Parish Life
HOW A NEW PRIEST IS CALLED The critical steps a parish takes to find the right person to lead.
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by The Rev. Canon Richard Norman
ndings, beginnings, and the transitional times that fall between are a part of life; a process even the church itself is not immune from. The story of the choosing of Matthias (Acts 1:21-28) provides us with the first example of dealing with transition within church leadership. As you may recall, that gem of scripture recounts the story of Matthias being chosen to replace Judas via the casting of lots. I am not suggesting that parishes simply need to cast lots; however, three steps taken by the disciples have clearly informed our own present process. The disciples’ mission - to bear witness to the Risen Christ - informs the three steps in their search process: setting the criteria - in this case, the person who had been with the disciples throughout Jesus’ public ministry and had been a witness to Christ’s resurrection; assessing potential candidates, resulting in two finalists - Joseph called Barsabbas, a.k.a Justus, and Matthias - and, finally, selecting the rightful person who is called by God through prayer and casting lots. These three basic steps are clearly modeled around and reflected in the search process used throughout the Diocese of Southwest Florida. At the initial meeting with the vestry of a congregation in transition, I bring along copies of our diocesan transition manual entitled The Search Process, and together we review the steps of the process. The vestry’s first task is to create four The Self-Study Subcommittee is charged with developing subcommittees: a self-study subcommittee, a a survey which solicits parish-wide input. Questions like profile subcommittee, a website subcommittee, “Who are we? What is our purpose? What is important to and compensation committee. The combined us as the people of God in this community? What are our work that these subcommittees perform lays dreams? What are the qualities we seek in our next priest?” the foundation for a successful search for a encourage parisioners to describe how they see the future priest, bearing in mind that the Holy Spirit is a of their parish. omnipresent participant in the process. While The Profile Subcommittee utilizes a combination of meththe four subcommittees are working, the vestry ods - surveys, meetings, and conversations - to craft two can begin to explore potential members of the critical search process documents - The Parish Profile and search committee. the Office of Transition Ministry Profile. These are distributThe subcommittees’ completed tasks are ed through national and regional search sites and serve as delivered to the vestry, and a formal search primary tools to develop a candidate pool. committee is appointed and charged with The Website Subcommittee reviews the parish’s website to recommending a candidate (or candidates) ensure it is an asset to the parish it represents. Often a first to the vestry. I then meet with the search impression to potential candidates, the committee works to committee to walk through the Search ensure that a parish website accurately reflects the parish Process manual and review their role and community itself. responsibilities. The posting for the position The Compensation Committee develops a compensation goes “live” via the Office of Transition Ministry, package that is sustainable and competitive. Deacon Martha our diocesan website, the Episcopal News Goodwill at Diocesan House is valuable resource in this work. Service digital listings, and regional transition networks. Nominations may come from several sources: the congregation, candidate self-nominations, and/or diocesan nominations from our active pool of candidates within and outside Southwest Florida. All the materials of priests who are offered as candidates funnel through the Office for Mission and Ministry - my office. Initial reference checks are performed for all nominees, typically occurring between me and my counterpart in the diocese of the prospective candidates. Not all nominated candidates are passed on to the search committee. The Bishop will review the final list and make any necessary edits, which ultimately becomes the official roster of candidates. 32
