in the concrete life of the Church through diocesan leadership and parish service.
Teacher and writer
He also serves through writing, teaching, public communication, and the wider intellectual and pastoral witness of the Church.
A ministry rooted in the life of the Church
The ministry of the Presiding Bishop is grounded in the worship of Almighty God, the proclamation of Holy Scripture, and the pastoral care of Christ’s people. Episcopal service is not an office of distance, but one of accountability, prayer, teaching, and visible care for the communion entrusted to him.
As Presiding Bishop, Bishop Greer serves the wider Church with a concern for unity, sound order, sacramental faithfulness, and the strengthening of clergy, parishes, ministries, and the faithful. His work seeks to help the Church remain steady in worship, clear in witness, and generous in mercy.
That work is not separate from parish life. It grows out of it and returns to it, because the Church is most truly herself where the faithful gather at the altar, hear the Word, and are nourished by grace.
Current roles and service
Serving the wider communion through leadership, episcopal oversight, guidance, and public witness.
Providing diocesan leadership and pastoral support within the life of the Church.
Serving the people of God through parish ministry, sacramental worship, preaching, and pastoral care.
Serving the wider Church through writing, teaching, editorial work, and the development of resources for catholic and sacramental ministry.
A public and pastoral witness
Bishop Greer’s ministry includes not only internal leadership in the Church, but a public witness expressed through writing, letters, announcements, and engagement with issues affecting the Church and the world. That witness is meant to be recognizably catholic in tone: serious, sacramental, pastoral, and unafraid to speak with clarity.
At the same time, it is meant to remain pastoral. The work of the bishop is not merely to state principles, but to shepherd people, defend the Church’s sacramental life, encourage the faithful, and keep the Church pointed toward Christ.
This combination of public clarity and pastoral concern remains central to the character of the office.
A vision of the Church
The work of the Presiding Bishop is tied to a vision of the Church that is affirming, evangelical, sacramental, and deeply catholic. It is a vision in which worship, doctrine, pastoral care, and mercy belong together. It is a vision that reaches toward those who seek Christ, those who are wounded, and those who have long felt that the Church had no place for them.
It is also a vision shaped by the conviction that the Church must remain more concerned with faithfulness than with prestige, more concerned with holiness than with display, and more concerned with service than with power.
That understanding of the Church continues to guide the life and work of this office.
In service to Christ and His people
The office of bishop is finally an office of service. It exists for the strengthening of the Church, the care of souls, the right celebration of the sacraments, and the faithful proclamation of the gospel. Every public responsibility of the office finds its proper meaning there.
For that reason, this page is not simply about a résumé. It is about a ministry received as a trust and exercised for the good of the Church.
Continue Exploring
Learn more
Continue exploring the work of this office or the wider communion it serves.
Contact
Get in touch
If you would like to contact the Presiding Bishop regarding ministry, invitations, pastoral questions, or other matters, you are welcome to do so.
A final word
The work of the Presiding Bishop is best understood not in terms of title, but in terms of service: service to the altar, to the Church, and to the people whom Christ loves.
May this office always be exercised in faith, humility, courage, and charity.