Episcopal Press and News
NEVADA: Nominations/applications now open for bishop
Episcopal News Service. March 8, 2007 [030807-05]
Nevada's ninth diocesan bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, was elected Presiding Bishop at General Convention, June, 2006. As a result of that election, the Diocese of Nevada is currently undertaking the spiritual discernment process for the tenth bishop of the diocese. The nomination period is now open and will remain open until April 19, 2007.
Both the instructions and forms for a candidate to apply or to be nominated are now available at Nevada's profile website.
The Bishop Search Committee is chaired by Candace Jones of St. Paul's, Sparks, Nevada, and has 6 members. Names and a contact number for the committee are all listed on the profile website.
The diocesan profile for Nevada is being distributed only on the web, and the committee invites people from around the country to visit the site and witness the breadth and depth of the ministry in which the people of the diocese are engaged.
Nevada's search and discernment process began in a three-day retreat the first week in December at Lake Tahoe, involving all members of the Search and Transition Committees, together with the Standing Committee of the diocese.
Focus groups conducted around the state provided much of the information for Nevada's profile, which includes many pictures taken in Nevada's parishes by Dick Schori. The profile also provides a glimpse into the colorful frontier history of Nevada.
The committee plans to announce their selection of candidates by mid July, and to open a petition process shortly before that. Petition applicants essentially have a structured opportunity to be "nominated from the floor," providing enough time to have each nominee go through personal background checks as required by the diocese and Episcopal Church.
Petition candidates complete the same materials submitted by application or nomination candidates and they are required to submit a petition signed by a number of communicants in good standing from congregations in the diocese. Other details of the petition process will be presented on the profile website when they are announced by the Standing Committee.
Petition candidates will participate, with the Search Committee's nominees, in a week-long visit to the 110,567 square mile diocese in mid to late September. This visitation will insure that everyone will have an opportunity to meet the candidates in sparsely populated Nevada, where it takes more than 10 hours to drive from the southern border to the northern -- an almost seven-hour drive from side to side at its widest point on Interstate 80.
The names and biographical information of petition candidates will be posted on the profile website before the "walkabout" visits, and election will take place at the 2007 Diocesan Convention in Las Vegas on October 10. The new bishop's consecration is scheduled for January 5, 2008.