The diocese’s elected standing committee will oversee the nomination and election of the next bishop which will take place in 2014. The actual work of the nomination process begins now and will be led by a nominations committee.
Both the nominating and transition committees will be named by the end of March according to Standing Committee President, the Rev. David Knight. Knight presented a time line of the search process and election to the 186th Annual Council in Jackson on Saturday, Feb. 2nd.
According to Knight, the standing committee will post a nomination form for both the nominations committee and the transition committee on the diocesan website February 8th. Hardcopies of the forms will be distributed to convocational deans who will pass them along to parishes and missions throughout the diocese.
“Any lay person, who is a communicant of a parish or mission in this diocese, 16 years-old and up, may be nominated to serve. All clergy—presbyters and deacons alike—who are canonically resident in this diocese, may be nominated,” said Knight.
All who wish to be considered to be on the nominating or the transition committee must complete a nomination form and give it to their rector, vicar, or priest-in-charge. The clergy will forward all forms to their respective convocational dean no later than February 28, 2013.
If a parish or mission is vacant, forms should be submitted directly to the convocational dean.
Clergy who are discerning whether to enter the bishop election process should not apply.
