Progress Report
The nominating sub-committees have been working diligently over the last month and here is their latest progress updates as of 31 December 2017.
Educating and Communicating: we continue to support other committees in sending diocesanwide announcements and letting folks know what we're up to. We've also been working on the web pages adding more
FAQs and
committee member information.
Listening and Surveying: we scheduled ten open listening sessions (laity and clergy) geographically disbursed throughout the diocese. In addition, two clergy-only sessions were held. 191 people (laity and clergy) participated in the open sessions, representing 31 of the 44 congregations in the diocese. 27 clergy participated in the clergy-only sessions. A synthesis of the information gathered during these sessions was handed on to the profiling subcommittee.
The online survey closed on January 6. As of December 31, 906 people completed the survey in English and 6 completed the Spanish-language version. These individuals represent all but one of the congregations in the diocese. The results will be presented to the nominating and standing committees on January 16.
Profiling: we have solicited photographs from around the diocese and worked with diocesan staff to go through existing photos, reviewed numerous examples of diocesan profiles, worked to obtain existing histories of the diocese, reviewed graphic designer candidates and engaged a designer to work on both the print and electronic versions. Our next step is to meet to review the listening session summaries.
Nominating and Screening: we are creating the application package, which will include standard information such as a resume and updated Office of Transition Ministries (OTM) profile, and we are developing essay questions appropriate for this diocese at this time. In addition to the survey and profile, resources we will include examples of essay questions from other diocesan searches, going back a decade or more. It is interesting to see how the focus of the questions can shift over time, depending on what is going on in the church as a whole. We are also working on appropriate behavioral screening questions, based on existing instruments and requiring approval from the Episcopal Church's office of pastoral development. The sub-committee will have a first face-to-face scheduled on January 11 for further planning and process details.
Interviewing and Discerning: we are waiting for input from the listening sessions, surveys and profiling to start drafting the interview questions. We have planned the discernment retreat for October 2018.
Other Communications