The Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Shannon MacVean-Brown was elected bishop by the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont on May 18, 2019, and was ordained and consecrated bishop on September 28 of that year. She is the 11th Bishop of Vermont.

Ordained a priest in 2005, Bishop Shannon is particularly committed to community engagement, social justice, and leading multigenerational and multicultural communities through formation, liturgy, pastoral care, and the arts. “I am always at heart an artist,” she said after her election as bishop. “I express this in the liturgies I create, my poetry and icon writing, and in other creative endeavors that nourish my spirituality.”

As bishop of Vermont, Bishop Shannon has led the development of constellations, a new model for collaborative congregational ministry, and leads the team that was awarded a $1.17 million multi-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Thriving Congregations Initiative to support the work. She also worked with lay and clergy leaders across Vermont to streamline the diocese’s structures for finance, governance, and mission vitality, and in concert with that effort, oversaw the overhaul of the diocese’s financial management systems. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she founded an online congregation, the Green Mountain Online Abbey, that gathers people across Vermont and beyond for morning prayer and compline each day.

She also serves on the Episcopal Church House of Bishops Theology Committee and is an assisting bishop in the Dioceses of Maine and New Hampshire, which are the Diocese of Vermont’s partners in northern New England.

An experienced leader and community organizer, Bishop Shannon has held national leadership roles with Faith in Action, a national community organizing network, and has led Faith in Indiana and Act Indiana, partner organizations working on innovative, multi-faith solutions to statewide issues including immigration, mass incarceration, and access to healthcare and childcare. During her time in Detroit, she founded and led the Greater Woodward Community Development Corporation, which advances economic opportunities and well-being of underserved residents of Detroit’s North End.

Before she was elected bishop of Vermont, Bishop Shannon served as interim rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Franklin, Indiana, a rural congregation committed to radical welcome and service to the community. She has also served at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis and St. John’s, Speedway in the Diocese of Indianapolis and several parishes in the Diocese of Michigan, including St. Matthew’s & St. Joseph’s in Detroit, where she was rector from 2006 to 2013. Bishop Shannon has led diocesan initiatives in both Michigan and Indianapolis and served the wider Episcopal Church as a member of the Episcopal Church Taskforce on Women, Justice, and Reconciliation (2018-2022), the House of Bishops Theology Committee, and the House of Bishops Legislative Committee on Social Justice and U.S. Policy.

Bishop Shannon holds a B.F.A. from Kendall College of Art & Design in Grand Rapids, an M.Div. and honorary doctorate from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and a D.Min. from Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, where her dissertation was titled “Womanist Theory: An Appreciative Agenda for the Episcopal Church.” Before entering seminary, she worked as a commercial interior designer and jewelry designer.

Bishop Shannon and her husband, Phil, have been married since 1992. Together they have an adult daughter and a chihuahua named Detroit.