The Bishop's Committee members are listed below:

Here are the biographies of those running for the 2022 Bishop’s Committee (in alphabetical order): 

Laurie James

As the youngest of nine children, in a combination “his, hers, and theirs” family, I grew up as a third generation Free Methodist with strong involvement in the Seattle First Free Methodist Church.

Having moved to Poulsbo from Seattle in 1980, I spent my entire teaching career with the North Kitsap School District Special Education Program. My first twenty- five years were at North Kitsap High School and the remaining years at Kingston High School until my retirement in 2019. My husband, Gary, and I married in 1983 while he was involved in a “sister” Free Methodist Church in Ballard. We raised our three children in Poulsbo while primarily having NK Baptist as our church home.

Gary and I began attending Faith Episcopal when we first became “empty nesters” about five years ago. We deeply appreciated the people at Faith, enjoyed the worship, as well as the opportunities for serving our community. Gary served most recently on the Bishop’s Committee, until his death in October of this year (2021). I am honored for the opportunity fulfill the remaining few months of Gary’s term. I am equally honored to be considered for a new term, as I am eager to follow the Lord’s leading in using my gifts to serve our community for Him.

Ada Kornmeyer

I’m Ada Kornmeyer; I was baptized at St. Paul’s episcopal church in Visalia, California as a very young child with my three older siblings. In 1956 the family moved to Placerville, California where we attended the Church of Our Savior, there I was active in the EYC. After Roy and I were married we attended various Episcopal churches through the years. Our last church where I was active was at Saint Michael & All Angels in Fort Bragg, California. My professional life was as a Building Designer and working for a Structural Engineer since completing College at 53 in Engineering. I retired last January and have been working on becoming a professional genealogist. I have been an active member of Soroptimist an international organization that works within our community to help empower women to live their dreams. Wherever we have lived I have enjoyed being part of the local community and enjoy giving back to the place that we call home. Since moving to Washington 8 years ago I have continued my membership in Soroptimist and have held various leadership roles, and I have sought out other ways to be part of the local community, volunteering at the Jefferson County Genealogical Society and working on the Port Ludlow Dog Park Committee. I would be happy to work on the Bishop’s Committee to help in preserving the mission of Faith Episcopal.

Ronnie Sue Leith

I grew up in Whittier, California, and began my religious education in Sunday School in a Presbyterian church. After my freshman year in high school my family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, and I finished high school there. I attended college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, where I graduated with a degree in Medical Microbiology. While in college I was a member of Pres House, a Presbyterian church run entirely by students. After graduation I returned to California to attend graduate school at Stanford University and earned a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology. I then made the switch to clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. My original plan was to specialize in Infectious Disease; but along the way I discovered that I would rather talk to people than do medical procedures, and I began to lean toward psychiatry. To be sure that I wasn’t making a mistake, I followed medical school with a one-year rotating internship at San Francisco General Hospital. At the end of that year I was sure that I wanted to be a psychiatrist. I did a three-year residency at UCSF and then went into private practice in San Mateo, California.

I maintained my private practice for 38 years specializing in individual psychotherapy with adults. As a sideline, I also did some work in forensic psychiatry, evaluating plaintiffs in lawsuits involving workplace problems. I loved interacting with people and could have continued that life indefinitely; but eventually I decided that I wanted to retire while I was still young enough to pursue other interests. In the spring of 2018 I closed my practice and moved to Port Ludlow, where I now live with my two dogs. I couldn’t quite give up my professional identity, however, and for the past two years I have been working two days a week at the North Olympic Healthcare Network in Port Angeles.

I have had a strong interest in training and showing dogs in competitive Obedience for most of my adult life, and I am currently an Obedience and Rally judge with the American Kennel Club. My other avocation has been music. I belonged to Saint Bede’s Episcopal Church in Menlo Park, California, and sang in the choir there for over 30 years, as well as serving one term on the vestry. I also sang in a semi-professional community group, Masterworks Chorale.

I believe that God has been actively leading me through all the circuitous pathways of my life, and has now brought me to a new home at Faith Episcopal Church. I look forward to serving on the Bishop’s committee there.

Paul Steinke

I had been a follower of Jesus Christ for many years the first time I opened the Book of Common Prayer. Discovering its celebration of the seasons and its rhythms of daily and weekly prayer seemed to me a treasure for which, up to that point, I had not known I was looking. Its integration of daily life with the life of Christ and the community of saints - past, present and future, provided me with a situatedness within the history of the Church and contemporary culture that pointed me toward a way of life journeying toward Jesus Christ for my life and for the life of the world. 

I'm from Nebraska, I live in Bremerton, and I've worked at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology for 20 years. But what I most want you to know is I long to know Life with my family. As Sarah, Pierce, Selah, Elle, and I have participated in the Episcopal way of life for over 10 years now, I have experienced something of a material world made transparent to the reality of a God who is seeking to draw all creation - including my family and my friends - to God's self. This is a dance is one in which I long to participate. I long to practice such a way of life, I long to know abundant life, I long to know Jesus Christ for my life, the life of my family, and the life of the world.

Dorothy Timma

I am married and we have a son who lives near Albuquerque, NM with his wife and dogs, cats, chicken’s goats and more.

I work for a transportation company that has an office in Seattle, but our staff has been able to work remotely from home since the beginning of pandemic. (:

I started attending Faith because my sister Ellen was involved with the choir and invited me to attend with her. The first time that I attended Faith, we were in Kingston. That was quite a few years ago but I saw many of the same kind and familiar faces when we came back to visit in Poulsbo.

I would like to serve on the Bishop’s Committee because I Love the community of Faith Episcopal Church and I would like to experience the administrative process that has been a part of Faith’s continued success.

The community at Faith fills a void in my life that I don’t think anything else could right now and I want to help bring in new people so that they can hopefully experience that too.