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PB search committee reaches the home stretch

Two Kansans are among those picking the slarte of final nominees

By Melodie Woerman

Editor, The Harvest

The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop held its fifth meeting in Menlo Park, Calif., Sept. 2-5. The meeting took place days after the impact of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast, and several people who had been expected to participate had to remain at home to respond to pressing needs of those affected.

The committee met with those being considered for nomination as Presiding Bishop. Further discussions and interviews will follow in the fall in preparation for the committee’s January 2006 meeting.

Following the January 2006 meeting the committee will report its nominations to the church and will publish information on the nominees.

The House of Bishops will elect the next Presiding Bishop and the House of Deputies will give its consent for that selection at General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, in June 2006.

The committee also will recommend to Executive Council and the House of Bishops a process by which additional nominations can be received from members of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies and be appropriately screened prior to General Convention.

National church canons require that the committee submit the names of at least three members of the House of Bishops as nominees.

The term of the current Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, expires in 2006. He was elected in 1997, and his successor likewise will serve a nine-year term.

Kansans serving

Two of the 29 members on the committee are members of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas. The Rev. James Haney, Good Shepherd, Wichita and Sarah Knoll-Williams, St. Margaret’s, Lawrence, were elected to the panel during the 2003 General Convention.

They serve as the clergy and lay representatives from Province 7. Bishop Don Wimberly of the Diocese of Texas is the province’s bishop member.

Haney said the group now is in the period of what he calls “heavy lifting.” Nominations came to the committee from across the Episcopal Church last spring. He said, “We plowed through an enormous amount of written material in the summer.”

After meeting with prospective nominees in California over Labor Day, he said the committee will divide into teams this fall and begin to make site visits to various dioceses to learn more about candidates. “In January, God willing, we will decide on a final slate,” he said.

Knoll-Williams said the committee is working seriously to come up with a slate of nominees that represents all perspectives in the church.

Haney said that with 29 members, the committee’s size is a bit unwieldy, but the efforts of co-chairs Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Diane Pollard of New York have kept the group functioning smoothly.

Knoll-Williams said the two appointed youth representatives to the body have been very helpful, noting their participation brings “much insight, energy and humor to our work.”  One of the youth members is Brad Woodall of the Diocese of West Missouri.

She also said the two members from Province 9, the Rev. Luis Ruiz and Blanca Lucia Escheverry of the Diocese of Colombia, South America, have been “a striking reminder of the different faces and languages of our church.”

Haney echoed those sentiments, noting the group’s wide representation. “We’re extremely diverse theologically, ethnically, chronologically and geographically,” he said. “Though I don’t always find myself in agreement with everyone else, I have been impressed by the wealth of spiritual gifts evidenced by the other members. It’s a very talented group of which to be a part.”

Knoll-Williams, a student at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif. this fall, said that she appreciated the opportunity to represent Province 7 as a member.

Haney said he has enjoyed his work with the group, but noted he’ll be glad to see it come to a close. “It is an enormous time commitment,” he said. “I’ll be glad to pull back a little once our work is done.”

Episcopal News Services contributed to this report.