Sacramento Bishop Jerry Lamb, whose vote to ordain gay man caused uproar, remembered

Among the mourners and dozens of clergy at Trinity Cathedral in midtown Sacramento on Thursday was a man who met the Rev. Jerry Lamb just once but whose life the late bishop touched.

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Lamb, who died July 26 at 85, served as Bishop of the Diocese of Northern California for the Episcopal Church from 1991 until the mid-2000s. In this time, Lamb surprised some people by voting to ordain Gene Robinson, a gay man, as bishop in 2003. Robinson became the first openly gay bishop.

Matthew Woodward, a gay man who now serves as dean of Trinity Cathedral, credited Lamb with helping make his job possible.

“I can be the dean of the cathedral as a gay man because of what he did in this diocese and because of the positions he took around the ordination of Gene Robinson and that he was willing to ordain LGBTQ people to the priesthood,” Woodward said. He said the only time he met Lamb was at the funeral for Lamb’s wife in 2023.

On Thursday, Woodward and other people Lamb championed helped lay the trailblazer to rest.

From Catholic priest to parole officer to bishop

Born Jerry Alban Lamb in Denver on Sept. 4, 1940, Lamb played multiple sports and became an Eagle Scout while growing up, according to an obituary provided in his funeral program.

He was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy, according to his older sister Maridale Powell, 89.

“He had the room below mine,” she said. “I remember him practicing his altar-going prayers.”

Eventually, Lamb attended seminary and became a Catholic priest in 1966. He met his future wife while serving as the chaplain at Loretto Heights College, an all-women’s school, according to his daughter Kate Lamb.

“While that path didn’t work out so well for the Roman Catholics, it worked out very well for me,” she said, drawing laughter.

The Lambs moved to Eugene, Oregon, where Jerry Lamb went back to school to earn a master’s degree in counseling psychology. He then became a parole officer. “He cared for other people so much so it seemed like a logical step when he left the priesthood,” his nephew Mike Powell said.

Lamb quit being a parole officer, his sister said, because he wanted to help people “before they get too bad.”

Lamb returned to the priesthood, this time as the Episcopalian. The faith ran in his family through marriage: His wife was the daughter of an Episcopal priest, according to her obituary.

As a priest, Lamb held a calm, patient and somewhat self-deprecating sense of perspective. His niece Amy Ricci recalled telling her uncle that her daughter had eaten an entire box of communion wafers.

“He would say, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. They probably weren’t blessed anyway yet,’” Ricci said.

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Lamb became the sixth person to serve as Bishop of Northern California after serving from 1988-91 as assistant to the Bishop of Oregon, according to the funeral program.

An unexpected ally

Bishop Lucinda Ashby of the Diocese of El Camino Real on the Central Coast said during Thursday’s service that when Lamb voted on behalf of ordaining Bishop Robinson, it surprised some people. She said Lamb was seen as being moderately conservative.

Others close to Lamb, such as his sister Maridale Powell, might have been less surprised.

“I think he followed his heart and he followed what he thought was the right thing to do,” she said.

Kate Lamb was joined at Thursday’s service by her wife Kristin Ranta. While Kate Lamb said she told her father about her now-wife following Robinson’s ordination, she added, “I did tell him beforehand, ‘You should vote to affirm it.’”

Lamb’s vote had meaning to his nephew Patrick Powell.

“As a gay man, he really stood up for not only me but the gay community as well and that was just part of him,” Powell said after Thursday’s service. “So I’m very proud.”

While Lamb voted to ordain Robinson, he would not allow same-sex unions in the diocese even though the national Episcopal Church was leaving that to the discretion of local bishops, according to Bee reporting in 2004.

Lamb was later Bishop of Nevada and, in 2008, “became provisional bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin after that diocese split over the inclusion of women and LGBTQIA+ people in ministry,” his funeral program noted.

Lamb also helped others along the way. The Episcopal Church has allowed women to be in ministry since 1974, and Ashby was ordained by Lamb. She said Lamb made a point to get to know her during the process.

“He was what we call a pastoral bishop, and so he knew his people really well,” Ashby said.

Bishop Megan Traquair of the Diocese of Northern California said that Lamb “was a down-to-earth man” and that his legacy wouldn’t be a fussy one.

“It would never be that because that’s not the kind of person he was,” Traquair said. “But it would be someone who was clear about the main work of the church and wanted to take it out the door. He planted churches that are still thriving in this area.”

“So I would say he gave us a fabulous foundation and an energy to continue looking forward.”

This story was originally published August 29, 2026 at 7:00 AM.