December 5, 2008
By Mary Frances Schjonberg

The way in which the Episcopal Church elects its bishops could change as the result of a survey being conducted now by the Episcopal Elections and Transitions Project.

The project, sponsored by the Episcopal Church's College for Bishops, the Presiding Bishop's Office of Pastoral Development and the CREDO Institute, is attempting "to obtain insights into the existing best practices of episcopal elections and to identify possible new directions for the best-practice models of the future," according to a news release.

The Episcopal Church has revised its recommended method for the election of bishops approximately every ten years. That method takes the form of a manual of best practices to follow during the course of a search and election process which the Presiding Bishop's Office for Pastoral Development offers dioceses. (General Convention is responsible for making constitutional and canonical changes governing election of bishops.)

Bishop Clay Matthews, who heads the Office of Pastoral Development in New York, told ENS December 5 that he or his designee meets with a diocesan standing committee prior to the public announcement of a call for an episcopal election to guide them through the manual and help the diocese create the process and its timetable. His office also offers a search consultant to work with the diocese as the process unfolds.

The anticipated revisions are meant to consider best hiring and transition practices of the field of human resources "while recognizing and insisting that [electing a bishop] is a discernment process," the Rev. Gay Jennings, a task force member and CREDO associate director, told ENS.

A task force made up of bishops, consultants, theologians, former nominees, spouses and partners of nominees, and chairs of diocesan committees began working on possible revisions in June 2007. Matthews said the group has already outlined some areas for attention, beginning with the fact that the model process his office offers is based on methods used to elect the rector of a parish.

"That's not the same thing as a bishop being elected to serve a diocese," Matthews noted.

The group believes that the process needs to be undergirded by a "clearer understanding of the theology of the order of bishop," he said.

To that end, the group will be looking at the work of three theologians. Diocese of Atlanta Bishop Neil Alexander, who formerly taught liturgics at the General Theological Seminary (GTS), is writing a paper about what the Book of Common Prayer's rubrics convey about the theology of the order, Matthews said. For instance, the 1979 version of the BCP made what Matthews said Alexander calls a "radical" change when it said all ordinands from diaconal to episcopal should appear vested in an alb (or rochet in the case of a bishop-elect) "without stole, tippet, or other vesture distinctive of ecclesiastical or academic rank or order."

"That's a major theological statement for anyone in orders," Matthews said, explaining that the rubrical requirement implies that "the primary order is baptism."

Bishop Steve Charleston, formerly the bishop of Alaska and later the dean and president of Episcopal Divinity School, is writing a paper about emerging changes in the order of bishop, according to Matthews. His paper will speak in part about the total ministry model in which all members of a diocese are seen as having distinct ministry roles.

Lastly, according to Matthews, the group has received permission to use two papers that concern a bishop's role in relation to the other orders of ministry written by now-deceased Richard Morris, who was once on the GTS faculty.

Other areas of the search and election process that are begin studied include improving the ways the needs of a diocese can be assessed prior to issuing a call for bishop candidates, methods to help a departing bishop and the diocese make diocesan systemic decisions (as opposed to the help now offered to bishops in making individual transition decisions), how to support incoming bishops as they move into existing diocesan structures, and how to create ways for individuals to discern a call to the episcopate.

On the latter matter, Matthews said there is currently "very little support within this church" for such a deliberate discernment process beyond that done privately by individuals.

In its next step, the task force created an online survey for key people involved in episcopal elections since 2002 to the present. Roughly 1,000 people are being asked for to detail their experiences. More than 130 Episcopal elections have taken place since 1998. This survey hopes to capture responses from participants in at least 90 of these elections, the release said.

There are specific questionnaires for those with different roles. Together, the survey is meant to gather data on what has worked successfully and where changes can be made to improve the process. Those specific questionnaires include ones for elected and non-elected nominees and their spouses or partners; the outgoing bishop and his or her spouse or partner; members of diocesan standing committees as well as search and transition committees; search consultants and diocesan staff members.

The Rev. Dr. Paula Nesbitt, a visiting associate professor of sociology at the University of California in Berkeley and the author of "The Feminization of the Clergy in America," is the research consultant on the project. Nesbitt is also involved in a major study of Episcopal Church's women clergy. Her participation in both projects is deliberate, Matthews and Jennings said.

Fewer women have stood for episcopal elections between 2004 and 2008 than did during 2002 and 2003, Matthew noted. "I am not exactly sure why," he said, adding that something is going on "that ensures that [most] women are in only one election" whereas male priests often enter many searches. He said some information points to the possibility that the length of the process and the close scrutiny endured by episcopal candidates and their families "exacts a greater toll on women more than men."

One female nominee who was not elected told Matthews that the process felt like being pregnant and having a stillbirth.

"I don't think it's because dioceses are reluctant to nominate women or to elect [women]," he said.

Jennings said she hoped the combination of the two surveys would reveal reasons about the gender disparity that go beyond the anecdotal. She added that she hoped the surveys would also allow researchers to address the reasons for fewer clergy of color being nominated.

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for Episcopal Church governance, structure, and trends.