The Latest e-RISEN, 12/2/11

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eRISEN: 12/2/2011 issue

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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.

Bishop Wolf's 2011 Convention Address Video

The Latest eRISEN- 11/23/2011

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eRISEN: 11/23/2011 issue

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The Latest eRISEN- 11/3/11 & Convention Registration Reminder

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eRISEN: 11/3/2011 issue

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Bishop Search: Election Site Announced as Nominations are Processed

Progress is accelerating in the search for the 13th bishop of Rhode Island.

The Transition Committee has arranged to hold the special Diocesan Convention to elect the next bishop at St. Luke’s, East Greenwich, on Saturday, June 2, 2012. Registration for the convention will begin at 8 a.m., followed by Eucharist at 9 a.m. Balloting will take place in the church beginning at 10:30 a.m. If necessary, additional ballots will follow until a candidate achieves the required majorities in both the lay and clerical orders. Bishop Wolf convenes and chairs the electing convention. More details will be communicated closer to the event.

Cathy Iacobucci, chair of the Transition Committee, says the committee also is making good progress in selecting a site for the ordination service for the 13th Bishop of Rhode Island, which will take place Nov. 17, 2012.

While the Transition Committee is finalizing site details, the Search & Nomination Committee is preparing to begin considering potential candidates for bishop.

“I am very encouraged by the quality and quantity of nominations,” says Lora MacFall, chair of the Search & Nomination Committee. “We received more than 40 nominations, from all over the country — including our diocese. We don’t know if all of those individuals will complete the application process and ultimately be considered by the committee, but so far it appears to be a very strong group. We have received a diverse group of names — men and women, from many locations, with various kinds of experience, etc. Now we await their materials and continue to pray that we discern what God has in mind for our diocese.”

Once the committee received a nomination, that triggered an e-mail response confirming receipt and requesting that the individual who was nominated complete and return several specific items:

• Application Form, with complete contact information and answers to four short-essay questions developed by the committee.
• Up-to-date curriculum vitae or resume.
• Names and contact information for three references: one member of the clergy of the Episcopal Church, one lay member of the Episcopal Church and any other individual who is not a spouse, relative, under the nominee’s direct supervision or nominator. The committee will contact those references and ask for specific comments.
• Up-to-date Office of Transition Ministry (OTM) form — multipage form from the national church that details an individual’s work history, compensation expectations, additional reference information and answers to nine short-essay questions.
• Signed Consent and Authorization form to confirm that individual’s interest and to obtain consents and releases concerning actions or events that may develop during the nomination and election process.
• A 500-word autobiographical statement.

As those materials come in, they are being posted on a secure, online site so that committee members can confidentially review them and prepare for discussions at meetings in late November. The outcome of those discussions will determine who will be selected for the first round of interviews, which will be conducted using Skype computer-to-computer video technology.

The Church at Occupy Providence

By The. Rev. Edmund Harris, Epiphany East Providence

Since Occupy Wall St. began, Episcopalians have wondered what the Church’s role should be in the movement. Where would Jesus be? Some, such as the “Protest Chaplains” in New York and Boston, have embraced the chance to get involved. Others have watched the protests unfold with curiosity, while attending to church business as usual: trying to grow the church by getting people to come inside the doors.

There is an ironic sign floating around the Internet that blesses this time-tested way of being church: “Occupy the Pews of Your Episcopal Church,” it proclaims. I can’t deny: this is clever marketing. But it isn’t Christian. Not only does it contradict the message of the Occupy movement, but the Gospels as well.

When did the Son of Man, who sent his disciples out in pairs with nothing but the clothes on their backs, tell his followers to “occupy the courts of the Temple?” The church is distracted these days by dwindling numbers, aging buildings, and strategies to get people to come inside to encounter Jesus rather than recognizing that Jesus is already present with the people on the streets. What if, instead, the church came out of the buildings and occupied the streets?

Last Sunday at 4 p.m. a group of laypeople and clergy from the Diocese of Rhode Island took church out the doors to hold “The Church at Occupy Providence.” With less than twenty-four hours’ notice, we gathered with the people occupying Burnside Park, preached the Gospel, shared in Christ’s Body and Blood, and experienced Christ’s presence in one another. It was a powerful witness, and there were different reactions to us.

