Bishop Bates Bio
I was born in Watertown, New York, where most of my family still lives. My father, a World Two Veteran, obtained a job after finishing college on the GI Bill, and we moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At age five, he purchased a new home in Levittown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. I was raised in this home, until I left for college in Kentucky at the age of 17. My parents moved to Massachusetts, and I followed them after my first year in college.
I was raised in the Episcopal Church. I had a phenomenal pastor who was also a World War II veteran. He had a great desire to raise up young Christian men in the faith. And I was a recipient of his leading and teaching. Part of that teaching had to do with being engaged in the moral issues of the time. So, under his leadership I ended up in the Civil Rights movement and the cause of ending the war in Vietnam.
The late 60’s and the early 70’s were a turbulent time and many young men and women got involved in drug use from marijuana use to psychedelic drugs, and unfortunately heroin. I began working with that population and through the work and while doing that work, I obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in psychology from Franconia College, Franconia, New Hampshire, and a Master’s Degree in psychology from Anna Maria College, in Paxton, Massachusetts.
I eventually took part in opening several therapeutic communities and drug rehabilitation facilities in Massachusetts.
The wisest decision I made in my life happened in 1971, I married Cathy Lee Giles, and we are still married with the fifty-year mark just two years away.
I left the Church during these years, until 1974 when I began a “spiritual journey” and returned to the Episcopal Church. In 1976, I made an application for the Postulancy, and I was accepted in seminary for the 1977 academic year. Cathy and I, and our two-year-old child, moved to New York City and I attended The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, graduating in 1980 with a Master’s Degree in Divinity. While at seminary, I made an adult commitment to Christ as my Lord and Savior and was Baptized with the Holy Spirit in July of 1978.
I was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church on June 14, 1980, and assigned to the Church of the Good Shepherd in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. On December 13,1980, I was ordained a Priest. I served as the Rector of Good Shepherd, until I accepted a call to be the Associate Rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Malverne, New York on November 1, 1885. In 1990, the Rector of St Thomas Church retired, and I was called to become the Rector of St. Thomas Church, and I began serving in that position on November 1,1990.
I was active in the renewal movements in the Episcopal Church. Cathy and I served regularly on Cursillo Teams, Engaged Encounter and Marriage Encounter. We were very active in working with young adults and sponsored Happening Weekends (a youth version of Cursillo). I also continue to work within the field of drug addiction.
Though an Anglican from head to toe, I was become very uncomfortable with and concerned about the growing heresy and apostasy in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion especially in England. Ultimately, I could no longer remain in the Episcopal Church primarily because increasing it was leaving the authority of Scripture in matters of faith and morals.
It was in 1992, I read an article in Ministry Today Magazine titled, Pentecostal Fires on Ancient Altars. The article was about evangelicals embracing the ancient faith. It focused on two men, Randolph Adler and Peter Gilquist. Bishop Adler was the founder of the Charismatic Episcopal Church and since I defined myself as a charismatic Episcopalian, I thought this might be home.
After spending a great deal time with Bishop Adler and other Bishops, I left the Episcopal Church and was received, along with my entire congregation into the Charismatic Episcopal Church on Super Bowl Sunday, 1995.
In 1996, the House of Bishops and the Patriarch’s Council, called me to be a Bishop and I was consecrated first Bishop of the Diocese of the Northeast on November 14, 1997.
After the retirement of Archbishop Adler, I was elected by the Patriarch’s Council to be the second Primate of the Charismatic Episcopal Church in North American and Patriarch of the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. I was installed in those offices in July of 2008.
I eventually resigned as the Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Northeast and became the titular Bishop of Malverne. Recently I stepped down as the Senior Pastor of the Cathedral Church of the Intercessor but remain as the Bishop.
Over the years I have done a great deal of work within the Church and outside the Church though I continue to have a deep concern for those who struggle with addictions, and I am on the Board of Directors of the Bridges of Greater New York.
I have also been involved over the years in the Prayer Concert Movement in New York and until recently a member of the Leadership group of Concerts of Prayer (the largest multi denominational and interracial prayer group in the United States).
Cathy and I are still married, and we have three grown children: Joel, Katie, and Sarah. And we have nine grandchildren: Jocelyn, Callie, Aaron, Charolette, Devon, Hunter, Brielle, Theodore, and Owen.