The Rt. Rev. James Kelsey with his family, (from left) Amos, Lydia, Mary, and Nathan. (Photograph courtesy of The Episcopal Church Center, New York) Episcopal Bishop James Kelsey of Marquette and Michael Wiita of Lake Linden were killed in a threecar accident on M-28, two miles east of Shingleton near Seney Sunday afternoon, June 3. The Right Reverend Kelsey was the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, which covers the Upper Peninsula.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident, but believe wet road conditions from rain that day could be a possible factor. A thunderstorm was reported in the area.

Bishop Kelsey, 54, driving a Suzuki sport utility vehicle, was returning to Marquette from a parish visitation in St. Ignace when he apparently lost control of his vehicle and went into the eastbound lane of M-28, where he was hit broadside on the passenger side by a Ford pick-up truck, driven by Mr. Wiita, 58, who was traveling with Jessica Slavik of Lake Linden Hubbell, reported Michigan State Police from the Munising post.

Police believe both men were killed instantly.

Miss Slavik was transferred to Munising Memorial Hospital and later transferred to Marquette General Hospital, where police stated she was listed in serious condition.

A third car, driven by a Wyoming, Michigan, man, was involved in the accident, however, it rear-ended one of the vehicles after the first collision. He was not injured. Police believe it did not lead to the death of the two men.

Bishop Kelsey, who was well known in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, leaves behind his wife, Mary, and three grown children, Nathan, Lydia, and Amos. His brother, Steve Kelsey, is a former St. Ignace resident who now lives on the east coast.

"The Episcopal Church has today lost one of its bright lights," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in a bulletin for Episcopal Life Online. "We will be less without the easy grace of Bishop James Kelsey - Jim to most of us - and we shall miss his humor, insight, and passion for the ministry of all.

"He gave us much," she continued. "We pray for the repose of his soul, and for his family. We pray also for the Diocese of Northern Michigan. All of us have lost a friend. May he rest in peace and rise in glory."

Bishop Kelsey will be remembered as a welcoming and open person who always endeavored to include others, said the Diocese Operations Coordinator Jane Cisluycis in a press release.

"It is hard to imagine the hole he will leave behind," she said.

"He was a really good man," said Trish Martin, a presbyter and preacher of Trinity Church of Mackinac Island and one of 12 members of the church's ministry support team, which Bishop Kelsey commissioned and ordained in August 2001.

"I've known him since he's been in the U.P.," said Lawrence Johnson, lay reader and senior warden of Pickford's St. Matthias Church. "He was a very easy man to talk to, very pleasant, a good conversationalist, who always wanted to see the congregation grow.

"There's going to be some awful big shoes to fill," he said of the loss of Bishop Kelsey. "It really does leave a big hole."

The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan includes 27 congregations in the Upper Peninsula, including Church of the Good Sheperd in St. Ignace, Trinity Church on Mackinac Island, Church of the Transfiguration on Bois Blanc Island, St. Jude's Church in Curtis, St. Stephen's Church in DeTour, and St. Matthias Church in Pickford.

Bishop Kelsey was born and baptized in 1952 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was reared in New York City and spent his summers in Vermont, where he moved during his junior high school years.

He was graduated from Ithaca College in 1974, then attended General Theological Seminary in New York City, where he met and married Mary Cruse of West Des Moines, Iowa.

Bishop Kelsey was graduated from seminary in 1977 and the couple moved to Vermont, where he preached for eight years and they reared their three children.

In 1985, the Kelsey family moved to Oklahoma, where Rev. Kelsey served four years as canon missioner for Cluster Ministries. In 1989, he was called to the Diocese of Northern Michigan, where he served for 10 years as a ministry development coordinator before being elected bishop in 1999.

A funeral liturgy with Holy Eucharist will be at St. Michael Roman Catholic Church in Marquette Friday, June 8, at 4 p.m., with visitation from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

The family requests memorials be made to the Page Center retreat south of Marquette.

Mr. Wiita's funeral has yet to be scheduled.