Bishop Search: Candidate Reviews & Event Planning

Taken from the Bishop Search Process Blog at www.episcopalrisearch.org . Visit their site to learn more about the Bishop Search in RI

[11/30/11] November was a busy month for members of the Search & Nomination Committee and Transition Committee. Members of the Search & Nomination Committee began reading hundreds of documents submitted by the 40 candidates for Bishop of Rhode Island. Candidate files now include a nomination form, application form, answers to four essay questions, Office of Transition Ministry form, resume, autobiography, consent form and letters from three references.

The committee is holding multiple meetings in early December, where they will together begin prayerful discussions of each candidate’s strengths, skills and experiences to determine which individuals best match the priorities outlined in the Diocesan Profile. Based on those discussions, committee members will interview selected candidates using computer-to-computer video technology (Skype).

“Committee members are excited about the quality of talent and experience we are seeing,” says Lora MacFall, chair of the Search & Nomination Committee. “We know it will be a difficult task to reduce the number of individuals being considered and discern which candidates to visit early in 2012, but we also know that the presence of the Holy Spirit in our process will help us.”

Meanwhile, the Transition Committee is making additional progress on planning details of the walkabout with the final candidates next May and finalizing a site for the consecration service in November 2012. Committee members interviewed four priests and laypeople in Rhode Island who have experienced walkabouts in other dioceses. They also conducted an exercise to “imagine” their hopes for the consecration service and then started identifying details that will need to be planned to achieve that imagined outcome.

“The committee clearly wanted to find a single venue big enough for everyone who wants to be there and hopes to announce that location in the next few weeks,” says Cathy Iacobucci, Transition Committee chair. “We also want to have a webcast available for those who can’t be with us, and then make that webcast available through the diocesan website afterward.”

As Christmas and the end of 2011 approach, committee members will continue work on those events as well as the June 2 electing convention and a celebration of Bishop Wolf’s ministry that will occur in late April.