A Covington native has been chosen bishop-elect of the Anglican Catholic Church's Diocese of the Midwest.

The Rev. Canon Rommie Starks, a 1973 graduate of Holmes High School, was elected at a recent meeting of diocesan clergy and laity at the Pro-Cathedral Church of St. Edward the Confessor in Indianapolis.

Rev. Starks' name will now be presented to the church's Council of Advice and College of Bishops. A date for his consecration will be set pending the approval of his election by those two bodies.

The Anglican Catholic Church is one of a number of small groups that split from the Episcopal Church after its decision in 1976 to ordain women and revise the Book of Common Prayer.

The Anglican Catholic Church still uses the 1928 prayer book and the 1940 hymnal.

Before joining the priesthood in 1984, Rev. Starks taught at Simon Kenton High School in Independence.

He became a member of the Anglican Catholic Church in 1977 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Dayton, and graduated from the denomination's Holyrood Seminary in Liberty, N.Y.

He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Eastern Kentucky University.

He was an assistant to former Bishop of the Midwest Joseph P. Deyman, who died in May.

The diocese includes Anglican Catholic parishes in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.