The Right Reverend Donald M. Ashman
The Right Reverend Donald M. Ashman
The Right Reverend Donald M. Ashman was elected Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of the Western States on April 22, 2016 and enthroned by the Most Reverend Frederick G. Morrison the following day at Saint Peter’s Pro-Cathedral in Oakland, California. Bishop Ashman was previously consecrated Suffragan Bishop on August 15, 2012 at Saint Peter’s Pro-Cathedral by the Most Reverend James E. Provence, the Most Reverend Robert S. Morse, the [then] Right Reverend Frederick G. Morrison, and the Right Reverend Dr. William C. Wiygul.
Bishop Ashman was born in Los Angeles and raised in Burbank, California. He graduated from Glendale College, California State University at Long Beach with a degree in History (1970) and did graduate work in Classics (Latin and Greek) at the University of California at Los Angeles where he also earned his teaching credential. From 1973 to 2018, he taught Latin, Greek and Advanced Placement History. On April 14, 1974, he was welcomed into the Episcopal Church by the Right Reverend Robert B. Gooden at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Glendale, California and three years later began his studies for the sacred ministry. He was ordained a deacon on Ember Wednesday in Advent, 1980, and a priest on the Feast of the Most Precious Blood, July 1,1983, by the then Right Reverend Robert S. Morse.
On May 1, 1985, Bishop Ashman was elected Rector of the Church of Our Saviour and the Holy Apostles in Los Angeles and Glendale and instituted as Rector on July 3. In 1985, he began a thirty-three-year ministry as a chaplain at the Hollenbeck Retirement Home in Boyle Heights. In 1987 he founded the Church of Our Saviour, Santa Barbara. Bishop Ashman loved his annual youth camping/fishing trips to the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and the White Mountains of Arizona. He also served on the Board of Examining Chaplains and the Standing Committee. Currently, Bishop Ashman is serving as Provost of Saint Joseph of Arimathea College, having taught Ecclesiastical Latin, Theology and Biblical Greek. The bishop also serves as Vice President on the Board of Saint Joseph of Arimathea Foundation and remains Rector of Church of Our Saviour and the Holy Apostles; and the Church of Our Saviour, Santa Barbara.
Bishop Ashman married Ellen Kent Springer in 1971 at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Glendale and they have two married children, Erin and Matthew, and three grandsons, Sean, Patrick and James.