Ruth Woodliff-Stanley
Ruth Woodliff-Stanley (born August 9, 1962) is a prelate of the Episcopal Church and currently served as the 15th Bishop of South Carolina. She is the 1,137 Bishop consecrated for the church. Woodliff-Stanley is the first regular diocesan Bishop for the Diocese of South Carolina since 2012, and the first female Bishop in the over 200 plus years of the diocese's existence. Career. Woodliff-Stanley grew up in Mississippi. She was ordained deacon on June 13, 1990 and the priest on June 28, 1991 in the Diocese of Mississippi. During her career with the  church she served as a rector, a canon for two Bishops, and on the Episcopal Church Building Fund. Between 2007 and 2021 she was the rector of St Thomas' Church in Denver Colorado. She was elected at a special diocesan convention on May 1, 2021, and was consecrated and installed as Bishop on October 2, 2021 in Grace Church Cathedral. Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry served as the chief consecrator. Education. Woodliff-Stanley studied at Swarthmore College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and psychology, in 1985. She then enrolled for a Master of Social Work  at Columbia University, graduating in 1991. She also completed a Master of Divinity at Yale Divinity School in 1991. Personal life. Woodliff-Stanley was born in 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi, and is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Yale University. She is married to the Rev. Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, and former executive director of the ACLU of Colorado (2012–2020), who also served on the board of Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, and is a director of the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, a private foundation based in Iowa. They have two sons. Ruth Woodliff-Stanley