The Bishop was impressed with what he saw and as the new head of the Church of England he also was impressed with himself.

Turning to his wife, he said, "In your wildest dreams, did you ever dream I would be the Bishop of Bath and Wales?"

"Honey," she said, "you are not in my wildest dreams."

The Right Rev. Robert C. Wright is not the Bishop of Bath. He is the Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, elected last year as the clerical leader of 56,000 Episcopalians scattered across 96 congregations in Georgia.

And rest assured, if you had surveyed past leaders of his denomination, Wright would not have been in their wildest dreams.

He's a former Navy helicopter pilot and a search and rescue diver. He's a native of New York City and worked for two mayors of Washington, D.C. He's adopted and has adopted children of his own. He was ordained a priest in 1999.

Wright isn't frozen behind a ceremonial pulpit and his informal delivery has the joy of a Southern Baptist preacher. Though he respects its traditions and is a student of history, he is not wrapped in the past. The fact that he is the diocese's first African American bishop is only incidental.

Wright was the leadoff speaker Monday in Trinity Episcopal Church's annual Lenten Luncheon series, and he did not use that platform to talk about how to give up chocolate or ice cream for Lent.

"It is not the time we impress God with our will power because even atheists have will power," he said.

Instead, Wright talked about reconciliation, which he said is "God's wildest dream for us."

He never delved into the challenges his own denomination faces but in an aside he reminded his flock that their church needs a well-defined message.

"What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness and an Episcopalian?" he joked.

"A person who knocks on your door at 9 and 11 and says nothing."

Wright sounded like a fervent evangelist as he talked about burning away the barriers and finding reconciliation with God, our neighbors and ourselves. "We have family members we have yet to meet," he said.

At Trinity, he was standing on the edge of a well-planned square that contains five denominations: Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic.

Afterward, Wright said he believes it is time for those walls to come down, too. "We need to do better theology and talk about God and not denominations."

And that is really a wild dream.

-- Richard Hyatt is an independent correspondent. Reach him at hyatt31906@knology.net.