Most expressed gratitude for church outside the walls. Some were surprised to see us there. “Is that a costume?” one woman asked me, pointing to my clerical collar. “I didn’t know churches supported things like this,” another person said. Others expressed righteous anger. “Where’ve you been?” one organizer asked me. “You’re the first group of Christians to set foot in this place. Meanwhile, we’ve been feeding hungry people and demanding justice for everyone. Aren’t these the things churches are supposed to care about?”

In the Gospel proclaimed during the service, Jesus spoke about the commandments to love

God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus especially calls us to love our most vulnerable neighbors, the ones those of us with privilege easily overlook: those who suffer at the hands of the powerful, our sisters and brothers who have lost their homes to foreclosure, those who live and die without access to adequate health care, those who are “undocumented.”

I believe that the Church desperately needs the Occupy movement at this tender moment in

its life, and that the Holy Spirit may be working through it to call the church to something new. Like the prophets, the Occupy movement may draw the church out of its complacency, and remind us that the church too is a movement, not only an institution. We are a body, not only a building with pews. If we listen to voices of Occupy, we may indeed hear Jesus speaking to us, reminding us of the work he calls us to prioritize, and to love him in the people he called us to serve first.

So, how can you or your congregation get involved?

1. Be Present. Step out of your comfort zone. March and hold a placard if you wish, or sit with folks and listen to their stories. Attend a General Assembly meeting. Don’t proselytize, but do show up! The Occupy movement is fundamentally about being present in order to affect social change.
2. Worship. As long as Burnside Park is occupied, we will gather every Sunday at 4 p.m. for joyful, hope-filled worship, preaching shared by all, and the breaking of bread. Jesus will be present, and we hope you will too.
3. Feed. Now is the time to share your grandma’s lentil soup recipe! Occupy Providence feeds anyone who shows up—folks who call the streets home, folks who can’t afford a meal alongside those who can. To learn how to help, visit the Occupy Providence webpage, and check out the list of “working groups.”
4. If you can't support us in person, be present on The Church at Occupy Providence facebook page
5. Talk about Occupy Providence with your congregations, families, and friends. It will offend some and galvanize others. Good! Many people are curious. Some are wary, or ambivalent. Tell why you think it important and invite them to become a part.

Bishop Search: 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. Casey Shobe, rector of St. Peter’s by-the-Sea in Narragansett and a member of the Transition Committee.

One of my favorite questions to ask participants in newcomer classes is “what does the word ‘Episcopal’ mean? Actually, it’s a question that I like to ask people who aren’t newcomers, too, because most don’t know the answer. Episcopal comes from the Greek word episcopos, meaning “bishop.” We are called the Episcopal Church because we are organized and guided by bishops. Bishops are how we trace our history to the apostles. Bishops are who we entrust to preserve the teaching of Christ through the Church. Bishops are the ones who confirm the faith of new Christians, and ordain new priests and deacons to serve our churches and communities. We are the Episcopal Church because bishops are fundamentally important to who we are and what we’re about.

That little lesson in etymology is important as we search for our new bishop because it reminds us of our identity. In many conversations recently, I have heard people wonder why we need bishops at all. Couldn’t we just have a part-time bishop? Or borrow a bishop from some neighboring diocese whenever “we need one”? Or yoke our bishop to a church to do double-duty and save us some money? I’ve also heard people describe the way that only the churches know what’s good for them, that they are the true deposits of the faith.
We are not a congregational church. We are the Episcopal Church. We are organized and guided by bishops. Our churches do not exist as islands unto themselves, but are held together because of their relationship with our bishop. I do not welcome the bishop to St. Peter’s as a guest; I welcome her to her church. Whoever we elect will not be some sort of institutional CEO, but will be a symbol and instrument of our entire community and the faith we share.


This is humbling to consider, both from our perspective, and from the perspective of whomever we call to this role. But the good news is that we are not electing a savior. Whatever happens in our churches, whatever struggles we face as a diocese, we follow a Lord who reigns supreme, who conquered death, and who even now is working with us to make all things new.

RISEN Magazine Fall 2011, "The Convention Issue"

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The Latest eRISEN: October 17, 2011

You can view the latest issue of eRISEN, our biweekly email events calendar, at the link below:

eRISEN: October 17th, 2011 issue

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