The Reverend Carol Cole Flanagan was ordained to the priesthood May 28, 1987. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, she is a graduate of Villa Maria College (1983) and Virginia Theological Seminary (1986) with a love for parish ministry and a passion for mission, radical hospitality, and glorious worship.

In the Diocese of Rochester (1987-1989) she served as co-chair of the Committee on Liturgy and Music, in the Diocese of Maryland (1989-1999) she chaired the Resolutions Committee, Stewardship Committee and the Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, charged with developing policies, and providing training. In Ohio (1999-2003) she was appointed to the Judicial Panel, (Ecclesiastical Court,) and served as co-chair of the Committee on Liturgy and Music and chair of the Canons Committee, in Washington she served on the Bishop's staff from 2003-2007 as Canon for Congregational Ministries (http://www.edow.org/news/window/july2004/wayup.html).

In May of 2007 she accepted a call to serve as interim rector of Christ Church Detroit (http://www.christcd.org/), sometimes known as Old Christ Church, in the Diocese of Michigan, the parish that first sponsored her for ordination twenty-three years earlier. She will complete her ministry at Christ Church in August of 2008 to begin a new ministry in the Diocese of Washington as priest-in-charge at St. JohnÕs, Olney. She has served the larger church as a member of the Executive Council Committee on the Washington Office and was a founder and vice-chair of the Committee on the Full Participation of Women in the Church, the forerunner of the Committee on the Status of Women. She served as chair of the Standing Commission on Health and more recently as a member of the Standing Commission on Constitution & Canons. A trained victim advocate, she was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to the Maryland Task Force to Study Health Professional-Client Sexual Exploitation (http://www.advocateweb.org/hope/maryland/tfreport.asp) as one of two clergy.

President of the Episcopal WomenÕs Caucus from 1983-1988, Flanagan worked to advance the ministries of women, lay and ordained. When she took office in 1983 many members of the Caucus identified themselves as refugees from the various dioceses that would not ordain them, there were no ordained women on the Presiding Bishop's staff and relatively few women, lay or ordained, in positions of leadership. At the time she completed her term in October of 1988 Pamela Pauly Chinnis had been elected vice-president of the House of Deputies and Barbara C. Harris who was to serve as the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion had just been elected in Massachusetts.

Since 1990, Flanagan has been interviewed on the Larry King Show, Public Broadcasting System's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, the BBC, CNN, Voice of America, and other outlets on studies, trends, and developments in the life of the church.

Married for 40 years to William E. Flanagan, Jr., a hospital administrator, they are based in the metropolitan Washington, DC area, and are the parents of two grown children, Brian, a Baltimore City firefighter with a background in communications, and Patricia, a social worker by profession. In her spare time Carol reads mysteries and anything else she can lay her hands on, writes from time to time, and enjoys music, needlepoint, knitting, embroidery and cooking.