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We began by holding a series of Holy Conversations throughout the diocese in October and November where we listened to your stories of what excited you, what concerned you, and what hopes you have for the diocese. These conversations were held in Covington, Morehead, Corbin, Frankfort, and Lexington. Additional conversations were held with the clergy and the Mission House staff.

Following the Holy Conversations, the Nominating Committee went through training to raise awareness of our own biases and preferences. We listened to all you had told us and created our diocesan profile. We committed to using the values, goals, and challenges that emerged from our data analysis as the touchstone for all of our discernment. The application review process was designed to help us listen for skills and competencies that best match our stated values and goals.

Nominations were received during the entire month of January. We received over 30 nominations from all over the church. Each nominee was asked to submit some biographical material, their Office of Transition Ministry (OTM) profile, and the answers to three questions. These questions asked them to reflect on:

• their understanding of mission and how they have lived that out
• how they have responded when a project they were passionate about met with resistance
• and how they have dealt with failure in their priesthood and their lives.

We began our review of the applications with a blind reading of the first set of questions. Each response was rated according to how well it met the profile standards, providing a simple ranking total. Names and OTM profiles were then associated with the question responses, and all applications were prayerfully considered by the committee. A group of applicants was then asked to respond to a second set of questions, and a group were thanked for the gifts they shared and the work they had done. All candidates who were invited into the next round were asked to respond in writing to the Bishop Screening Questionnaire, which is part of a required psychiatric interview that all bishops-elect must undergo.

The second round of evaluations added two new criteria to our considerations: (1) results of an initial “red flag” background check performed by our consultant, and (2) the applicants’ responses to the second round of questions. This second round of questions asked the nominees to reflect on

• a time when problematic behavior from someone invited their response
• their experience with Episcopal camps and conference centers, particularly their involvement with youth
• and invited them to ask and answer a question that they wished we would ask.

Again focusing on the profile standards and considering all of the information we had received, each member of the committee individually identified the group of applicants they would invite to move forward. As a group we then prayerfully considered those lists, the “red flag” results, the OTM profiles, and the applicant’s responses to all questions. We mutually discerned a group of applicants to invite for online interviews, and others were gratefully thanked for the gifts they had offered. Comprehensive 15-year background checks were initiated by our consultant on all applicants invited to the online interviews.

During the online interviews the nominees were asked to reflect on:

• how they have built partnerships among diverse groups;
• how they personally practice stewardship and how they might begin to build ministries toward greater financial sustainability;
• and how they have developed young leaders.

Following the online interviews, we mutually discerned a group to invite to a retreat here in the Diocese of Lexington. Multi-level reference checks were done on each nominee who came to the retreat. Five references were contacted for each applicant (their current bishop and one other bishop, a clergy colleague, a lay leader, and someone from outside the Episcopal Church) and each reference was asked to give one or two other names to call.

During the retreat at the Cathedral Domain, nominees and the committee shared in prayer, fellowship, discussion, and mutual discernment. The nominees each met with several small groups of committee members to have focused conversations around particular topics:

• clergy issues (including pastoral care, disciplinary oversight, and ongoing formation and development);
• large church issues (including tensions between Mission House and the larger parishes and Mission House and Northern Kentucky);
• small church issues (including financial sustainability and development of local leaders);
• and leadership (including staff management, oversight, vision, leadership development, and spiritual formation of youth and young adults).

The nominees also had two large group discussions, observed by the nominating committee, about (1) what excited them about the Diocese of Lexington and what might keep them up at night about being bishop in the Diocese of Lexington, and (2) issues that the Episcopal Church is facing and will continue to face in the coming years. The vice-chancellor of the diocese also had one-on-one time with each candidate to again go over the Bishop Screening Questionnaire.

Immediately following the retreat the committee met and discussed our impressions. Then we took some intentional time off, rested, and prayed. We came together again this week and discerned the individuals to recommend to the Standing Committee.

Each of the over 30 applicants has a wonderful range of gifts and skills, though not all fit well with our profile. All of the nominees who came to the retreat have outstanding credentials and a range of gifts, skills, and competencies that fit our diocesan profile. It was tremendously challenging to create a slate of 3-5 names out of such outstanding nominees. Each of them brings extraordinary gifts to the diocese, and each of them will have much to learn about being a bishop in the Diocese of Lexington. They are also all quite different; a wonderful reminder, I think, that while God is beyond any one of us, and the Spirit moves in all of us, the Word is always incarnated in very specific ways in a particular individual. Gifts can be made manifest in a variety of ways.

I am deeply grateful for the good and faithful work the members of the nominating committee have done. We have taken seriously our role in the discernment of the diocese’s next bishop, and we have not set any applicant aside lightly. We have consistently returned time and again to the goals and challenges of our diocesan profile and have been attentive to listening for a range and combination of skills, experiences, and competencies that matches our values and goals.

Throughout the process we have prayed together and listened to one another, and as a group we have tried to faithfully follow the movement of the Holy Spirit. Although she doesn’t always seem to play nice, I truly believe the Spirit continues to guide us in our discernment process.

Very soon it will be up to you — the people of the diocese and particularly the deputies to the electing convention — to carry on this discernment, holding on to the goals and challenges, sifting through the candidates’ skills and experiences, and listening to that still, small voice that always guides us on.

–The Rev. Richard Burden

Chair, Episcopal Nominating Committee, Diocese of Lexington