Our Charge: Last year, Bishop Johnston challenged us to move towards a process where the primary concern is clergy formation rather than 'vetting.'
Our Progress: Since then we've seen the fruits of this labor: There is more open dialogue between the committees, the Standing Committee, and the Bishops than ever before. We are placing more focus on the questions 'What does success look like for this person?' and 'How can I help facilitate that success?' By the end of 2018 we will ordain close to 20 talented priests and deacons.But we still have our work cut out for us in making clergy formation the centerpiece of this process.
Our Keynoter: The Rev. David Gortner, Ph.D., professor of evangelism and congregational leadership at VTS, will keynote the October 14-15 retreat. David will lead the commission in the process of putting the bishop's
Characteristics of Effective Clergy in to practice in our work.
Our Process: Beginning with those characteristics, we'll work back to begin to set benchmarks for each stage in the process. What do we expect future clergy to
know,
do, and
be as a seeker, aspirant, postulant, candidate? What are the baseline expectations, how do future clergy need to grow, and how do we look for those things? How do we communicate those expectations to the diocese? What are we doing to foster a culture of success?
This is a big undertaking, but vital to our efforts. Clear expectations are essential to fostering success. We'll be inviting COM and committee members in to prep work, and we'll have workdays (possibly at Roslyn) following the retreat to continue this effort with a sub-group of the COM and its committees.
Faithfully,
Tom Hahn, Bambi Willis, & Ed Keithly
Co-Chairs & Deputy Director of Transition Ministry
