The Rt. Rev. Robert Christopher Wright is the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. He was elected on June 2, 2012. His ordination and consecration as bishop took place on Saturday, October 13th of that year at The Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the campus of Morehouse College. He is the first African-American to become bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta which is comprised of 120 worshipping communities throughout middle and north Georgia.

Wright was born in a Roman Catholic orphanage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and adopted at the age of nine months. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as helicopter crew-chief and search and rescue diver before attending Howard University in Washington, D.C. Wright graduated with a degree in history and political science and began working for the Children’s Defense Fund and later for two mayors of Washington, D.C. as a child advocate. He holds a master of divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria and was ordained a deacon in June 1998 at the Washington National Cathedral and later priest in February 1999 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. He holds certificates from Ridley Hall, Cambridge University, Oxford University and The Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy. He has also been awarded honorary doctorates from Virginia Theological Seminary, the School of Theology at Sewanee, The University of the South and the General Theological Seminary.

At the time of his election as bishop he was rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where he served for 10 years.

Presently, Wright is a lecturer at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University,
serves on the boards of Habitat for Humanity International, the Board of Trustees at the University of the South and is a Georgia Supreme Court appointee to a committee that reviews law and policies facing the youth of the state of Georgia.

He has previously served as a board member of St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, The Rabun Gap Nacoochee School, The National Association of Episcopal Schools and was the former chair of the board of The General Theological Seminary.

Begun in 2020, Bishop Wright’s podcast, For People, has listeners in 100 countries, over 5,000 cities, and has over 300k downloads. Wright has been named among the 100 most influential Georgians by Georgia Trend magazine and among the 500 most powerful leaders in Atlanta by Atlanta magazine.

He is married to Beth-Sarah Wright and they are the parents of five children.