SALINAS, Calif. -- Archbishop Joseph A. Vellone, DD, announced on Monday the appointment and consecration of Rev. Bobby C. Hall, DD, as regionary auxiliary bishop of the North American Old Roman Catholic Church, Archdiocese of California.
The North American Old Roman Catholic Church, Archdiocese of California, is a direct ecclesial descendant from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht in Holland, which was granted autonomy by the Holy See in 1145 and has continued to maintain an unbroken apostolic succession from that historic Archdiocese.
On Sunday, Sept. 14, being the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Archbishop Joseph A. Vellone, DD, assisted by Archbishop Coadjutor Chris M. Hernandez, DD, elevated Fr. Hall to the Episcopal office of bishop in the Christ the King Chapel at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows located in Belleville, Ill.
Bishop Hall was currently serving as a priest in the Archdiocese of California and as pastor of St. Georges Old Roman Catholic Church, in Centerton.
Bishop Hall attended public schools in Kerens and Corsicana, Texas. He graduated high school in 1951 from Schreiner Institute, located at Kerrville, Texas. Immediately following graduation, he served as an artillery noncommissioned officer during the Korean Conflict. Upon discharge in 1955, he entered college.
Bishop Hall studied at Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1960. On graduation he was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army and served during the Vietnam conflict in the 82nd Airborne Division. In 1965 he entered Texas Chiropractic College, receiving the Doctor of Chiropractic Degree in 1970. During several years of practice in San Angelo, Texas, he served as incorporator and chief of staff of Angelo Chiropractic Associates, a multi-discipline healing arts clinic consisting of chiropractors, medical doctors, parodists and physical therapists. During this time, he also served on several state boards for the chiropractic profession and by gubernatorial appointment on a federal medical advisory commission. He ceased practice in 1983 due to an accident on his family's cattle ranch.
Bishop Hall began studies in sacred theology at Saint Aelred's School of Theology, receiving a master's of theology in 2001. He was ordained as a deacon in July 2005. In 2007, was ordained a priest by Rev. Louis W. Falk at St. Aidan's Church in Des Moines, Iowa.
Bishop Hall went on to earn a master of ministry degree in 2013 from the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Seminary, Wesley, Oxford, and was later awarded a doctor of divinity (honoris causa) from the same institution in 2015. He is currently studying as a candidate for the doctor of theology degree.
Bishop Hall's parents were Barney and Lovie Hall of Corsicana, Texas, both deceased.
Bishop Hall currently resides in Bella Vista and is married to Patricia Ellen Williamson, formally of Greenville, Ohio. They have six children (two of whom are deceased), six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
General News on 10/22/2014