Trust the Process

 

 

The Transition Process leading to the election of the Fourth Bishop of Central Florida is very different from what many people expected.  And it is very different from the Process this Diocese engaged in twenty-two years ago.  And different, too, from what many of us have experienced in other dioceses.

 

Usually there is a “Search” or “Nominating” or “Transition” Committee appointed by the Standing Committee (or sometimes elected at a Diocesan Convention).  Such a Committee receives a large number of names, does extensive background checking, sends out teams of two or three to visit at least some of the nominees in their present positions, and narrows the list to something like six to eight candidates.

 

Usually these final candidates are then brought to the diocese for a series of meetings called “walkabouts” (and more commonly known as “the dog and pony show.”)  These meetings might be in the deaneries or various regions of the diocese, and they usually are held on successive nights of a given week.  During the weekdays the candidates visit various ministry sites within the diocese.

 

Finally the election is held, and when the election is confirmed by a majority of the standing committees and the bishops holding jurisdiction the consecration is scheduled.

 

That is exactly the Process that Central Florida followed when I was elected in December 1988.

 

But the Standing Committee has not appointed a separate Committee to do this work, and it has not yet decided whether or not it will have a series of “walkabouts.”  Why?

 

The present Process was recommended in large part by Bishop Clayton Matthews, Director of the House of Bishops’ Office of Pastoral Development, when I met with him at the meeting of the bishops in November.  I informed the Standing Committee of my decision in early December, and they began working on the Process immediately.  Then Bishop Matthews spent a day with the Standing Committee and me in early January, when he fleshed out a much fuller picture of possible options for us.  

 

Thus, the timeline shared at Convention by Fr. Al Jenkins was the product of nearly two months’ of hard work on the part of the Standing Committee.  This Process (or something very like it) has been used in all of the dioceses in Texas and several other places around the country.

 

The Standing Committee has chosen it for four primary reasons: openness, cost, available technology and the timing of my chosen date for retirement.

 

Openness: the present Process is completely open.  The list of candidates will not be determined by a small group of people, but by the Diocese as a whole.  Nominations will be made by the clergy and delegates to our Diocesan Convention.  If anyone else, not a delegate, from within or outside the Diocese wishes to suggest a nominee he or she should contact a member of the clergy or a delegate to do so.  For a nomination to be considered it must be supported by at least three members of the clergy of Central Florida, three delegates to Convention, and between these six or more persons at least three of our congregations must be represented.

 

If a member of the clergy, not in this Diocese, wishes to be considered for nomination he or she must make that known to clergy or delegates here in Central Florida who are willing to make that nomination.

 

Thus it is the Diocese as a whole that functions as the Nominating Committee and the Process is completely open: any qualified priest in The Episcopal Church (or, for that matter, anywhere in the Anglican Communion) may become a nominee.

 

Cost: it is not uncommon for dioceses to spend $250,000 to $350,000 – or even more – for a traditional process.  Sending teams to visit nominees in their present settings, and bringing candidates to the diocese for several days or a week, housing and feeding them and their spouses in hotels, and transporting them around the diocese, burns through a budget very quickly.

 

For nearly all of my time in Central Florida the Diocese has paid the premiums on a “Key Man” life insurance policy.  It now has a cash surrender value of approximately $123,000.  It is hoped that will be sufficient to cover the cost of the Process the Standing Committee has designed.  (And, if it is not we will raise whatever additional funds are needed.)

 

Technology: twenty-two years ago we did not have the Internet or today’s means of electronic communication.  Today, on our diocesan web site, and the Bishop Search site linked to it, it will be possible to make far more information available for all to see than we could ever glean in an hour’s walkabout.  When the time comes the Standing Committee plans to post resumes, photographs, answers to questionnaires, links to sermons, perhaps a “virtual walkabout” – i.e., taped interviews of candidates responding to questions - and whatever other information may be helpful.

 

 

Timing: The Episcopal Church’s suggested “norm” for a transition process is 18 months from the call for an election to the consecration of a new Bishop.  When I met with Bishop Matthews I told him that felt like an extremely lengthy time of saying “goodbye.”  (As I told you last month, the goodbyes began on the day following our Convention in January!)

 

As it is there will be 15 months between announcement and consecration, and even that feels like a very long time to me!  I shared with you some of my reasons for picking April of next year to leave office.  There are at least two others, one diocesan and one personal.

 

The diocesan reason is that I very much want our new Bishop to be “in place” and able to meet with our deaneries and our deputies to General Convention well before it is upon us in July of next year.

 

And the personal reason is that Karen and I will be leaving on her birthday, six days after the (tentatively scheduled) consecration for an extended vacation that begins with a cruise through the Panama Canal!

 

Having a bit briefer period for the transition as a whole makes planning for and scheduling a series of walkabouts more difficult, though as I said above, the Standing Committee is revisiting the question of whether there may be a way of doing this. 

 

Various groups have already begun holding meetings to discuss possible nominations.  I have urged them to trust the Process that the Standing Committee has designed.  

 

We can all think of clergy both here in Central Florida and elsewhere who might be good candidates for bishop.  But, we have not yet even completed the Diocesan Survey, let alone written the Diocesan Profile!

 

The various Committees have been appointed (from nearly 200 members of the Diocese who have volunteered), and work in their several areas of responsibility is progressing on schedule.  Please check our diocesan web site  and the Bishop Search web site  for more information and updates.

 

I want to reiterate what I said at Convention in January: this Process in entirely in the hands of the Standing Committee.  It is their Process.

 

I am meeting with them and providing support as they may request, but I comment on things only when asked to do so.   Everything I have written in this column has been a matter of their decisions.  So, if you have questions, concerns, suggestions or comments, please contact a member of the Standing Committee.

 

They are: The Rev. Al Jenkins, President , The Rev. Phyllis Bartle, Mrs. Anneke Bertsch, The Rev. Tim Nunez, Mrs Patty Tew, Mrs. Maggie Thompson, and The Rev. Eric Turner.

 

Pray for the members of the Standing Committee, all those serving on various Committees, and the Diocese as a whole.  Pray that the Holy Spirit will lead and bless this Process as we trust it – and him.

 

 

My love to all of you in him,

 

+ John