Susan J. Briner, Seguin, Texas, was reelected May 5 to serve a six-year term as bishop of the Southwestern Texas Synod. The election was held during the synod assembly, May 3-5, at the Omni Hotel in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Briner was reelected on the fifth ballot, with 146 votes. Michael C. Coffey, interim pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Brenham, Texas, received 104 votes.
Briner was elected bishop of the Southwestern Texas Synod in 2018. She previously served as a bishop’s associate in the synod (2012 to 2018) and as pastor of St. Luke Lutheran Church in Summerville, S.C. (2003 to 2012).
The bishop earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Duke University in Durham, N.C., in 1984, and a Master of Divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (LTSS) in Columbia, S.C., in 2003.
