Via the Office of Public Affairs
The Episcopal Church’s Joint Nominating Committee for the Presiding Bishop has posed four public questions on what people have found effective in pastoral searches:
- Whether searching for a rector or a bishop, what was the best thing you did in your process?
- Whether searching for a rector or a bishop, what was your best communications tool? To candidates or to constituents?
- What would you recommend we avoid?
- Anything else you want to share with the committee about your search process?
The committee welcomes comments via email. Committee members welcome prayers for their work.
During its second meeting, set for March 18-20 at the Barbara C. Harris Camp & Conference Center in New Hampshire, the committee will develop a timeline and methodology for soliciting vision and feedback about what the church of the future will look like and what qualities the next presiding bishop should possess to help it get there.
Invited guests include Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, to reflect on the state of the church and the vocation of the office, and Bishop Clay Matthews, officer for pastoral development, to discuss best practices in bishop searches.
Social-media links for the committee: Facebook, Twitter.
Image of the Episcopal Church Center from Mid-Century Mundane: The most exciting of mundane mid‑century architecture.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
