Search Process: Reflections and Impressions

Today’s post is another in a series of reflections and impressions from members of the Search & Nomination Committee and Transition Committee. This post is from the Rev. Canon Jonathan Huyck, rector of Grace Church in Providence and a member of the Search & Nomination Committee. Visit www.episcopalrisearch.org for more information

I’ve been serving as a member of the Bishop Search & Nomination Committee for our diocese for the last six months, and each phase the committee has gone through has been like a new chapter. As I write this, members of the committee are fanning out across the country to visit our candidates in their home churches and to meet with the people with whom they work closely. At the same time as these visits, we’ve also gone further than the initial three recommendations the candidates initially submitted and are engaging in what we on the committee call “deep referencing.” We’re speaking one-on-one with the candidates’ current and former associate rectors, former rectors, current and former bishops, etc. We know that nothing can tell us more about how someone would act as a bishop in the future than how they’ve been as a priest in the past. How did they treat that associate rector they supervised in the ‘90s? How helpful were they to their rectors when these candidates were themselves associate rectors in the ‘80s?

At the same time that we are trying to learn all we can about these candidates by talking with current and former colleagues, they are themselves in deep discernment. It may be easy enough to put in an application, but when the chances are 50-50 that you’ll actually end up on the slate for election to be the Bishop of Rhode Island, you start to discern a little harder! I have no doubt that our “quarterfinalists” are doing their own prayerful reflection as well as even deeper research into who we are here in Rhode Island and whether our diocese would be a good fit for their skills and interests.

If you’re wondering where it was that I went on my visit, the answer is that I went nowhere. Nowhere, because just two weeks before I was to fly west for an interview, the candidate in question withdrew from the race. And then there were nine. This happens often in bishop searches, and is, in fact, a sign of the deep discernment our candidates are doing just as we do our “deep referencing.” Although I was disappointed to see a strong candidate go (they’re all strong, at this point), I’m glad he had the wisdom to see now rather than later that he was not called to be the Bishop of Rhode Island at this time.

This stage is hard work, but it’s also great fun. We are getting to know some wonderful priests across the country, but what’s more, we’re getting to know each other on the committee in a more meaningful way. As one of our members said recently, “This is the most fun I’ve had in the diocese in years!” As someone still relatively new to the diocese (18 months), it has been wonderful for me to get to know my fellow Episcopalians – both lay and ordained – through this intensive process. There is a palpable excitement within our committee and a spirit of cooperation and mutual affection that augurs well (I rarely get to say “augur”) for the future of our diocese, hopefully with a wonderful bishop to channel that positive energy for the building up of the Kingdom of God here in Rhode Island!