June Visions

This month our diocese elects a new leader. The new bishop diocesan won’t be consecrated until December, and they must first go through an approval process with the other dioceses of the Episcopal Church, move to Richmond, and begin the training to be a bishop (baby bishop school). Meanwhile, this month, our clergy and lay leaders will elect that person. How do Christians elect someone for leadership? When the early church needed a twelfth disciple after Judas’ death, they found two likely candidates and then let the Holy Spirit work out in the luck of the draw which one was to serve (see The Acts of the Apostles 1:23-26). We have four people to choose from, but we won’t draw straws between them. We will have a ballot. And your delegate, Lisa McCann and I will be there to vote for the person we think the Holy Spirit would give the best straw, the one God is calling to serve and lead in our diocesan family. We don’t have parties (Democratic or Republican), but we aren’t all independents either. We are fundamentally dependent on God. It is easy enough to let our personal preferences enter into our voting. This person is too “High Church” or that person talked too much about issues of justice which are important but begin to sound too “liberal” after a while. One candidate has a wife who suffers from dementia, is that an issue? One candidate has lots of friends in our diocese. Do we go with the known quantity and the guy we all know and love? Or do we need new blood from someone with a completely different perspective? There are many who are frustrated with the slate we have, as well. They are four white men in a church that is much more diverse than that and a huge diocese (the largest Episcopal diocese in the United States) that has congregations of all colors and many languages. No doubt God wants someone who can lead all these people with diverse politic visions, religious understandings, colors, languages, and understandings of church systems. Who can do that?

It is, frankly, daunting to try to prayerfully choose the one God means to be called. Obviously, it needs to be someone who prays a lot! It needs to be someone who knows Jesus well and knows how to engage in the work of the Kingdom of God in the real world, and specifically in a diocese of many church schools, Westminster Canterbury Retirement Homes, retreat centers, college chaplaincies, the largest seminary in the Anglican Communion, and parishes small and large, plus about 200 clergy. And I think any of the four candidates could do the job; so, which one does God want? The only thing more daunting than picking this person with God, is being this person! When you say your prayers, pray for Lisa and me and pray that the Holy Spirit will show us and all the diocese the way on June 4th. The Gospel tells us God calls people and equips them for ministry. God will do the divine part, I am sure. May we do our part to work with God faithfully in this and in all things.