balanced bishop mediumA Prayer to Guide our Search

Be with us and guide us, Holy Spirit of God, as we seek your will for the future of our Diocese.  Help us to discern the needs and hopes of your people in Western New York, so that our search for a Bishop may proceed with clear vision and joyful obedience. We pray through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Welcome to the Western New York Episcopal Search
Announcement of Nominees Print E-mail
Written by Catherine Way   
Sunday, August 15, 2010 5:34 pm

A printable copy of this letter from Catherine is also available.

The full biographies and other information pertaining to the election of the 11th Bishop of WNY may be found at wnybishop.org.

 


 

August 16, 2010

To the People of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York:

After 18 months of work and a search from Maine to California and to two foreign countries, it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to place in nomination these names for the 11th Bishop of Western New York:

The Rev. Michael A. Ambler, Jr., Rector, Grace Episcopal Church; Bath, Maine;

The Very Rev. Canon Michael A. Bamberger, Rector, The Episcopal Church of the Ascension; Sierra Madre, California;

The Rev. Dr. R. William Franklin, Senior Associate Priest, St. Mark's Church; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;

The Very Rev. Canon Barbara J. Price, Rector, St. Peter's Church, Eggertsville, New York.

As our image of the tight-rope walking bishop suggests, we sought candidates who could balance their many roles of pastor, consensus builder, decision-maker, administrator, and community leader.  A person of prayer who is a good listener, a bold and self-directed speaker with a strong commitment to mission and local needs and possesses a well-developed sense of humor.

The Committee believes that any one of the four nominees can serve capably and admirably as our next bishop.  We have examined them all thoroughly, vetted them in detail, and believe that there is no impediment to their service as bishop.

The Bishop Search Committee has worked very hard for the Diocese.  We have spent many hours praying, listening, calling, e-mailing, visiting, planning, talking, writing and evaluating.  The Holy Spirit has been with us every step of the way.  We began with 29 candidates and were exceptionally pleased with the experiences and caliber of the applicants. We have conducted this process with transparency and honesty.

I offer my sincere thanks to the members of the Bishop Search Committee who came from every area of the Diocese.  Each gave selflessly of their time and made considered, wise, and informed decisions.  We all love our Church and want to see it grow and progress in service to the Lord.  Members of the Committee were: Marley Becker, The Rev. Tom Broad, The Rev. Ethan Cole,Samantha Cutlip, Lillian Davis-Wilson, The Rev. Jerre Feagin, Gilbert Hernandez, Ed Hill, The Rev. Deacon Stephen Lane, The Very Rev. Judith Lee, The Rev. Sean Leonard, Carl Otis, Millie Piccirillo, Josephine Robbins, The Rev. Kim Rossi, Andrew Turner, and Butch Wiest.

On these pages you will find detailed information about each candidate.  Please read, mark, and learn about them and plan to attend one or more of the walkabouts scheduled for November.

Sincerely,

Catherine Way, Chair

 

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Search Committee Update: July 2010 Print E-mail
Written by Search Committee   
Saturday, July 3, 2010 11:34 am

During June and July the Bishop Search Committee is meeting with candidates who have been invited to visit Buffalo for two days as the next stage of our mutual discernment. Their visits will be confidential, and they will not visit any churches or meet with anyone other than committee members. This is an opportunity for everyone on the Search Committee to meet the candidates, and for the candidates to tour the region and to talk in greater depth about their approach to the challenges unique to our diocese, their vision for our church, and their questions about our ministries. These visits have been enjoyable, inspiring, and thought-provoking; we have laughed, reflected, and worshipped together. The candidates’ considerable accomplishments give us great hope, but their vulnerability, their willingness to take the risks involved in being part of this process, reassure us of God’s presence as we seek to bring about the Kingdom of God here in this small corner of the world, as Catherine Way, Chair of the Search Committee, has put it in the letter that introduces our Profile.

We have promised to work beside our next bishop in making our challenges into opportunities for renewal and transformation. We have already begun to do this during the 15 months that we have been engaged in the search process. We share a vitality and hopefulness that was not so clear a year ago; our shared ministries in outreach, communications, and youth continue to bring us together, and our plans for the new Ministry Center in Tonawanda provide a new point of departure for clarifying our mission.

However, it is very important that each congregation take concrete steps toward keeping this promise. The Education Team of the Search Committee is preparing new materials for adult, youth, and children’s education that should be available here by early August. Here are some ideas of other ways you might prepare:

Ø Download printed copies of the Diocesan Profile for your congregation to read, and encourage all your members to read the online version available here.

Ø Form a Reading Group that will read the Profile one section at a time. Learn about the history of our region and our diocese.

Ø Use the Profile for discussion to begin Vestry meetings. Use the chapters that describe our “Strengths and Challenges” and “Looking Ahead” to formulate congregational goals that would support our diocesan ministry priorities.

Ø Develop a timeline that places your congregation’s history within the history of our diocese.

Ø Trace the histories of your Deanery churches to see if and when their key moments and leaders correspond to the history of Western New York.

Ø Discuss the “Profile of a Bishop” and consider how your congregation might support our new bishop in the challenging tasks that lie ahead.

