Meet our bishop, Chris Warner

My dad left us when I was a toddler. Then my mother moved in with a man who was verbally and emotionally abusive, but whom she eventually married. It was the early 1970’s and we lived in San Francisco. They were both hippies and The Grateful Dead was a family favorite.

Eventually my stepfather became a head physician at a major hospital in Los Angeles. I spent the next few years in an affluent culture; however, the chase for satisfaction through materialism didn’t satisfy. By the time I entered high school, my mother and stepfather divorced.

the chase for satisfaction through materialism didn’t satisfy

My mother and I moved to a small apartment above a parking garage. It was a huge shock. I spent my freshman year basically on my own. My mother worked nights and teetered on the edge of a nervous breakdown. By the next summer, my mother moved us to Charlotte, NC.

High school was a blur of alcohol and drugs for me. I began following the Grateful Dead. And while occasionally I prayed to God, I didn’t yet know Him personally.

High school was a blur of alcohol and drugs for me.

I attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington — primarily for the beach, the girls, and the surf. During my sophomore year I was at a Grateful Dead concert and encountered deep spiritual darkness while I helped a young man who was overdosing on drugs. I didn’t believe in the demonic and had no categories for it, but suddenly I encountered it. I began to see that the culture of ‘peace and love’ was actually very dark.

I began to see that the culture of ‘peace and love’ was actually very dark.

Some of my friends began joining the Rainbow family. This appeared to be the inner core of the Deadheads from which many of the drugs originated. It was cult-like and I was pressured to join, or get out of the Dead scene completely.

During a Dead show, I had an overwhelming conviction that my life was crumbling and I needed to get out. As I started to leave the stadium, fear and spiritual darkness overcame me so that I could hardly move. Suddenly it lifted and I knew that Jesus was standing next to me. As I looked back one last time, I saw a vision of a vortex spinning down into hell with many people dancing their way into darkness. It shook me to the core. I knelt and prayed, “Please God help me!” I don’t know how long I prayed, but my prayer ended with, “I love the Lord God Jesus Christ.”

Jesus was standing next to me.

I told my mother that I thought I had met Jesus. She arranged for me to meet her rector. He listened to my story and told me to read the Gospel of John and then the other gospels. As I read, I saw that I had indeed met the real Jesus. I was amazed by the way He intentionally went to the outsiders. He reserved his harsh critique for the self-righteous, religious insiders, but accepted the lepers, outcasts, and prostitutes. I remember distinctly thinking, “Those are my kind of people! That really was Him!”

As I read, I saw that I had indeed met the real Jesus.

That began a journey of spiritual and emotional healing in me. In time I received a powerful infilling of the Holy Spirit which cleansed and anointed me for God’s service. After college, I entered into discernment toward ordination.

a powerful infilling of the Holy Spirit

I met Catherine and we were married in 1993. We went to Trinity Anglican Seminary in 1997. That same year, I led my dad to faith in Jesus Christ prior to his death from Agent Orange-related cancer.

After fifteen years of ordained ministry in various capacities, I served as the rector of the Church of the Holy Cross, on Sullivan’s Island and Daniel Island, South Carolina, from 2015 to 2022. There I led Holy Cross in a transition from a ‘seeker’ model church to a relational and discipleship model church.

On October 15, 2022, I was elected to be the second bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic of the Anglican Church in North America. I was invested by Archbishop Foley Beach on February 18, 2023.

My call from the Lord is to teach, preach, pray and lead (Acts 6:4) and my purpose in life is to know God and make God’s glory known. This glory is the glory of the One and Only Son who is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). My passion has been to help people come alive in Christ, live from the Father’s heart as his beloved children, and then grow as disciples who make disciples of others.

Catherine and I now live in Annandale, VA. My great loves in this life are her and our three adult children: Anna, Caroline, and Nathan.