Members of the Diocese of Lexington’s Standing Committee report on their emerging sense that the Rt. Rev. Mark Van Koevering should move from bishop provisional to bishop diocesan:
At its 2018 convention, the Diocese of Lexington voted to place the diocese under the provisional authority of Bishop Mark Van Koevering, making him our Bishop Provisional. The Diocese entered into an agreement with him under which Bishop Van Koevering would serve, with full ecclesiastical authority, as Bishop Provisional for a period not to exceed three years.
The understanding was that if Bishop Van Koevering, the Standing Committee, and the Executive Council were all in agreement, based upon positive mutual ministry reviews, Bishop Van Koevering would be nominated by the Standing Committee to become our Bishop Diocesan.
As a diocese, we find ourselves in a unique situation in which rather than conduct a typical search and then have a slate of candidates for bishop, we have a Bishop Provisional whose name would be the only one submitted for election to become Bishop Diocesan. We are only the second diocese in the Episcopal Church to elect a bishop in this manner. The first diocese to use this process was the Diocese of San Joaquin.
Although no decision has yet been made, the diocese must still secure a tentative date for Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to invest the Bishop Diocesan. With the knowledge that Presiding Bishop Curry’s schedule is very tight and booked many months in advance, the Standing Committee has chosen to contact Bishop Curry’s office so that a tentative investiture date can be secured for some time in the year 2020.
In the meantime, Bishop Van Koevering will continue to have mutual ministry reviews with the Standing Committee and the Executive Council. Input will be sought from the diocese at large before a decision is made to nominate Bishop Van Koevering to be the next Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of Lexington. Presently, in an effort to take the pulse of the diocese, an informal poll of sorts is being conducted at the Pre-Convention hearings taking place across the diocese.
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.