The most important way to keep our promise to our next bishop is to pray daily—for lay and clergy delegates, for Bishop Michael and Carol Garrison as they prepare for retirement, for the candidates and their families. Include prayers in your weekly Prayers of the People, for the grace to understand how God is preparing us for our next bishop and preparing a person to lead us. See here for some prayers that might be helpful as you continue to be open and thankful for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As we continue in this process, we are very excited, for we feel very blessed with the candidates who have come forward. However, we cannot share any information about these candidates. The purpose of this secrecy is to keep our own discernment focused and our conversations among ourselves open. We want every candidate to have an equal chance to be seen and heard, undistracted by the larger conversations that will be appropriate once the slate has been selected. We want to be open to the Holy Spirit, and our discernment of where God might be leading us—and leading our candidates—is more reliable if it grows out of open and extended conversations among those of us who have been thinking and reading about this matter together for the past year. We have been entrusted with a profoundly serious and wondrous ministry, and each of us is putting every effort into being trustworthy. So please don’t tempt us with questions! We will share our experiences when we can. Please keep us in your prayers, as well as the Transition Committee, the candidates, and the congregations of our diocese, that we may be faithful to the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we have been given.


We give profound thanks to everyone who has nominated a candidate, who has entered the process, and who has prayerfully discerned that this is not the right call at this time. The Holy Spirit is indeed at work in all our hearts, and it is no small act of courage to contemplate “walking this tightrope.” Our shared purpose is to be open to the Holy Spirit, who guides all that we do:

 

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Search Committee Update: June 2010 Print E-mail
Written by Search Committee   
Saturday, June 5, 2010 5:08 am

Bishop Search Committee Update

The Bishop Search Committee met on May 22 to share evaluations of our candidate visits. We selected candidates who will visit the Diocese in June and July in order to meet with members of the Standing Committee and the Search Committee. Their visits will be confidential, and they will not visit any churches or meet with anyone other than committee members. This is an opportunity for everyone on the Search Committee to meet the candidates, and for the candidates to see the region and to talk in greater depth about their approach to the challenges unique to our diocese, their vision for our church, and their questions about our ministries.

Our Profile ends with a promise:

Our conversations about what we seek in our next bishop began with the image of a figure walking a tightrope across Niagara Falls, a balancing pole in hand. Even when we laughed at the size of the challenge and the abundance of grace conveyed by this image, we discovered in it what is essential to the character of our next bishop: a sense of humor and a sense of balance. . . . That figure walking a tightrope across Niagara Falls is a humble visionary, a realistic optimist, artist and prophet, bold and cautious, someone who can see in one glance the awesome grandeur of God's creation and the small, fragile spot where we stand. But that figure does not walk alone. We have made the promise to walk with our bishop along the path that God has called us to share.

It is time, now, to prepare ourselves to keep that promise. Looking toward the fall, there are a number of ways for congregations to do so. The Education Team of the Search Committee will adapt the Lenten Education Program to incorporate Scripture and history of the episcopate in a program not tied to a liturgical season so that it can be used at any time in the fall. They are also preparing a children’s lesson on the episcopate that can be used on any Sunday in the fall or winter. These materials should be available on this website by early August.

Other ways to prepare:

Ø Download printed copies of the Diocesan Profile for your congregation to read, and encourage all your members to read the online version

Ø Form a Reading Group that will read the Profile one section at a time. Learn about the history of our region and our diocese.

Ø Use the Profile for discussion to begin Vestry meetings. Use the chapters that describe our “Strengths and Challenges” and “Looking Ahead” to formulate congregational goals that would support our diocesan ministry priorities

Ø Develop an oral history of your parish, with a timeline that places your history within the history of our diocese.

Ø Trace the histories of your Deanery churches to see if and when their key moments and leaders correspond to the history of Western New York.

Ø Discuss the “Profile of a Bishop” and consider how your congregation might support our new bishop in the challenging tasks that lie ahead.

The most important way to keep our promise to our next bishop is to pray daily—for lay and clergy delegates, for Bishop Michael and Carol Garrison as they prepare for retirement, for the candidates and their families. Include prayers in your weekly Prayers of the People, for the grace to understand how God is preparing us for our next bishop and preparing a person to lead us. Download prayers using this link that might be helpful as you continue to be open and thankful for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As we continue in this process, we are very excited, for we feel very blessed with the candidates who have come forward. However, we cannot share any information about these candidates. The purpose of this secrecy is to keep our own discernment focused and our conversations among ourselves open. We want every candidate to have an equal chance to be seen and heard, undistracted by the larger conversations that will be appropriate once the slate has been selected. We want to be open to the Holy Spirit, and our discernment of where God might be leading us—and leading our candidates—is more reliable if it grows out of open and extended conversations among those of us who have been thinking and reading about this matter together for the past year. We have been entrusted with a profoundly serious and wondrous ministry, and each of us is putting every effort into being trustworthy. So please don’t tempt us with questions! We will share our experiences when we can. Please keep us in your prayers, as well as the Transition Committee, the candidates, and the congregations of our diocese, that we may be faithful to the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we have been given.


We give profound thanks to everyone who has nominated a candidate, who has entered the process, and who has prayerfully discerned that this is not the right call at this time. The Holy Spirit is indeed at work in all our hearts, and it is no small act of courage to contemplate “walking this tightrope.” Our shared purpose is to be open to the Holy Spirit, who guides all that we do.

 

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