NEXT STOP: BISHOP'S ELECTION

The Walkabouts/Conversations have ended. They were held on April 12, 13, and 14, with two hours of questions and answers in the mornings and several hours of informal discussions in the evening. The morning sessions were recorded and are available on Youtube. 

Each morning session had four questions with the five nominees taking turns answering each in a five-minute segment. The three days meant twelve questions in all. 

There was a good deal of up-beat, hopeful and inspiring talk and lots of repetition since, wisely, no one apparently wanted to be disagreeable on anything. (I was on a search committee once in which the candidate got into a heated argument with one of the committee members. End of interview and the candidacy.)

I watched only the three morning sessions on Youtube. I was not on Zoom and so did not see any of the breakout discussions. In the parts that I saw, there was only one bit of news. All the nominees agreed that there should be a Canon to the Ordinary. This came up in the third question on the first day that dealt with diocesan staff being overworked and underpaid (to which no one could disagree). A Canon to the Ordinary is a sort of assistant to the bishop who handles mostly administrative matters. At present, there is not one in the Diocese of South Carolina although there is an Archdeacon who is basically the liaison with the clergy. What was left out of this discussion was how to pay for both a bishop and a Canon to the Ordinary. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina has both, at compensation packages totaling app. $400,000/yr. Surely, supporting a new full-time bishop and Canon to the Ordinary would be a huge challenge to the rather limited budget of the diocese. One should be interested to see how the diocese can manage all of this financially.

So, by this point, the people of the diocese have seen, or at least have had the opportunity to see, hours and hours of the five nominees talking about topics from A to Z. Now comes the hour of decision. Only one of the five can be chosen. The problem is, which one?

If you are expecting me to discuss these nominees personally on this blog, you will be disappointed. It would be inappropriate for me to talk about them individually. They are all fine people, and I am firmly convinced each would make a successful bishop for some fortunate diocese. 

The question is, Who is best for this particular diocese at this particular time? The Diocese of South Carolina is not just another diocese going through the routine motions of hiring another bishop. This is a most unusual circumstance. The diocese is the most serious aspect of the worst crisis to hit the Episcopal Church since the Civil War a century and a half ago. It has endured a terrible schism that was thirty years in the making only to have to endure eight and a half years, and counting, of bitter legal warfare made against it. The new bishop will take on the most challenging task in the entire Episcopal Church. All of this means that the people of the diocese should give this choice the most careful consideration possible. A great deal rests on the shoulders of the faithful volunteer who is chosen to lead the diocese into the future of who knows how long. 

So, I suggest that everyone in the diocese consider three things:  where the church has been, where it is now, and where you would like it to be in the near and distant future. By church I mean the local congregation and the collective diocese. Then, study the written résumés and the remarks of each of the five nominees carefully and decide which one of them best fits the unique situation at hand. Each one of them has much to offer, and each is different than the rest. I suggest, too, that the clergy talk this over with his or her parishioners as well as fellow clergy while the laity discuss it with their fellow congregants. Others may see something revelatory that you did not see. Besides, this is a collective decision.

It is most important that parishioners talk about the choice among themselves because of the structure of the voting in the election convention as laid out in the diocesan Constitution and Canons. A parish may have as many as four delegates to the convention while a mission may have as many as two. Each delegation will cast the vote for the local church with parishes given one vote each and missions 1/2 vote each. Thus, there should be a consensus among the local congregation since an evenly split delegation (e.g. two for one candidate and two for another) would presumably negate the parish's or mission's vote in the convention. 

The Diocese of South Carolina has come a long way and endured much. After a great deal of heartache, now is the time for rejoicing as the diocese moves to choose its first full-time bishop in eight and a half years. There are five wonderful people who have volunteered to serve. I, for one, do not think this stellar panel was just a random accident. 

The next stop on the road to the restoration of the great Diocese of South Carolina comes on Saturday, May 1, 2021. This means the good people of the diocese have sixteen days to make up their minds. It is a joyful, if hard, choice.