"It's official: I'm a bishop"

With those historic words, North America’s youngest bishop — 40-year-old Thomas Dowd, of Montreal — yesterday tweeted the happy news of his ordination.

In fact, throughout the day, the cheerful blogger (whose site is called “Waiting in Joyful Hope”) used Twitter to update the world on the biggest day of his life.  “Off to the sacristy for the final stretch,” he tweeted at one point.  “The next time I check in I’ll be a successor of the apostles.”

Unless I’m mistaken, that marks the first time in history that a man has used social media to proclaim his episcopal ordination.

What hath God wrought?!

Check out more of Bishop Dowd’s blog, where he recounts details large and small of the weeks leading up to his ordination.  It’s an engaging look at a one man’s journey, told with good humor and no small amount of wonder.